Gazebo From Satellite Dish
Intro: Gazebo From Satellite Dish
This is a gazebo I made several years ago out of an old 10 ft fiberglass satellite dish when they became obsolete. It was either do that or make it into a fish pond or the world's biggest birdbath.
I removed the dish from it's mount and dug holes and set the railroad cross ties. I could have used smaller steel posts or 4x4' wood poles, but I wanted the rustic look of the cross ties. The cross ties had to be cut so they would all be the same height when finished and had to be cut at an angle on top to match the slope of the satellite dish. After I set the dish on top of the ties, I bolted it to each tie using 1/2" threaded bolt stock, washers and nuts.
With only the dish on top of the ties, it looked more like a Grecian dome than a gazebo, as I suspected it would. We have some cane growing in the back yard. I cut the poles to 8 ft lengths. and laid them on top of the dish. To secure them, I made a 34.5 ft circle of smooth fence wire to go around the edge of the dish and extend 5 inches beyond it. Since the dish is 10 foot diameter, the circumference is
10 x 3.1416 = 31.4 ft. To extend 6 inches all around, I calculated the wire to be 11 x 3.1416 = 34.5 ft.
I split each of the cane poles on the bottom end and put the wire in the split. I wrapped another wire around the top of the poles and secured both of the wire's end to the first wire, since I couldn't crawl up on top of it.
The cane is very secure and lasts one to two years before it needs replacing. The cane must be gathered after the first freeze or the following spring. The green cane is beautiful for a project like this, but cannot be used because it will shrink up and turn an ugly brown color. I made a small open fronted cabinet for stereo components and covered it with green cane. It was beautiful…..for about 2 days, then I had to strip it all off and recover it with cured cane. LOLOL
This "Create" page just deleted it's self after saying there was and error in updating it. Luckily I write all stuff like this on "Text-Edit", save it there, copy it and paste it here so I don't lose it all and then must re-do it. :-)
Back to the gazebo.......You can see the cane growing in the background of 1st photo. The 6th photo shows the wire fitting into the bottom of the poles. The 7th shows how the dish sets on the cross tie.
This was a fairly easy project and we just love it.
Cost = about $3 for the threaded bolt stock. I had everything else.
Time = It doesn't matter since I am retired, but a couple of days to dig the holes, one week to recover from digging them, and another day to assemble it.
I removed the dish from it's mount and dug holes and set the railroad cross ties. I could have used smaller steel posts or 4x4' wood poles, but I wanted the rustic look of the cross ties. The cross ties had to be cut so they would all be the same height when finished and had to be cut at an angle on top to match the slope of the satellite dish. After I set the dish on top of the ties, I bolted it to each tie using 1/2" threaded bolt stock, washers and nuts.
With only the dish on top of the ties, it looked more like a Grecian dome than a gazebo, as I suspected it would. We have some cane growing in the back yard. I cut the poles to 8 ft lengths. and laid them on top of the dish. To secure them, I made a 34.5 ft circle of smooth fence wire to go around the edge of the dish and extend 5 inches beyond it. Since the dish is 10 foot diameter, the circumference is
10 x 3.1416 = 31.4 ft. To extend 6 inches all around, I calculated the wire to be 11 x 3.1416 = 34.5 ft.
I split each of the cane poles on the bottom end and put the wire in the split. I wrapped another wire around the top of the poles and secured both of the wire's end to the first wire, since I couldn't crawl up on top of it.
The cane is very secure and lasts one to two years before it needs replacing. The cane must be gathered after the first freeze or the following spring. The green cane is beautiful for a project like this, but cannot be used because it will shrink up and turn an ugly brown color. I made a small open fronted cabinet for stereo components and covered it with green cane. It was beautiful…..for about 2 days, then I had to strip it all off and recover it with cured cane. LOLOL
This "Create" page just deleted it's self after saying there was and error in updating it. Luckily I write all stuff like this on "Text-Edit", save it there, copy it and paste it here so I don't lose it all and then must re-do it. :-)
Back to the gazebo.......You can see the cane growing in the background of 1st photo. The 6th photo shows the wire fitting into the bottom of the poles. The 7th shows how the dish sets on the cross tie.
This was a fairly easy project and we just love it.
Cost = about $3 for the threaded bolt stock. I had everything else.
Time = It doesn't matter since I am retired, but a couple of days to dig the holes, one week to recover from digging them, and another day to assemble it.
8 Comments
3366carlos 7 years ago
vladivastok 10 years ago
MAKES GOOD SENSE TO BUILD SOMETHING FROM NOTHING. ESPICALLY FROM OBSOLETE THINGS IN THE YARD. ALLWAYS WANTED TO TILT ONE OVER TO BOWL POSITION [HORIZONALY] AND MAKE A FLOWER BED . YOURS IS WAY BETTER.
graydog111 10 years ago
graydog111 10 years ago
utest_987 10 years ago
nnygamer 10 years ago
I have one of those dishes, it's been unused since 1998 after 12 years of service. I could do something like this but maybe put moss/plants on the top (no reeds growing here).
graydog111 10 years ago
Hi nnygamer, I thought about putting dirt on it and planting grass but it would actually weigh one ton. How about dark colored asphalt shingles.
pfred2 10 years ago
I've seen a few of these around me. I only have the little satellite dishes on my house. Maybe I can make hats out of them?