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I have been given free sleepers (200X100mm) which are somewhat warped, cupped and twisted. My plan is to improve upon the height of the current 'garden' barrier and hence wage war with orange beaks.
Their throwing distance is phenomenal.
I'm looking for methods of attachment and curing the bows. I have a few ideas.
There are two areas to consider (see photo below).
Only two stipulations.
- It must not (height wise) impede the opening of a car door.
- It must be strong enough to withstand the occasional tyre knock.
Cheers.
While playing with a bracket and sleeper - one bird continued to toss bark out in front of me! 😏
Hi @Noyade,
I like your idea of adding the cut sleeper to the top to increase the height. Perhaps some heavy-duty bracket plates bolted to the rear side might be enough to control the warping. However, as depicted below, you might just increase the challenge for them. My young daughter is not fully invested in this campaign and suggests adding steel edging to increase the height and a bird feeder to draw their attention away through diversion tactics. She says that will stop them from throwing the bark.
I look forward to your next report.
Mitchell
Wonderful drawing Mitchell @MitchellMc 👍
It reminds me of the scene in World War Z where the zombies stack themselves against a wall so that others can scale them to reach the humans.
My understanding is they 'toss' the bark away to forage for food as Eric mentioned. Based on scale they're Olympic hammer throwers. I haven't watched them closely but I think they toss the bark piece over their body to the rear, as they peck away for food. I could well be wrong.
Mitchell, your daughter is very smart and most likely correct in that an extra 120-130mm in height will possibly make no difference - but I'll try and see what happens. I think the 3mm brackets may be too thin. The steel edging looks promising, but I'm thinking horizontally attached, facing the fence which would then require the hammer throwers to hurl not just a height record, but distance as well.
Another problematic section to build up, are sleepers lying on their sides which are angled slightly to the concrete drive.
Started cutting the sleepers to width.
I experimented with a home made saddle bracket - to see if it would work as a 'fulcrum' with the next sleeper - so I could pull the bow out.
Made a rebate.
Then fabricated the bracket out of 5mm thick steel plate. The top plate is level with the top of the wood.
A piece of M12 threaded rod is welded upright, centred and vertical as best I could.
Then drill a strategically placed hole through the sleeper. My first mistake was to think these old radiata pine sleepers would be soft, so I drilled a 10mm hole. Took quite a bit of hammering to get it onto the M12 rod.
Once in position and tightened down - incredibly strong and rigid with the two flat surfaces crushed together.
Afternoon @Noyade
hahahah to the battle of the orange beaks! And love the sketeched from everyone of the birds 
Id actiually choose to go a different route, How about laying some fine mesh down and cut out sections for your plants? Tho I do feel bad about taking the fun away from the orange beaks I was thinking of fine square mesh or a roll of it. Just had a look and saw this roll animal wire netting
Cant wait to see the outcome
Dave
Too far gone for mesh now @Dave-1
Welded steel plate to the join section.
200mm centre rod for the next sleeper that's bowed.
The afternoon plan (yesterday) was to insert the the bowed sleeper on the large rod with one end touching the middle plate - then pull back hard and at the same time try to loop the rod closest to the camera.
