OK Bobbi Meyer you wanted more tutorials
First off Im very new to Habitat but have plenty experience with wood so here goes. First ill start with a very easy way to make an octagon with out all the complicated math. I used 3/8" ply wood for this one (light and cheaper) Keeping your measurments in even numbers will make it even easier, this ones 22". After cutting my square ill make an identical square out of thin card board. With a straight edge make an X from corner to corner on the card board. Now measure your centers on the wood, this one was 11" and using your straight edge make a cross from the centers. poke a nail in the card board at the connecting lines in the center, now take nail, poke it and leave from the other side with the marked lines facing up. drill a hole in the wood at connect lines slightly bigger than nail. slip plywood over nail and rotate untin card board lines line up with wood lines. Take your straight edge and line it up with cardboard edge and make cut lines on plywood. Go ahead and mark cut lines on card board so you will have a template to save for another project. Keep in mind, this is not the only way, its just how I did mine. If you want to use 3/4" around the sides then by all means do so. If you dont have barn wood and a table saw. use old plaster slats from an old house wall, they are close in size to what i have cut. If you use 3/4" ply wood, then you shouldnt need doublers, you will have good nailing surface. Have fun with it!!
lines lined up
After Octagon is cut make some doublers from 3/4" pine pr ply wood scraps. I lay them on the edge and mark with a pencil, then cut with a scroll saw. Glue and nail them on.
Next i cut strips of barn wood on the table saw, these were 1 7/8" wide. Next ill stand them on edge and using the guide setting on the table saw, ill cut them down the center so ill have two strips of equal width. Mine was around 3/8" thick. My goal is to have thin barn wood and seee no new cuts when finished as well as making it very muck lighter. Set your table saw at 22.5 degrees to make your cuts where the barnwood strip joints meet. Ill glue and nail these into the doublers i added earlier.
Here i have added my 1/2" foam board. use what you want, maby the two part foam. Dont forget to peel the plastic barrier off it. After laying it in, I took my Euro that i have ran some screws into for mounting, and layed it on the foam whre i want it and poked holes where the screws protude through it. Take out foam and add 3/4" block of wood to anchor Euro (or small mamal) to. Glue and screw wood to base. now lay foam back in and mark with a pencil the hole locations for mounting screw heads in wood block and drill bigger than heads of screws. You can now add a couple moor blocks just for foam support. Glue and lay form back in and nail down into doublers and support blocks. I added some humps and bumps so it wont be flat. and carved the edges off them to a taper.
Dont foget to paint foam black in case of earth crack. we dont want to see pink
Before adding your Dirt put a couple of straws into your mounting holes so you can find the after dirting base. I used 50 -50 elmers and water and peat moss mix for this one. Peat moss has some small sticks in it already and i also added some pine needles to it while mixing it up. After I applied my Dirt and while it was still wet. I added some more pine needles and with my finger tips pressed them lightly to the soil so most of them adhere to it when dry. I diped my leaves into elmers and water and let dry before hot glueing them on. My sticks have small screws in the bottom of them and glued into foam with hot glue. I pulled my straws and filled the holes 3/4 full with 5 minute epoxy and inserted screws in the Euro skull.
I now found a piece of dried root, killed the bugs and screwed it in from the bottom to give it a tilt. This optional, you can lay it flat. This one is for my own personal game room and a buck i killed in 07. Remember im new at this, suggestions welcome!
My 07 buck
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