Mounting a CrowBox to a pole

[CrowBoxSteve]

Hello everyone! 

In a recent thread we were discussing how to go about mounting a CrowBox to a pole. In the locations we've tested our CrowBoxes, mounting to a pole has been necessary in order to keep thieving squirrels at bay. The CrowBox is designed with a reinforced base and pre-drilled (laser cut) holes to permit bolting the CrowBox to a platform which can then be attached to a pole. The CrowBox isn't designed to mount directly to a pole, but to be mounted to a wood platform which can then be placed atop a pole. The thinking here is that the best approach is to allow for flexibility when it comes to mounting solutions.

Today we posted a PDF file to the 'helpers' section of the CrowBox Wiki. This PDF is a template to help with positioning and drilling holes that will allow you to interface the CrowBox to whichever mounting solution you've chosen. 

The PDF template can be found here: http://www.thecrowbox.com/wiki/doku.php?id=kit:tools_and_helpers#mounting_helpers

This template is designed to be printed out at actual size (do not use "fit to page" or "resize" printing options) and used to mark locations on your wooden platform for drilling the four bolt holes and can also be used to position the hole saw for cutting out the center hole for your pole. Before you use the printed template, use a ruler to verify the measurements that appear on the template- this ensures that the template was printed at the correct size. 

I will follow this post with replies detailing how we build the pole mounting platforms that we've used during our testing and development. I'd hesitate to call this the "official method" but it has served us well.

It's also worth mentioning that mounting to a pole may not solve all of your squirrel problems. You will probably also need a squirrel baffle. We won't make any specific product or brand recommendations here, but a clear plastic dome-style squirrel baffle has worked very well on our installations.

-Steve

[CrowBoxSteve]

Here's a method I've used to mount CrowBoxes atop poles. This has worked well for wood and metal poles. I'll describe it here as a guideline for those working on their own platforms.

First off, I should apologize for the images in this post. I'm new to using Google Groups and I seem forced to choose between "too small to be useful" and "positively enormous" when it comes to the size of the images in this post. For most of these, I chose enormous. 

The wood you'd need to put together this type of mount is easy to find at a home store. You'll need two types of wood:

• 4 inch wide project board, 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick : two pieces, each 6 1/2 inches long
• Pine is cheap, and good for this
• Poplar or similar also OK
• Avoid MDF, which will deteriorate very quickly outdoors
• 2x2 board: two pieces, each 4 inches long.
• These may be sold as "corner boards" or "hobby boards" or simply as 2x2 lumber
• Note that 2x2's are actually 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 inches

You'd also need:

• Power drill with 1/4 inch drill bit
  
• Hole saw in the same diameter as your chosen pole
  
• some 1 inch long wood screws
  
• four 1.5 inch long x 1/4 inch bolts with nuts (with which to bolt on the CrowBox)
  

Here are some CAD drawings of the lumber cut list. All figures in inches:

After using the CrowBox mounting template to position and drill the bolt-holes in the top panel for the CrowBow, and the hole-sawn hole in the bottom panel, use the wood screws to bolt the assembly together. Drill pilot holes before installing the wood screws if you chose a hardwood like poplar; This will help prevent splitting. 

The final sandwiched assembly looks like this, pole included for illustration.The pole passes through the hole in the bottom panel and rests up against the bottom of the top panel.

Use nuts and bolts (not screws) to install the CrowBox to the platform, then slip the platform over the pole. A CrowBox bolted to this platform looks something like this:

-Steve

[Eugene Archibald]

Awesome! and just in time :) Mine's complete and tested as of today!

https://www.facebook.com/Yevgene/posts/10217647219674307

[Josh Klein]

So cool!!! Really, really exciting. Can't wait to see it with birds on it!

- Josh

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[CrowBoxSteve]

ERRATA: The four nuts and bolts listed above as 1/4 inch must actually be 3/16 inch. You may still use a 1/4 inch drill bit if you don't have a 3/16, but the bolts themselves must be 3/16 to fit through the bolt holes in the bottom of the CrowBox.

