If you’re bored with the statuettes of nymphs and gnomes, cutesy signboards and bird feeders that have become familiar parts of the garden landscape, here’s a garden feature with a difference. And unlike a Venus de Milo replica, our wheelbarrow actually looks like it belongs in the shrubbery.

Usually, this particular type of garden feature is seen either as an old, possibly wrecked, metal wheelbarrow given a new lease of life, or as an arty replica made out of metal rod and sheet, sold by the local garden emporium. This one’s made of wood. I built the project out of pine, although for greater durability, saligna would be more suitable. The pine version was finished with two coats of woodsealer/preservative, so it should last a few years.

Tools
● Jigsaw fitted with 2,7 mm pitch tooth wood blade
● Electric drill
● Hand drill
● Electric screwdriver with a range of bits
● Assortment of wood clamps
● 19 mm spade bit
● Selection of twist drills
● Combination pilot hole and countersink bit for No. 4 size screws.
● Steel sliding bevel (adjustable using a protractor to 90 and 15 degrees)
● 2B or 4B marking pencil
● Wood rasp or Surform tool
● Electric vibrating sander
● Palm sander
● 80 and 120 grit sandpaper
● Safety glasses and dust mask

Materials
● A cutting list and layout is shown in the drawing (Figure 1)
● Wood glue
● Wood screws, brass finish, assortment: 4 x 30, 4 x 35, 4 x 40, 4 x 50, 4 x 60
● 6 mm steel studding, 6 mm nuts/ wingnuts and washers
● 2 x 19 mm metal pipe saddles
● Wood sealer/preservative
● Off cut of 19 mm dowelling Degree of difficulty: Intermediate – takes a couple of weekends to finish

Cost: About R500

Cutting list
Arms and legs:
From 2 pieces 32 mm x 45 x 1800 mm cut into: 2 x 45 x 1200; 2 x 45 x 400
Tray and base strips
From a piece 610 x 20 x 1500 mm laminated pine shelving cut: (Figure 1)

Shaping of parts
I started on the wheel assembly, but you can start shaping up any of the assemblies.

You’ll need to mark out the circle on the two pieces of 250 mm square pine. The easiest way to do this is to drill two 1 mm diameter holes accurately, 125 mm apart, on a scrap of card or thin hardboard, pin one end to the centre and use a pencil to mark the circle on the other. You’ll need to widen the small pilot hole to take the pencil tip. (Fig. 3). Note the centre point marking diagonal lines corner to corner.

Make sure you’re using safety glasses and a dust mask. Clamp the workpiece to the workbench. Use the jigsaw to cut carefully around the marked circle, keeping your fingers clear of the blade. Keep the blade cut on the outside of the marked circle. Release the clamp and turn the work piece to expose the next quadrant.

Now set the two circles aside. We’ll come back to the preparation of the wheel assembly later in the article.

Don’t put away the jigsaw, though: it will be needed to cut the profile of the arms at the handle and wheel mounting ends. At the handle end, drill an 8 mm hole just able to allow the width of the jigsaw blade to pass through. (Fig. 4) With the jigsaw switched off (fingers away from the start button), guide the blade through the hole.

Switch on the jigsaw and carefully guide the blade along the marked guide line. Stop the jigsaw at the end of the line and remove it. Re-clamp the wood so that the section can be cut out at both ends. (Fig. 5).

Now you’re ready to cut the ends of the handle section, using the jigsaw. (Fig. 6).

First, turn your attention to the wheel end of the arms, to cut the end profile.

To aid in the cutting, clamp a piece of straight scrap wood to the work piece and to the bench. Check the offset from the edge of the jigsaw guide plate to the cutting edge of the blade. On my jigsaw, it was 31 mm. You need to set this offset from the line marked on the work piece to the guide piece. (Fig. 7).

Keep the jigsaw guide plate square to and firmly in contact with the guide piece.

Keep your fingers away from the blade (Fig. 8), and don’t forget the eye protection and face mask while you’re cutting.

Shape the end, side tray panels and legs in the same way. When marking these out, a steel sliding bevel is helpful: you can set the blade to 15 degrees. Haven’t got one? Make up cardboard templates, using a simple school plastic protractor. The curves on the side and end tray pieces are shaped to simple objects used as templates: a piece of thin steel strip or plastic coathanger bent to a nice curve, or the ends of coffee or food tins. Use your imagination! Cut the curved profiles with the jigsaw.

Now the real hard work starts – just keep reminding yourself to be patient. All the surfaces you’ve shaped need to be sanded and rounded off. The tricky bits are the handle ends of the arms where you need to “rock” the sander around the edges and ends to create a smooth, rounded finish. A small palmsized sander comes in handy for the finishing touches. Also shape and smooth the curves on the side and end tray pieces. Nothing has to be perfect; aim for a pleasing look and smooth finish with lots of edge rounding. Be sure to sand a chamfer on all the wood pieces.

For a final hand smooth finish, change paper to a finer grit on the sander. Feel the pieces: each piece needs to have no sharp edges.

Stack the finished pieces to one side and refocus your attention on the wheel assembly.

Drill a 6 mm hole through the marked centre point of the two 250 mm wood pieces. Do the same at the marked centres of the 150 mm square pieces. You’ll need a 120 mm length of 6 mm steel studding, two large OD diameter steel washers and a 6 mm butterfly nut.

