gin pole

I found a piece of 2″ pipe to use as a gin pole out at the stables.  The gin pole is supported from 3 guy lines.  I put a 4:1 block and tackle on the thing and was able to lift the pole by hand up 3 feet to this old table top.  I intend to lift a little higher here,  then move the Gin Pole to the other end and finish the raising, whilethe base slides down into the hole.                          

Leverage

Here I am levering the pole into position.  I put it on some 2″ abs pipe and it slides around well enough that I am able to work it around the  yard by myself.

The railing and deck

After much discussion on what materials to use for the railing we finally settled on having the railing fabricated at a local metal shop.  Here it is, along with the redwood deck that I built by making my own tongue and groove boards with a dado blade on the table saw.

taking the bark off

The mast

The mast has been quite a challenge to find.   I searched far and wide for an untreated cedar pole but the only one I could find would cost $1300.  Salvaged poles from PG&E are cut to 10′ lengths when they bring them back to the yard so that option was out.  We ended up buying a redwood tree from the local mill and having it delivered.  It looks great but it is green and enormously heavy !

sketch

Here is the plan.  

Ideas

  Here are a couple of inspiring pictures that started us off thinking what we could do. 

Hello world!

Welcome to the Crow’s Nest weblog !  In this blog I will be following the construction of a Crows Nest in our back yard.  I will be posting pictures as we go along. Please feel free to comment.-Eric