The corrected tool/hardware list:

• Power drill with a 3/16 or a 1/4 inch drill bit (either is fine)
  

• Hole saw in the same diameter as your chosen pole
  
• some 1 inch long wood screws
  

• four 1.5 inch long x 3/16 inch bolts with nuts (with which to bolt on the CrowBox)

On Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 7:30:18 PM UTC-7, CrowBoxSteve wrote:

Here's a method I've used to mount CrowBoxes atop poles. This has worked well for wood and metal poles. I'll describe it here as a guideline for those working on their own platforms.

First off, I should apologize for the images in this post. I'm new to using Google Groups and I seem forced to choose between "too small to be useful" and "positively enormous" when it comes to the size of the images in this post. For most of these, I chose enormous. 

The wood you'd need to put together this type of mount is easy to find at a home store. You'll need two types of wood:

• 4 inch wide project board, 1/4 to 1/2 inch thick : two pieces, each 6 1/2 inches long
• Pine is cheap, and good for this
• Poplar or similar also OK
• Avoid MDF, which will deteriorate very quickly outdoors
• 2x2 board: two pieces, each 4 inches long.
• These may be sold as "corner boards" or "hobby boards" or simply as 2x2 lumber
• Note that 2x2's are actually 1-1/2 x 1-1/2 inches

You'd also need:

• Power drill with 1/4 inch drill bit
  
• Hole saw in the same diameter as your chosen pole
  
• some 1 inch long wood screws
  
• four 1.5 inch long x 1/4 inch bolts with nuts (with which to bolt on the CrowBox)
  

Here are some CAD drawings of the lumber cut list. All figures in inches:

After using the CrowBox mounting template to position and drill the bolt-holes in the top panel for the CrowBow, and the hole-sawn hole in the bottom panel, use the wood screws to bolt the assembly together. Drill pilot holes before installing the wood screws if you chose a hardwood like poplar; This will help prevent splitting. 

The final sandwiched assembly looks like this, pole included for illustration.The pole passes through the hole in the bottom panel and rests up against the bottom of the top panel.

Use nuts and bolts (not screws) to install the CrowBox to the platform, then slip the platform over the pole. A CrowBox bolted to this platform looks something like this:

[Eugene Archibald]

The bad news: I just bought the 1/4" bolts.

The good news: they are exceedingly cheap and I live a 5-minute walk from the hardware store.

I ended up picking some 1 1/4" galvanized pipe for mine, but it seems like overkill.

What sorts of pole materials do you like? I wandered around Lowe's last night feeling dumb for a while and ended up with this.

[CrowBoxSteve]

phew. I'm glad my typo didn't put you out too badly.

I've personally used three types of poles over the course of this project. I will now share my observations in truly excruciating detail. I even made a bullet list:

• Specialty powder coated steel bird feeder poles from an overpriced bird & nature store.
• I've used the 1/2 inch and the 3/5 inch (odd, no?) diameter sizes.
• These are strong, but unless the pole is quite short, 36" or so, they sway when birds land which I've observed to make Crows nervous when trying to land.
• Squirrels can easily climb the textured powder coat surface material. 
• Steel 'closet poles' from a home store. 
• Hollow steel tube, 1-1/4 inch diameter
• For me, the best bang-for-buck option
  
• Color choices sometimes available
• I thought these would be smooth and slippery enough to deter squirrels, but they still shimmy up.
  
• Very little sway
• Wood 'closet poles', same as above but wood. 
• More expensive than steel
• Even easier for squirrels to climb.
• Diameters run from 1-1/4 to 1-3/4
• Little sway

If asked, I'd suggest steel closet poles. I haven't observed any difference across the various diameters. The minimum seems to be 1-1/4 inch, and these work very well. At my local hardware store, 6 foot lengths cost 11 dollars.

I've always had to install a squirrel baffle but I'm told you can also wipe vegetable oil on the smooth steel poles to deter squirrels. This isn't an option on the wood poles or powder-coated poles.