Start by coating with wood glue one surface of each of the two 250 mm pieces that don’t have the centreline pencil marking on them (you need to be able to see the markings). Join and squeeze them together by hand. Now coat one surface of each 150 mm piece. Thread one of the 150 mm pieces on to the 6 mm studding; now thread the two 250 mm pieces, and finally the other 150 mm piece. You can see the general arrangement in Fig. 9.

Assembly of the wheel components.
Lightly tighten up the 6 mm butterfly nut to clamp the assembly together. Turn the two 150 mm pieces to line up with the hole centring lines marked on the 250 mm pieces.

Firmly hand tighten the assembly together. Use a combination pilot hole and countersink drill to drill two holes in each 150 mm piece as shown. Note that the holes are diametrically opposite to each other on each piece. Use 4 x 35 wood screws to screw the assemblies together. A pair of wood clamps on the joined 250 mm pieces will ensure that the edges are firmly squeezed together. Remember to use a scrap piece of wood between the clamp jaws and the assembly to avoid marking the soft pine. Leave overnight for the glue to dry.

Now you can finish off the wheel assembly. I began by shaping the wheel using a Surform tool, keeping to a more or less round profile by regular eyeballing. You could use a wood rasp if you prefer. You don’t have to be too fussy about perfect equal diameter around the wheel; after all, the finished item is supposed to look a bit rustic. I then ran the power sander around the wheel diameter to smooth it off. Remember to keep the sander moving in doing this; you don’t want to sand flats on the surface. Chamfer off the wheel edges.

Use a small palm sander to sand smooth the flat surfaces of the assembly.

Finally, clamp the assembly firmly to the workbench and use a 19 mm spade bit to open up the 6 mm hole to 19 mm. Do this in stages: using a firm pressure on the drill, pause, release the pressure, stop, remove the bit to clear wood shavings, repeat drilling. All the parts are now ready for assembly.

You can now start with the assembly of the tray (Fig. 10 and 11). This gets kind of tricky because you’re joining pieces cut to an angle.

Use a pilot hole and countersink drill to drill 3 holes inset 10 mm from the edge on each “C” side tray piece. Apply a thin stripe of glue to one edge to be joined.

I then clamped, as you can see in Fig. 12, a piece of scrap hardboard to one side of the tray to act as a guide to butting the “C” piece to the “B” end piece.

You could really use three hands at this stage. I got the “management” to hold the side piece in position, aligned with the bottom edge of the end piece, while I started and half screwed in a 4 x 35 mm wood screw.

This took a few goes to get the process right. It didn’t help when I turned to my assistant and asked: “Did you just move it?”

I got an icy stare in response.

Now lightly screw in two other 4 x 35 mm screws, recheck the alignment and tighten up. Don’t overtighten; screw heads are just flush with the surface. (Fig. 13 and 14)

The base slats can now be attached to the tray carcass. Careful positioning of each piece is required, with a small gap between each.

I started by aligning a slat on one side. Fixing it in position starts with pre-drilling a guide hole with the No. 4 combination pilot and countersink drill. The piece can then be screwed into place with a couple of 4 x 30 mm screws.

Use a scrap piece of (for example) 2,5 mm hardboard to get the spacing to the next slat. It’s best to do a dry run to see if the spacing and slats end up fitting across the base satisfactorily. If it looks okay, fit the slats to the carcass. If it doesn’t look okay, try a different thickness of spacer.

Screw all the slats into position. (Fig. 15).

The final stage is the assembly of the arms and legs to the tray carcass. Begin by attaching the legs. (Fig. 16.)

Pilot drill and countersink two holes to take a No. 4 woodscrew.

Align the leg square to the tray carcass so that the angled portion lays flat on the end tray piece.

You may apply a thin layer of wood glue before attaching the leg. Tighten the screws flush with the wood surface. Position the second leg identical to the first. However, nothing is ultra-critical in fitting the legs.

To fit the arms to the tray carcass, the distances as shown in Figure 17 should be lightly pencil marked on the arms. This allows easier alignment of the arms on to the tray.

At the handle end, arm position is simple; just butt the arm against the fitted leg. If it helps, you can use a lightly tightened plastic tie-wrap to hold the arm against the leg.

Pilot-drill and countersink a hole at the handle end to take a No. 4 screw. Lightly secure two 4 x 60 screws to hold the arms in position.

At the wheel end, gapping of the arms depends on the wheel overall thickness. Nothing is critical, but leave a gap of 2-3 mm between the wheel and arms.

Ensure that there is an equal distance from the edge of each arm to the edge of the tray, and lightly mark the position with a pencil. Hold an arm in position, then pilot-drill and countersink for a No. 4 screw. Secure the wheel end of the arm with a 4 x 60 screw. Repeat the process with the other arm. Firmly tighten all fixing screws.

The wheel is secured by a couple of 19 mm steel pipe clamps around a short piece of 19 mm dowel centred through the wheel. Position of the wheel relative to the arms is not critical; you can simply eyeball it. (Fig. 18)

Hooray! The wheelbarrow is now assembled.

To finish off, give everything a couple of coats of wood preservative. I used Nova 15 Timberseal, but similar products would suit. Allow time for each coat to really dry before applying the next.

One way of using your feature is to fill the tray with potting soil. Alternatively, you could do what I did: fill it with 150 mm plastic pots sitting on a perforated plastic sheet.