New shooting deck

[hunt4570]

Alright, time to start on my shooting deck! I have backstop berms set out at 100 & 300 yards and now I need a place to shoot from so I'm building a deck out in the middle of nowhere. I'm also planning a second story deer blind up on part of it which will allow me to hunt this whole field. Like my little Green Goblin Garage all the wood for this started out as trees here on my property (some from this very field) run through my little manual sawmill into lumber for this project.

Loading up the 6x6 main supports


Staging my lumber on the build site


You can see the berms in the background here


Cleared the site for the deck, it will be 9'x18'

 

[hunt4570]

Started with the posts yesterday, 2 done , 4 to go!

2 holes dug, ready to stand the posts


Standing them up the easy(er) way



First two up and braced

 

[hunt4570]

OK we got 4 more posts up this weekend, time to start on the framework





Had a little help..

 

[3Ts]

Since you cut your own lumber, how do you treat the posts for ground contact to keep them from rotting? I can see buying pressure treated posts and everything else being your own lumber. I assume that you cut the lumber when you need it so you use it before it's dried. How do you handle shrinkage from green lumber on the fasteners?

 

[hunt4570]

Since you cut your own lumber, how do you treat the posts for ground contact to keep them from rotting? I can see buying pressure treated posts and everything else being your own lumber. I assume that you cut the lumber when you need it so you use it before it's dried. How do you handle shrinkage from green lumber on the fasteners?

I actually cut in advance and let it dry first, this SYP doesn't take too long to dry to where I can use it..3-8 months or so depending on the thickness and the weather. And I got some treatment that is supposed to be good for in ground and also in water, like docks and such.

So you can see in the background skids of wood drying.. Oh, and that stuff on the mill is decking for this little project.



And this is the stuff I treat my wood with I Guess we'll see how well it works in 10 years or something.:laughing:

 

[shooterdon]

Nice project. Love seeing guys building stuff like this.

I would have invested in PT lumber for the posts, but it am a young 69 and hope to shoot for another 20 years or so. Having the posts rot in 10 or 15 years would be frustrating.

My buddy is looking at getting a mill and I hope to barter with him for some lumber.

Looking forward to following your build

 

[hunt4570]

Nice project. Love seeing guys building stuff like this.

I would have invested in PT lumber for the posts, but it am a young 69 and hope to shoot for another 20 years or so. Having the posts rot in 10 or 15 years would be frustrating.

My buddy is looking at getting a mill and I hope to barter with him for some lumber.

Looking forward to following your build

And I'm just taking a guess on the time, who knows till I do it.

And buying PT lumber would just be defeating having the mill! This stuff is pretty vial so I'm hoping its good!

And I'm only 65 this year so I'm hoping I'll be around for a while still too!

 

[3Ts]

I actually cut in advance and let it dry first, this SYP doesn't take too long to dry to where I can use it..3-8 months or so depending on the thickness and the weather. And I got some treatment that is supposed to be good for in ground and also in water, like docks and such.

So you can see in the background skids of wood drying.. Oh, and that stuff on the mill is decking for this little project.

View attachment 658008

And this is the stuff I treat my wood with I Guess we'll see how well it works in 10 years or something.:laughing:
View attachment 658007

I was unaware that this stuff existed, and I see that the big box stores carry it. Do you just paint it on or do you soak the boards? Any idea how long it protects against termites and/or rot?

You have a nice sawmill setup and air drying should get you some nice boards. Also requires planning ahead to have the dried inventory on hand. Do you normally cut standard sizes and air dry them in anticipation of some unknown future project, or do you identify the project and then cut the boards and dry them?

 

[hunt4570]

I was unaware that this stuff existed, and I see that the big box stores carry it. Do you just paint it on or do you soak the boards? Any idea how long it protects against termites and/or rot?

You have a nice sawmill setup and air drying should get you some nice boards. Also requires planning ahead to have the dried inventory on hand. Do you normally cut standard sizes and air dry them in anticipation of some unknown future project, or do you identify the project and then cut the boards and dry them?

I have not actually seen this in a big box store, but they have it on line. the first bucket I got from Home Depot and they delivered it to my house for free!! Second bucket I got off flea bay, HD was out at the time I needed it. According to directions I paint it on two coats with at least an hour in between.

Good question.. I normally try to have some normal sized stuff around but if I have something particular in the works I try to work up a cut list and get it all ready. I have to plan on cutting 10-15% extra to allow for warped and twisted stuff that is inevitable.

Heres another little project I just finished, have a look.

https://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/425777-my-little-green-goblin-garage.html

 

[EddieWalker]

Looking forward to your progress.

Back in the 70's, my neighbor treated his fence posts like this. I forget the name of the product since I was just a teenager, but I remember helping paint it on the ends of the posts. He passed away in the 80's and his wife sold the place in the 90's. They where still solid then, but he was super **** about creating a slope up the sides of his posts once they where installed. This was the first time that I've seen that done and always did it on everything that I did. Later in life I stared doing Home Repairs and found that every post that I came across that was rotted out, was at the surface of the ground where water would sit. The ground settled over time and that lower area held water, and that caused the rot. I've seen this in posts that where just five years old, and posts that were decades old. Treatment doesn't seem to matter as much as keeping the water away from the post.