I have a permanent installation in my yard where I dug a post-hole and used ready-mix concrete to emplace a pole. I do most of my field work with a CrowBox atop a 36" steel closet pole mounted in a weighted umbrella base (from the home store) so that I can move the 'box from site to site as needed. I suggest the 'hard' type of umbrella base- either steel, resin or concrete. If you find yourself considering the plastic type that you fill with water, make sure it's made of a rugged, rigid plastic that won't permit the pole to sway much. 

Hope this helps! 

-Steve

[Eric J Guderyon]

I would like a movable base as well, do you think a 5 gallon bucket full of concrete would be stable enough, or would you recommend something with a larger diameter, like the bottom 3 inches of a 55 gallon  platic drum?)  The 5 gallon bucket would be heavy but maybe a bit unstable with a 5 foot pole attached?  Any experience/ ideas?

Thanks,

Eric

[CrowBoxSteve]

Hey Eric, I have some thoughts for you from my personal experience, and then some guesses :)

I would say that a five gallon bucket full of concrete would be plenty stable for this application. Probably excessive. Concrete is around 150 pounds per cubic foot, so five gallons of concrete would end up weighing around 100 pounds. Up to you- if you're not moving the pole around often this would definitely keep things upright for you. Could be a pain in the rump to move, though.

My CrowBoxes are mounted onto a simple wooden platform of the type I described in a post in this group last fall, then slipped onto the top of a four foot long metal closet pole that is 1.75 inches in diameter. The pole is mounted in a 26 pound square-based concrete umbrella stand that I bought at an outdoor furniture store. This has been a stable setup for me. The umbrella stand is 16x16 inches at its base and the vertical tube supports the bottom 8 inches of the pole. This has been a good off-the-shelf solution.

My CrowBox is placed in a bark bed, so I don't have to protect it from being knocked over by things like people and lawnmowers- I just need to make sure it doesn't sway when birds land on it. If you need to make sure human activities don't knock yours over, maybe you should choose the much heavier base you are considering.

Hey, I just did the math and it looks like you have already done the math, too? Three inches of concrete poured in the bottom of a standard 55 gallon drum comes out to be just about .69 cubic feet, which is just slightly more than the volume of a five gallon bucket filled all the the way to the top with concrete (around .66 cubic feet) so you're talking about a concrete base that's going to weigh around 100 pounds either way you make it. 

My instinct is to pour the thinner base with the larger diameter. But I'd want to make sure that the bottom three inches of the pole are well-clasped in the concrete. Maybe take a hacksaw and make some very shallow, criss-crossed cuts into the bottom three inches of the pole so that you get a good clasp mold in the concrete? A 5 gallon bucket mold would support around 13 inches of the pole's base so there is a potential stability tradeoff there.

So, that's what I've got. I hope it helps somehow. Everyone would probably like to hear more about how this goes for you so please let us hear what you decide to do! 

-Steve

[David Smith]

As for metal poles, i'd recommend using electrical conduit from your local hardware store. They come in 10' lengths. Cheers.

On Saturday, September 22, 2018 at 12:27:44 PM UTC-7, CrowBoxSteve wrote:

[Eric J Guderyon]

I think i'm going to make both as I want to make a  movable base for a Frisbee Golf basket as well.  My mounting pole fits perfectly into 1 1/4" PVC, so I will just put an 18 inch piece of that in to the bucket and the barrel base, so everything is interchangeable.  I will probably screw some bolts or screws into the PVC to act as anchor bolts in the concrete.  I also found a fitting the fits my pole that has holes that line up perfectly to the holes on the bottom of the crowbox.  I got it at our local big box "Menards", ( but I think they are only in the Wisconsin/Midwest) but you may be able to get the same thing at  Lowes or Home Depot.  (NIBCO® 1" PVC 1-Piece (Solid) Socket PVC Flange ) 

Now I just have to wait for it to warm up enough to pour concrete outside....I'm in Wisconsin so it could be a couple of weeks....months?  Unless I want to do it in my basement, but I don't think I want to carry  100 lbs up a set of stairs!

Eric 

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Eric Guderyon

CC Teacher

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