Friday, March 27, 2026

Reassembly of 40 for 40 Gazebo

 

It has been a few months. The snow is gone and the frost is out of the ground. So it’s time to take the parts for the gazebo out of storage and put them up.

The first step is to locate the holes for the six posts. This was tricky but using the radius of the 12 foot diameter of the gazebo I located the center of each hole.

Taking the photos from the treehouse with the spiral stairs gives a nice perspective.

Getting the right depth so that the finished gazebo would be level required that the holes were different depths to compensate for the slope of the land.

After the hole depths were rough dug I placed a cement cookie into the holes that the legs of post could set on and I dialed in the levelness.

I used a laser level placed in the center of the hexagon and double checked it across the sides.

I set up and placed some scaffolding to provide support for the posts while I began setting them up. It also gave me a platform to work off from. 

This was going to be trickier than I thought. The center scaffolding would be used later when I put up the rafters. I planned for the outside scaffolding to be rolled around as I set the rim joists to tie a pair of post together. Unfortunately the wheels of the scaffolding lined up with the holes. I had to use a ladder in stead.

I forgot to mention that I needed to take apart the rafters that I put together last fall so that I could get at the rim joists. All parts were numbered and chisel marked. All I had to do was keep everything straight.

Well it was a struggle but I got the first four up and this stabilized things.

Success. So far so good.

Here you can see the treehouse in the back ground that allows for the overhead views. This will be very nice to look at when the rafters are put up.

With the rafters all laid out the reassembly of the roof can begin.










Sunday, February 1, 2026

Peg Factory for the gazebo

 

Well for sure these guys are going to be of no help in making the wooden pegs that will be used to hold my gazebo together and I know why.

It’s below zero today and there are several steps in the process of turning the 3/4” square stick at the top into a nice smooth 3/4” diameter wooden peg as shown on the bottom. Lets look at the steps…

So after ripping the wood for the peg into a 3/4” square you have to mark off the wood that you want to get rid of to make it round. You should also draw a bullseye on the end to give you an idea where the point should be.

Now take the peg blank over to your shaving horse (Don’t have a shaving horse? Make one. I did.) and using your draw knife to remove the unwanted corners and round the stick up a bit. Don’t forget to put a point on one end as shown here.

Now you are going to drive the rough shaved peg through the 1st sizing hole (red one) with a soft faced, heavy hammer. The 1st sizing hole is 7/8” diameter drilled through a 1/4” thick piece of steel.

This will reduce the peg to a rough 7/8” diameter.

Next drive the same peg through the green 2nd hole, the finish 3/4” diameter hole. This will take off  any remaining wood on the peg that is over 3/4” and smooth the surface out.

And there you have it. One down and 35 more to go…

Making these wooden pegs is going to be duck soup. That reminded me of my pet duct growing up.