Backyard pond scale course

[Cultus]

Hi guys. My brother Squirell and I are putting a bit of a scale course in and around our backyard koi pond. It already has some decent rock work and we are adding a few obstacles and scale items to make some nice relaxing backyard crawling. The first thing we really wanted to tackle was a scale bridge.

Here you can see the main frame screwed together. It is about 79" long and 14" wide. The main frame rails were made from 1x4 oak boards. I screwed them together then used a jigsaw to cut the profile, made a bit of a ramp on each end and carved out the underside so it is about 2" wide. Then we clamped on some boards to mock up what we wanted for railing. Underneath it all you can see 2 1x6 oak boards which we have ripped down on a table saw to make all our slats, posts, and railing.




The slats are cut to 3/4"x1/4" and the posts are 3/4"x1/2". We ended up going 11 boards between posts to get the scale look we wanted. The burn marks you see were left from ripping the planks on the table saw and easily sanded out. We used the metal ruler as a spacer and managed to keep the whole thing pretty square. I believe we ended up using 95 boards to cover the span.









Here you can see how it fits the pond, which is around 1500 gallons.

[struhall]

That looks great be I need some pics of the Koi...

[Stormin2u]

Nice craftsmanship, it looks fantastic over the pond. Well done.

[calcagno45]

Very nice work there! I have that same Ridgid nailer along with many other Ridgid stuff, hard to beat it.

[Cultus]

Originally Posted by struhall

That looks great be I need some pics of the Koi...

thx, here are a few pics i took about a month ago. I have 2 dozen in there right now, about half are still small in the 4 - 6" range.

[Cultus]

Originally Posted by calcagno45

Very nice work there! I have that same Ridgid nailer along with many other Ridgid stuff, hard to beat it.

Yes i like their stuff, I have several things including my miter saw. And you can't beat the lifetime warranty. My orbital sander started giving me some issues with the power switch while working on this project, but i know they will take care of it.

[calcagno45]

Originally Posted by Cultus

Yes i like their stuff, I have several things including my miter saw. And you can't beat the lifetime warranty. My orbital sander started giving me some issues with the power switch while working on this project, but i know they will take care of it.

That's a fact. I had 2 Li-Ion 18v packs sit for a while and quit taking a charge. Packs were 5 yrs old and they mailed out 2 replacements, no questions asked.

[Cultus]

Got to work on the railings. I wanted 2 inside rails that look like scale 2x4s (1/4x1/2") and a cap rail that is a scale 2x6, same as all the slats. Then messed with the height till we thought it looked right, and angled the ends down 20 degrees to give it more of a finished look. And had to give it another test fit to see how it looked.

[Cultus]

I have stained it and now I am in the process of sealing it with urethane since it will be around so much water. Mother nature will have to do the weathering

[Phred]

That's a nice bridge! Do you have any shots of the rest of the course, or is this the first step?

[Cultus]

Thank you. The urethane is fully cured and it has been installed. You can really see how well the water beads up on it, so it should last a long time, i just need to make sure no one tries to walk across it, lol

[Cultus]

And this is how it all looks today. Several of the obstacles are made to be portable and easily removed if necessary. You can crawl all around the thing, up both sides of the wall and even through the upper pool. Nothing super challenging, but it is a lot of fun and very relaxing to sit in the back yard and burn through a battery pack. It is very cool to have non rc people come over and just giggle constantly as we rip around. NOW i need more ideas. I have alot of sidewalk space i can put more obstacles, plus i would like to put more scale structures around the pond.

[Mike Flea]

Impressive, very nice!

[Peaker]

Nice pond and all

To do the same in my friends garden will have to be a 2 X longer bridge, and you do not want to fall off it as his pond are about 4.5 feet at the most shallow end.

And my friends fish tend to go a little wild once in a while, mostly the sturgeons i think, we have been hit my spray water sitting on the porch some 16 feet from the nearest part of the pond.

Calm fish in this video as it was taped months ago when pond water was sub 10 degrees C, so the fish are in their winter "coma"
https://youtu.be/TRx-JmtGTgk

[Cultus]

Originally Posted by Peaker

Nice pond and all

To do the same in my friends garden will have to be a 2 X longer bridge, and you do not want to fall off it as his pond are about 4.5 feet at the most shallow end.

And my friends fish tend to go a little wild once in a while, mostly the sturgeons i think, we have been hit my spray water sitting on the porch some 16 feet from the nearest part of the pond.

Calm fish in this video as it was taped months ago when pond water was sub 10 degrees C, so the fish are in their winter "coma"
https://youtu.be/TRx-JmtGTgk

very cool, there are some big ole fat fish in there!

[Peaker]

Yeah some of them go all the say back to my friends first little pond in the same place, i more or less alone dug that hole as my friend have busted shoulders.
meanwhile i was diggin the hole the fish was on holiday in 2 big plastic tanks.
And i was a bit batter back then, if i had to dig the same hole today it would take many weeks and stronger than normal painkillers and now also a arsenal of inhalers to get the remaining few % of my lounges sort of working.

My friends G-scale railroad pass close by the pond, but are now disabled by overgrown tracks and piping from the huge new filter behind the black fence at the far end of the pond.

I think its also safe to say i build the railway and the 2mountains in this video that concealed the 2 small filters he use to run.

If only more people had friends like me the world would be a better place

https://youtu.be/hAbjyOTMeg0

https://youtu.be/46utkcsfrkc

Seem like putting in inbed code from YT dont work for me nowadays.

[Cultus]

Thread fixed! i hope i got everything right. Only 8 or 900 pics to go.

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