Under the Choko Tree By Nevin Sweeney

Veggie Patch Sun Cover - A New Design

A couple of years ago I installed structures over our two main veggie patches which I covered with 50% shade cloth to break down the heat of a western Sydney summer, say from mid spring to mid-autumn.  In the colder parts of the year I just take the shade cloth down and store it in the shed. This idea was so wildly successful, easing strain on the plants and even reducing the need for watering that I planned to cover the four veggie patches along the back fence, in two halves. Due to the more cramped nature of the area I decided to try a different construction method to the previous ones, and this is what I came up with.

I wanted to make a frame up with 32mm diameter electrical conduit. I have made stuff with the 20mm conduit and it is not heaps strong so I figured the 32mm would be better, also, I wanted a square structure rather than a hoop style (like my existing shade structures) to ensure there was room enough for me to get the chook tractor in and out.

The area I wanted to cover was 2600mm wide by 3100mm long and the conduit comes in nominal 4000mm lengths so things seemed to work out pretty well. To make the frame I got hold of 6 x 4000mm lengths of conduit –

I cut two to 3100mm long for the sides,
I cut two to 2600mm to make the stringers and used the offcuts (with joiners) to make a third, middle stringer, and
I cut in two in half to give me 4 legs of equal length

Raw materials

I also used
4 x 90⁰ elbows (with inspection panels) to go from the long side conduit to the legs, and
6 x Tee joiners (with inspection panels) to affix the stringers to the long side conduit

Fittings

I put all of this stuff together as a trial run with no glue on the joints to see how it looked, brilliant idea! When I tried to stand it up there was no resistance to sideward movement so the whole thing just collapse in a heap! OK, So I glued the 90⁰ elbows to the 3100mm long sides and put in a screw to hold it in place as well. I was then able to stand it up, but it wasn’t happy about it and leaned at several drunken angles.

It did appear that the 3100mm long span needed to be supported in the middle and the whole structure needed a bit more stability. To improve matters I removed the middle stringer, turned the tee piece around on each side so that it pointed downward and inserted a centre leg. I then secured the legs closest to the fence to the fence with a couple of galvanised steel saddles which gave the structure more rigidity. Last of all I replaced the middle stringer on top of the structure and secured it in place with a couple of plastic saddles.

As original

With new leg in place

That completed the structure!

The next morning I got out my roll of 3400mm x 6000mm x 50% shade cloth and dragged it up over the top of the structure so that the top and north sides were covered, with some slack hanging down on the southern side. The colourbond western fence covering most of the western side of the patch. The eastern side was open to allow in the morning sun. To attach the shade cloth to the conduit structure, I cut some 1 cm rings from some of the conduit off cuts then made one more cut through the ring. I could then open the ring up and clip it over the shade cloth that was first wrapped around the conduit. This holds the shade cloth onto the conduit pretty effectively.

All Finished!

I was able to put the cover together in time for some very hot (38⁰C - 40⁰C) weather were expecting and everybody lived happily ever after!

Ummm, not quite……….

On the second day of hot weather, we had some moderately high winds which did this to the sun cover –

It seems I had not allowed for the wind!

After the frustration of having something I had just put together collapse had worn off, I had a look and worked out what I had done wrong. Basically 3 things –

  • I was still not sure of the final configuration so quite a few of the parts were not glued together, this allowed the wind to loosen the components of the structure after which, they fell apart.
  • I had used the joining components (Tee pieces and elbows) which had inspection panels on them, important when wiring up a house but when using them to build a shade house, not so much. They actually weakened the structure so that rather than just falling apart some bits cracked and broke.
  • While being a cute idea, the clips I had made did not bind the shade cloth to the structure with any strength and when the wind hit, they just popped off. This meant that the shade cloth could not bind the structure together, unitising it.

Cracks and......

.........bits taken out

To fix it I went out and bought some elbows without inspection panels (inspectionless Tee pieces do not seem to be available), because the elbows were a different length to the original I had to do some trimming. I then made sure I glued every single joint in the entire structure, first making sure their orientation was right because once glued they are NOT coming apart. With the new parts in place and the structure together (again) and everything glued I set it up and then pulled the shade cloth over the top. This time, to hold the shade cloth in place I use plenty of cable ties.

New design elbow piece

So far so good!

All Finished (and approved by fuzzy black engineer this time!)

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