GARDEN TRELLIS

Al Carrell: You know, people today are spending a lot more time out in their gardens. They're even starting to decorate them and a nice trellis like this would be a good addition. Now maybe your budget won't quite take care of one of these beautiful handmade trellises from Lost Arts, so we're going to show you how you can make your own for under 30 bucks. It's great looking. Here it is - a six and a half-foot beauty that will add a nice touch to your yard. Now we're going to make our trellis out of inexpensive copper tubing that you can get at the hardware store or the home center. Keep in mind that whenever you get ready to lay out your design on the garage floor or out in the driveway you want to have a lot of straight lines. And then, you want to be able to use the different fittings that we did. We got a T, a 90-degree and a 45-degree. And it also is going to be very easy for us to do because we're not going to have to sweat solder it together. We're going to put it together; the fittings will hold; we'll glue them in place and it's going to be real easy. So what I'm doing now is cutting the different parts out and we'll start putting it together and I think you're going to love what you see. Now you can create you own trellis design, or if you'd like to copy ours check our Internet site or call us for plans. We bought three 10-foot sections of half-inch copper at our local hardware store. Now be sure that you buy type M or hard copper. And then cut them to length. Well Gary, can you help me figure out where all these parts go?

Gary De Larios: Sure Al. Why don't we dry fit this thing together first?

AC: Yeah, that's very important because if you start gluing you're liable to end up wasting a lot of material, right?

GD: Yeah, and we might not be able to get it back apart again. Looks like it all fits, Al.

AC: Yeah, looks pretty doggone good too. Well, our next step then is to start uh, fastening it together. Personally, I would have probably want to use uh, sweat soldering, but the way we're going to go with the glue is going to be something everybody can do. Now we're going to be using Liquid Nails to put it together, so you might want to put on your rubber gloves because it is a little messy. I don't know about you Gary, but I've never used any kind of glue like this to put copper pipe together.

GD: No, I haven't either.

AC: So we're going to live and learn, but I know one thing - if we're going to try to patina this we're going to have to get rid of the overflow that we have.

GD: Yeah. Well, I've got some paint thinner and a rag here. We'll just wipe it off. You got enough on that one, Al. Well, it really doesn't take that much of it, does it?

AC: No, it's really better if you can just get a small glob on there and spread it with your glove. Once all the pieces have been glued in place, we leave the trellis lying flat for 12 hours so the glue can completely dry. Now the copper is not going to stay bright like it is right now and you don't want it that way anyway. What we're going to do is give it some aging. And this is some stuff that you can buy at any craft shop - I think, can't you Gary?

GD: Yeah, at hobby stores, craft shops. They've got different colors of patina.

AC: And all you have to do is brush it on and wait just a few seconds and it starts getting that really neat old green look. Well here's our finished trellis and it really does look great. I bet you'd like to have one in your backyard, here is the plan (Garden Trellis Plan). We also have other project plans online that you can download and start your project today.

Episode 58 1997 - 98 Season

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