Crafty, DIY wooden turkey lawn decoration

Like most DiY handymen, I often see a wooden craft that I tell myself, I can do that.

     Walking with my wife at a craft fair recently we came across some small wooden turkeys, they were nicely painted, but nothing special enough to justify $50 price tag.  Looking over it, I determined I could build that myself, it was nothing more than two 1/2 inch pieces of plywood that interlocked to form a turkey shape.  My wife held the turkey up to get my opinion and before I know what I was saying, I blurted out the words, "I could make that".  Like so many times before, I meant it, but never really followed through with my side projects.  This time however, she held me to it.  After several months of procrastinating and Thanksgiving less than a month away, I decided to look around the shed for plywood to kick this project off.

The hardest part of this craft for me was to find a simple enough turkey shape that I could transpose to a 3D shape, without over complicating the design.

Just a disclaimer before we get started.  I usually freehand draw most of my templates so there are never exact measurements listed.

Tools needed:

Jig saw (reciprocating saw), Circular saw, Sander, Sharpie, string, straight edge, ruler, eye protection, extension cord

Supplies needed:

1/2" thick plywood, whole or half sheet, (you might want to scale down the size)

Scrap 2x4's (needed to elevate your plywood off the ground while you cut)

First divide the plywood into two sections using the circular saw.

  A 4'x4' section for the feathers.

  A 2.5'x4' section for the body.

( I know it doesn't add up to a full sheet, hence the digging though my shed for scrap plywood.)

Draw a circle on the 4'x4' section.  The string will be your compass.  Tie a knot around the Sharpie with the string, hold the marker in your drawling hand at the edge of the 4'x4', not the corner.  Next place your thumb of the pivot hand in the center with the string between your thumb and the wood.  Start moving the marker around in a circle, keep the string taught, to ensure a fairly decent circle.

   

After the circle is drawn prop your plywood on the 2x4's with enough clearance for the jig saw to clear the ground.  Start to cut out the circle, remember where the 2"x4"'s are, periodically stopping to reposition the plywood as to avoid cutting into the 2"x4"'s is a good idea.  I stood on top of my plywood to keep the splintering to a minimum.

Freehand draw the shapes with the exception of the circle and don't worry about getting it exactly correct.  Imperfections just add character to crafts.

After the 4'x4' section of plywood resembles a circle you will draw a vase shape for the lower half of the circle where the feathers meet the body.  Cut this out and cut small triangular corners out on the top half of the circle.  This will form the feathers.  I cut mine down a bit deeper so they can be moved in front of each other.  I also cut the bottom of the circle off, to have a flat base for the ground.

Next up, cutting the shape of the body.  I drew what resembled a fat duck, with the exception if the "wattle", that red thing that hangs off their beak.  (Yeah I googled the term).

The next step is to draw and cut the cross section so the body and feathers interlock.  I chose to have the feathers tilt about 15 degree towards the back.  For my project I removed a 12" piece from the top of the body cutout and 12" piece from the bottom of the feathers section.

Be especially careful cutting these out.  You don't want to cut the wrong part, plus you really want the two pieces to be somewhat tight fitting.   The gap should be no wider than 1/2" (since we are using 1/2" plywood).  I went down about 12" from the top of the body.

As you can see I was off on the first cut, so I just made sure when I made the second cut, the opening was still only 1/2 inch wide.

After both pieces are cut, see if they fit together.  If they rock you might need to make one or of the previous cuts deeper.  In my case the cross section was fine but I needed to trim the bottom of the feather board to make it sit flat on the ground.  If you did it correctly it should resemble something similar to the picture below.  Sand all cuts.

Note: If you did happen to cut the two pieces too wide you might be able to use a right angle brace or even some strips of 1" wood to tighten up the cross section.  The idea is to have a 3D craft that can also be easily stored, so if try not to make the cross section permanent.  There are plenty of ways to correct small mistakes without having to re-cut the entire board.

Painting the turkey is next up...

NOTE: Before you paint it is a good idea to sand any sharpie lines that might be on the wood.  I learned the hard way that spray paint doesn't cover those unless you put down a thick solid coat of paint first.  I had to spray everything white and start again.

I used spray paint, which I'm still not sure was the best choice.

Not shown was two additional wooden steak I wound up using to secure the turkey on the lawn.  They were painted brown and hammered into the ground. I assembled the turkey and screwed the piece with the feathers to the steaks with 4 screws (two on each side).  The turkey has made it through two Thanksgivings and shows no signs of water damage from being on the ground and left outside.

