Obelisk DIY.

In my garden I have an obelisk that I have made out of wood myself. The first obelisk I timbered had become completely rotten, so  I decided to build me a new one. A voice in my head was telling me: Difficult! But with the knowledge gathered from the first obelisk and using this as an example, I figured that it should not be too difficult?

 

First Obelisk in the garden.

First of all I painted the wood with primer. I saw the 4 uprights. Subsequently, I screwed the horizontal laths to the uprights. On the uprights I fixed the laths in an X shape. See picture 1. I signed off the angles needed, saw them and screwed them onto the uprights. All very easy.

Photo 1

After a few hours of DIY I had the two sides of the obelisk together. See photo 2. From above I put an extra slat support for firmness. (I would remove that again later..)

Photo 2.

Now I had to make the other two sides . First I fixed the horizontal slats and support slats on top. See photo 3

Obelisk photo 3

Then I fixed the sloping laths I was home all alone, so there was no one to help me. With one of my legs I held the lath in the right position while as soon as possible I screwed them in place so that nothing could change. It must have been comic sight. Alas there are no pictures of this moment!

Subsequently it was the turn for the inner sloped lath . There was that little voice in my head again: Difficult! How to measure that angle? Several times I came about the wrong angle. Too blunt, to pointed, too short, too long! Where had my spatial awareness gone? I simply could not figure out the angle needed, see arrow picture 4. My frustration got to a boiling point!

Obelisk photo 4

At that very moment there was a car honking, my girlfriend! Time to go to the gym. On the treadmill I told her all about the angle which I could not measure. "What's so hard about that?" she asked me, to cheer me up. "Everything," I said grimly. But a little distance to the subject did help. Suddenly I came up with the solution: a piece of cardboard!

In the barn I found a cardboard box left over from Christmas. It was exactly what I was looking for. I stripped off a small piece, folded it to the right size and in the right angle. It fitted. Eureka!

A pice of the box of Christmas stollen

I dragged the “colossus” outside for a picture. It started to look like an obelisk.

I dagged the colossus outside.

On top of the uprights I put a square piece of timber. I drilled a hole in it and attached the knob on top. You can buy this knob at the hardware store. Making an obelisk is in itself already challenging enough! See photo 7.

Obelisk photo 7

Finally. Seal acrylic kit in the crevices of the obelisk. I painted the obelisk in the color of my husband's favorite shirt: Histor 6762 (Jeans blue). Time to take a step back and admire your work.

The obelisk is made.

Still one recommendation: do not try this at home!

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