Has anyone done this and got any tips? I'd like to make a modestly-sized (perhaps 20 feet) flagpole, ideally from wood. I've looked for online resources, but nothing comes up. Any info gratefully received. TIA>
glassfibre cheap alumium 7.5 metre 90gbp including ground sleeve
Buying a 10 metre leylandi and cutting off the branches would seem to be the easiest way to make a wooden one
Tony
£500 odd including installation and all the bits.
English flag, or even the Union Flag you may be told to remove it.
If the OP's not in too much of a hurry, planting a 1m leylandi and waiting for it to grow would be even easier, as no concreting required.
Owain
IIRC anyone can put up a flagpole, but you need planning permission to put up a flag.
I think that the restrictions have recently been eased; any recognised national flag may be flown; for some reason this includes the EU 'stars' flag.
It is illegal to fly the Scottish Standard (at least from a building, I'm not sure about freestanding flagpoles) without permission from the Lord Lyon King of Arms. The Saltire may be flown freely however.
Owain
building merchant's with at least a 35mm diameter, possible more, in 8 foot lengths. Possibly this is a little narrow for your requirements, but I should think two 35mm dowels joined together will get you a reasonable 16 foot pole, though some guy wires might be needed.. I may have seen 40mm dowel of the same wood which would be even better. Joining two lengths would need a metal sleeve, but its amazing whats about that will do the job if you wander around your local DIY shed.
Alternatively, I believe B&Q do round bannister handrail in what looked like
4m lengths. Its diameter is quite possibly 70mm+, maybe 90mm, I didn't check the wood, probably clear pine. That would need treatment to go outside, but is probably a better bet than the ramin dowel for a 20 foot pole.Andy.
For 20 feet, I'd be looking more along the lines of 14 feet of 6*6", and
14 feet of 4*4".Take them both down using a circular saw to a square section pyramid, so that it goes from 6" square at the bottom, to 2" square at the top.
Cut them off skew along a length of 3 feet or so, and glue and screw together. If you feel like it, then take a power plane to it to get an octagon section, or do it carefully with a circular saw.
The remaining 5 feet goes in the ground, needless to say CCA'd.
Yes and you can piss the neighbours off at the same time!
Dave
unsafe for sailing could give many years as a flagpole. Some of the older sailing dingys go for peanuts including road trailers. A post to uk.rec.sailing should get you some leads. PeterK
Norm made one in the New Yankee Workshop. Plans and video available on line either direct from US NYW website or through Brimarc in the UK.
In message , Doki writes
IIRC you can put up a flagpole and fly a national flag without planning permission but flying a flag with your name or company name etc. is advertising and requires permission. BICBW.
Something in me immediately wondered about an array of several hundred small flags, picked for appropriate colours...
We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Owain saying something like:
I can just see people asking permission. :)
Douglas fir is probably your best option for timber.
You have two options for how to make it: solid timber or built up like a mast. Built-up is a lot more work and more expensive, but lighter. If you need to tilt it, to put it somewhere awkward, or just don't have much kit to rig it with, then think about built-up. The easy way to build it up is to use a "birds mouth" cutter in a decently large router table and then epoxy the resulting staves together. The birds-mouth locates the staves relative to each other and you can clamp them just with a few ratchet straps. If you try simple mitres on a sawbench, then you have a nightmare job in holding them in place without slipping (a few tiny biscuits in the edges will help). The Gougeon Brothers book on boatbuilding with West System epoxy (Axminster should have it) is a damn good book and describes this process for mast-making.
I don't think you'll make one from a Leylandii very easily. They're infamous for their habit of the trunk splitting into multiples a few feet above the ground. A better tree would be something like a Norway Spruce that doesn't do this -- and it's the scrap Norway Spruce season in a month or so.... Try getting friendly with a big shop or somewhere with a big Christmas tree and offer to dispose of it for them.
Varnish it with a proper marine spar varnish, or more easily paint it white. It will flex a lot, so you need a finish that's OK with this. Spar varnishes aren't the most long-lasting in weather, but they will survive the flexing better than most standard varnishes. As paint is opaque, then it always has better UV resistance and anything sensible (and cheap) will out-last even a good varnish.
Yeah, but Norm is a Master Carpenter who has a workshop equipped with every power tool known to man, plus some that aren't!
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