T-14 house build question

[jeff]

Hello all and Merry Christmas.

I have one T-14 and a 16 gourd round rack and planning another T-14 build.

I take it all down at the end of the season and put it all back up in late March.

Does anyone have a good way of attaching each of the four housing compartments of the T-14 when attaching to the pole?
I have a 2" square tube for the pole and presently use a 4" x 4" cut in half with grooves for the pole and the cable which I currently attach each of the four houses using deck screws. I would like some better ideas if anyone has some.

thanks
Jeff

[defed]

how about something like a french cleat? once it's hooked on and hanging you would just need something (a bracket, a bolt, a block) to keep it from lifting of.

[flyin-lowe]

This old thread has some pictures of my t 14 setup. I have round poles so I had to build a carrier to go around the pole that the house can attach to. I used "T" nuts. There are 4 "T" nuts on each side and I just run bolts through the house and into the carrier. 4 bolts for each section of the t14. Running this set up for 15 plus years on one house and 5 or so on the newest house and never had a problem.

viewtopic.php?f=2&t=36956&p=296820&hili ... er#p296820

[jeff]

THANKS! I did not think of french cleat and the use of T nuts.

Harbor Freight has 2" hitch receiver tubes I was thinking of using as the slide mechanism over the 2" square pole, welding something on it to mount/dismount each of the four houses.

thanks to all for the ideas
Jeff

[flyin-lowe]

The pictures in the link I posted are made from treated 2x8. They are still holding up today and are over 15 years old.

[Unk Bond]

Hello
For me my pole is rectangle 2x6 box [ Then I add 4 female z cips One to each side of the pole rectangle pole box at the top
Then add 4 male Z Cips One to each house Pick the house up And slide it into its reciever
I sow picture on thi site how I do it [ Later

[jeff]

thanks any pictures would be helpful

Jeff

[daveh]

Unless your 2 inch pole has heavy duty thick walls I would not trust it for a heavy T14. The T14 house I built years ago weighs around 130 lbs. This is probably a little heavier then most t14's. I have hardware to attach a 2x4 inch wire cage around the house and hardware to hang gourds below. I also use wooden pullout nest trays.

Check out the build plans for a wooden post in the PMCA T14 plan book. That's what I did back in 2005 and it's still straight. It is a 4x5 1/2 laminated wooden post. It swivels down to the ground for maintenance.

In that PMCA plan book, it shows how to attach the 4 houses with carriage bolts and winged nuts using wooden slide rails. That's what I did and works fine.

Dave

[flyin-lowe]

Good catch. I didn't pay attention to the pole size. I have a 2 inch pole for a smaller gourd rack but wouldn't trust it for my T 14's. As you can see in my posts above I used 4 1/2 inch round steel pipe. It is overkill but no matter how strong the winds get they don't budge. Plus the pipes were repurposed and were found very cheap.

[jeff]

My 2" x 20', 1/8" wall square tube (3' in the ground sleeve) has not yet showed any signs of distorting. I will lower half way if there is an extreme storm coming.