Finalized my gourd rack. Now ready for arrivals

[Whippy]

Last week I thought I had finished with my gourd rack but, when I was out of town, my order of 6 Troyer Horizontals came in and were here waiting for my return. Yesterday I removed some old gourds and put these in their place. I also added two more BO 11's. So now I have 18 gourd cavities. 10 Troyer Horizontals, 3 BO11's and 3 Big BO gourds. All have tunnels.

The other change I made is I no longer have free swinging gourds. Last year I had 4 pair and noticed one pair moved from a swinging Big BO gourd to a fixed Troyer just next to the swinging gourd they used last year. The other 3 pair also took residence in a fixed gourd. None of the swinging gourds were occupied.

My pole is in sections so it sways pretty good due to the joints plus leans to the left a bit. I'll be welding the joints of this pole pretty soon to fix that.

Here is the final product. That tree is pretty far away. The picture angle makes it looks close.

[BIOteacher012]

Hi Whippy,
Your rack looks great. I have an S&K rack with the square arched hanging rods like you appear to be using. How do you fit your Troyer gourds on these rods? I wish S&K would offer round arched rods so that my round hanging holes would match. Let me know how you have yours hanging.

[Whippy]

Bio...

Good morning.

You will need to drill holes in the rods. I did some rough measuring and such but here re some pictures. I ma not get them all on the same page.

This first one is a Troyer on the fountain rod. You will notice the aluminum rod I added to these rods. I did this to keep them from buoncing up and down. I eliminated all bounce by doing this. You'll get a rod, smash the ends with a hammer drill a hole in the rod as well as drill holes in the fountain rod.

The hose clamps you see are holding on the dowel rod perches. I got my belt sander to flatted one side of the dowel rod so it will fit flush to the mounting rod.

[Whippy]

Here are the Troyers mounted on the straight rod. The holes should already be there in the rod but you'll have to make them bigger to get the shaft of the eye bolt through them.

[T-Bird]

Lookin good!

[Dave Reynolds]

....Whippy... Looks great ,, good job.... Good luck in 2020...

Dave

[BIOteacher012]

Hi Whippy,
Thanks for sending the photos. That is really helpful. Another thought.....if S&K would offer aluminum fountain rods instead of iron, the fountain rods wouldn't rust. Mine keeping turning orange. That's me being picky. However, they look great with the black paint and the arched look. I like how you used the straight rods to keep the fountains from bouncing. Looks like I will have drill larger holes. Thank you so much.
Awesome job! Have a great martin season.

[Whippy]

Hi Whippy,
Thanks for sending the photos. That is really helpful. Another thought.....if S&K would offer aluminum fountain rods instead of iron, the fountain rods wouldn't rust. Mine keeping turning orange. That's me being picky. However, they look great with the black paint and the arched look. I like how you used the straight rods to keep the fountains from bouncing. Looks like I will have drill larger holes. Thank you so much.
Awesome job! Have a great martin season.

I am more than happy to help so please don't hesitate to ask if something comes up.

The eye bolts I use are Ever Bilt from Home Depot...two per package. I use the nylon lock nuts rather than the supplied nuts just to make sure something doesn't come undone. (I buy an assorted container of these lock nuts from Harbor Freight). The size of the eye bolt is 3/16in - 24x1-1/2 inch. I can't read the sides of most drill bits so I got a piece of wood and drilled holes until I found one that the eye bolt will go through. You will need to use a center punch to mark and drill a new hole in the back of straight part of the rounded arms and enlarge the hole that's at the front of that arm. The lower straight arms already have holes the right distance apart so all you have to do is make them bigger.

The bolt I use for the mount of the gourd is also Ever Bilt and it's metric. M10-1.5x100mm Buy the corresponding nut and you're good to go. You can get the same bolt but in standard (3.5 inches long) which will be much cheaper and a little bit thinner which I have used as well. In that one I get the one that's threaded entirely. You can use a nylon lock nut on those as well. That nut will be in the same assorted package from Harbor Freight.

After reading this look at the picture again and you'll see where everything goes.

Good luck to you. Let me know if I can help further.

Thank you,

Coolwhips