Painting vinyl shutters a different color

My vinyl shutters were looking weathered.  First thing I did when I made the decision to paint my vinyl shutters instead of purchasing new ones was to Google info on how to do this.  I was hit with a barrage of info, most repeated the same advise, don't change the color of your shutters and to use an acrylic or urethane blends.  I decided to it anyway and document my results.

I wrote this post to document what steps I took.  I plan on updating this post sometime next year with the long term results of my ill advised decision.

First a bit about the environmental variables involved.

The shutters of my house get morning sun.  My house is in the Northeastern part of the US and has four seasons.  I painted my shutters in my garage and in 60 degree weather.

I am going from a colonial light blue
to a darker green color.

Materials needed:
-Pry-bar 
-Ladder
-Step ladder
-Sharpie
-Cleaning powder (Dirtex)
-Primer
-Exterior Paint
-Pain Brushes
-Caulk
-220 grit Sandpaper
-New Shutter-Loks (hardware fasteners)
-Elevated surface to paint on
-Place to store shutters to dry for 48 to 72 hrs before re-installing

Getting started:
I have a two story house and am not a fan of heights so removing the shutters is more sane than being on a ladder for hours.  I also wanted to take the shutters off the house because it was easier to paint and not worry about getting paint on the house.

I used a pry-bar to carefully go behind the shutters and pry them away from the house.  They weren't screwed in (they were attached using Shutter-Loks hardware fasteners.  Once these are removed the one way fins are no long viable to reattach to the house.  You can see they are all chewed up.  But don't throw them out just yet.  Later in the blog I describe another purpose for them.


NOTE: There could be hives behind those shutters, bees, hornets, etc.  I found lots of inactive hives.  Spraying down the shutters before you remove them might be a good idea as to not get stung on the ladder.

I took the sharpie with me and after each shutter was pried off I marked them with a number and letter.  1L, 2R, 3R, 1TopL, 1TopR etc.  This info tells me two things, one what way is up and two where the shutter came from.  Why does that matter you ask, it's important to place them back in the original position.  Shutters bend and warp but more importantly you ensure the fastener holes will line back up with the original holes.

After removing the shutters I sprayed each one down with the hose to get the larger dirt particles off the front and back.  Once inside I used a cleaner (Dirtex) with hot water to remove any dirt that the hose didn't get off (which was a lot).

The next day I sanded the shutters with 220 grit sandpaper and then wiped any dust off.

To get the old fasteners out I placed each shutter on my portable workbench and hit it with a hammer, but made sure both sides were supported as to not crack the shutter.

I used the old fastener hardware to elevate the shutters off the ground, by placing them in upside down.  This helped reduce the amount of paint being transferred to my garage floor and also didn't cause the paint to wick up any dirt on the garage floor.

When I was discussing best practices with the Lowes associate, I was told that Valspar bonding primer would stick to the vinyl without a problem and then I could pick any exterior paint to apply on top.  I had a slight grey color mixed into the primer but in hindsight I would now recommend getting a dark primer mix as it bleeds through the new color, even after two coats.

I let the shutters dry for an entire day before applying the new color.  Once coat at a time over two days.  Even after two days there were still spots that the primer was slightly showing through, but not enough to warrant another coat.

I went with a Valspar Duramax Satin finish.  I wanted the shutters to pop a little when the sun hit them.

The hardware fasteners were purchased from shuttercontractor.com.  I'm not endorsing them, but they were the cheapest price for what I needed.  I got the unpainted ones and opted not to use primer on them.  I didn't actually paint them with a brush, rather dipped them and shook off the excess.  I then carefully placed them in a piece of cardboard (cut a slit with a knife first).  Be patient, as you start to load them, they become more the row of already placed fasteners become wobbly.



Since it's November and the weather is colder, the paint was still sticky to the touch three days after the second coat.  I will be installing them over the weekend and am anxious to see how they endure the winter.

Make sure if you are ordering new fasteners they are the same size as the original ones, otherwise you might get stuck cutting the new ones or even drilling new deeper holes.

Lastly place a small amount of caulk in the holes where the fasteners will be places, prior to putting the shutters in place.  This will help insulate and weatherproof these holes.

NOTE: If I wanted to, it seems the paint would peal off in one large sheet if I tried.  The primer acts as more of a skin.  So be careful moving the painted shutters around on the floor, as they will scrape off the paint.

They look great if I do say so.