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Nov. 9th, 2009 11:25 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
which_chickI have (mostly) completed construction on the faux brick wall triangular jump thing that Trysta has long felt we needed.
At her Maryland pony lesson, Trys saw this neat triangular jump thing that was painted like bricks. It was made out of plywood or similar, but shaped into a prism (triangular in cross-section) and painted to look like a brick wall. I am not sure where on earth horses are going to see brick walls of the sort that the plywood faux brick wall prism shape is supposed to emulate, but maybe this is not particularly about realism. Anyway, Trysta has wanted one for quite a while.
I talked to La today while I was sorting through the scrap wood pile to find shit to build this out of and, according to La, this jump is supposed to be 2'3" tall. She sounded sort of disappointed about the fact that I was really hoping to make it 2' tall, like it should be bigger. I promised to make ours flat on top so that we could put flower boxes or similar on top to get the needed height of 2'3". (The reason I pushed for 2' instead of 2'3" was that 2' would come out even on a sheet of plywood, which is 4' x 8'. On the other hand, 2'3" does not come out even on anything. My reasoning did not allow for the fact that I'd be the one stuck making the boxes to put on top of the wall. *sigh* It seemed like a win at the time, anyway.) I made my home-version triangular jump things 24" tall, which I have to say looks a lot bigger than 2' has any fucking right to look. Maybe I have a defective tape measure or something.
I made the jump flat on top, like I said I would, so the finished product is trapezoidal in cross section because the top is a 2x6 placed big-flat-side up. I'm not sure when the hell we're going to put things on the jumps make them bigger because they look huge enough already. However, that's not really my problem. I used a miter saw to make the angles and stuff, which worked very well. Yay miter saw.
Also, while the jump is 2' tall (exactly), the plywood does not go all the way to the ground because (a) it would draw moisture and rot and (b) slanted sides are longer than the 2' vertical height of the thing. Oops. Can I claim that the reason the plywood doesn't reach the ground was for reason (a) and not because I neglected to figure in reason (b) when I did the math?
God, this thing is huge. Maybe it'll look smaller outside? (The two pieces -- unpainted but assembled -- are currently in my living room, which is not very big. I have the sort of life where, of a Monday evening, there can be a 7' long, 2' tall trapezoidal jump constructed in the living room. (It's sectional. There are actually two smaller pieces, not one huge piece. We have to be able to move it around, see, which is why the pieces.) There is still sawdust on the floor... and some 30-60-90 triangles of scrap. Right now these jump pieces look enormous. Huge. Gigantic. There is no way that anything we ride is going to jump this damn jump. I've measured it about six times. The trapezoid is 24" tall, exactly. But... but... it looks massive. I am intimidated by the jump. Maybe it will look smaller after Trysta paints it.
At her Maryland pony lesson, Trys saw this neat triangular jump thing that was painted like bricks. It was made out of plywood or similar, but shaped into a prism (triangular in cross-section) and painted to look like a brick wall. I am not sure where on earth horses are going to see brick walls of the sort that the plywood faux brick wall prism shape is supposed to emulate, but maybe this is not particularly about realism. Anyway, Trysta has wanted one for quite a while.
I talked to La today while I was sorting through the scrap wood pile to find shit to build this out of and, according to La, this jump is supposed to be 2'3" tall. She sounded sort of disappointed about the fact that I was really hoping to make it 2' tall, like it should be bigger. I promised to make ours flat on top so that we could put flower boxes or similar on top to get the needed height of 2'3". (The reason I pushed for 2' instead of 2'3" was that 2' would come out even on a sheet of plywood, which is 4' x 8'. On the other hand, 2'3" does not come out even on anything. My reasoning did not allow for the fact that I'd be the one stuck making the boxes to put on top of the wall. *sigh* It seemed like a win at the time, anyway.) I made my home-version triangular jump things 24" tall, which I have to say looks a lot bigger than 2' has any fucking right to look. Maybe I have a defective tape measure or something.
I made the jump flat on top, like I said I would, so the finished product is trapezoidal in cross section because the top is a 2x6 placed big-flat-side up. I'm not sure when the hell we're going to put things on the jumps make them bigger because they look huge enough already. However, that's not really my problem. I used a miter saw to make the angles and stuff, which worked very well. Yay miter saw.
Also, while the jump is 2' tall (exactly), the plywood does not go all the way to the ground because (a) it would draw moisture and rot and (b) slanted sides are longer than the 2' vertical height of the thing. Oops. Can I claim that the reason the plywood doesn't reach the ground was for reason (a) and not because I neglected to figure in reason (b) when I did the math?
God, this thing is huge. Maybe it'll look smaller outside? (The two pieces -- unpainted but assembled -- are currently in my living room, which is not very big. I have the sort of life where, of a Monday evening, there can be a 7' long, 2' tall trapezoidal jump constructed in the living room. (It's sectional. There are actually two smaller pieces, not one huge piece. We have to be able to move it around, see, which is why the pieces.) There is still sawdust on the floor... and some 30-60-90 triangles of scrap. Right now these jump pieces look enormous. Huge. Gigantic. There is no way that anything we ride is going to jump this damn jump. I've measured it about six times. The trapezoid is 24" tall, exactly. But... but... it looks massive. I am intimidated by the jump. Maybe it will look smaller after Trysta paints it.
