[fowlpursuit]

So I've decided I'm goin to make a bunch of silos but having issues on the stake design.. My first thought was to make them out of 1/4 ply or hardboard and use 1/8" steel stakes pop rivited to them..
Then I considered 4mm colorplast as is so popular for making silos.. However that's where I begin with trouble with stakes.. 1/8 steel rod? Some say epoxy it and slide it in the flutes-what keeps it from pushing all the way through in tough ground.. Another source said to heat the stakes and melt them in "across" the flutes but my concern is the same.. Won't the stakes jus push through the top of the decoy?

 

[smoke]

Years ago I made over 100 of these and I bent 1/8" wire in a U shape and made them long enough that I could insert the stakes thru the top and back out the bottom. I epoxied them in and left about an inch gap at the top of the decoy. This gave me a nice handle to grab the stake when putting out or picking up. I used a lot of wire but they were extremely light and worked well for several years.

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

Wire from campaign signs / bridal show signs fits about perfectly. Epoxy has not held up for the concerns you listed. But dipping the stakes in epoxy and sliding them into the flutes seems to leave very little epoxy on the stake when they break loose - I think the flute it scraping it off. Trying Gorilla glue this time around, shot down the flute before inserting the stake, with small notches crimped into the stake to give it something to grip.

Granted when we broke the epoxy the ground was frozen to 2" and we didn't want to set all 10 dozen with a punch, so we were pushing them in hard than we should have. We ended up setting all 10 dozen with a punch after all.

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

Fixed the broken ones last night with Gorilla glue. The stakes appear to never be coming back out again, but pulling them with vise grips and a season of hard use are two different things.

I used a tooth pick to drip the gorilla glue into the flute, then sloshed the end of the stake in water before pushing it into the glue.

I have a supply of such signs you're welcome to use, but the wires are tweaked and you will need to straighten them. Price is right though live in Holland work in GR.

 

[fowlpursuit]

Thanks for all the responses.. I believe I've settled on making the stakes out of 3/4" oak and ripping them to a thickness of 3/16" and pop riviting them to the silo.. The wire just seem a little more troublesome. I am however still in debates about decoy material.
Hardboard is $6.99 but concerned about durability
1/4 ply is $10.99 but the weight will add up quick
Coroplast is $35 and I dunno if the wife would be very fond of that..lol

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

Look at harborsales.net

You can get 24"x24" or 24" x 36" pieces of cloroplast and it comes out to be about $1.50 a decoy with shipping, if you plan carefully.

Last time I bought over 50 pieces and got a discount and it was less than $1 a decoy.

 

[fowlpursuit]

Yea I haven't located a online place that can give me a quote. The local sign shop gets 35$ for a 4'x 8' sheet which if done properly will yield 25 dekes.. But there again I begin struggling with stakes.. I'm going for numbers and hope to have 125 made by next year and time is not exactly a friend of mine.

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

Remembered my harborsales login. 24x24" sheets are $2.19 each at quantities of 1 to 49 and drop to $1.65 each at 50. I ordered 60, and shipping was not that bad as they don't weigh anything. You can get two decoys out of each no problem.

Nice thing about 24" long decoys is that 40 of them stack nicely into a Cabela's silhouette bag.

You're local, if you want to see some of the ones I made let me know. Live in Holland work in GR.

 

[lonegoose]

Remembered my harborsales login. 24x24" sheets are $2.19 each at quantities of 1 to 49 and drop to $1.65 each at 50. I ordered 60, and shipping was not that bad as they don't weigh anything. You can get two decoys out of each no problem.


Nice thing about 24" long decoys is that 40 of them stack nicely into a Cabela's silhouette bag.



You're local, if you want to see some of the ones I made let me know. Live in Holland work in GR.

Looks like the best bang for the buck, gonna try to get some ordered soon, do u know if that site has sales or special offers throughout the year?


Sent from my iPhone using Ohub Campfire

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

I don't think they do. They're more of a supply warehouse like a Grainger or McMaster Carr, so I think if you're ordering it, it's because they have it, so you'll pay for it.

You have to set up an account to see the prices, but that's no big deal.

 

[Lamarsh]

I have never made them, but was seriously considering it last winter, and found some good plans that called for the stakes to be made out of that wire fence material that has the wire in sort of square shapes (the kind that they use on a lot of high fences). You take the fence material and cut it in sort of a tic tac toe board shape so you can tape or glue it to the silo and then use the bottom prongs (bottom two legs of the tic tac toe shape) to insert into the ground. You can use nippers to rip up the fence material accordingly. I guess it's a good way to make them sturdy since the center of the tic tac toe shape is secured onto the silo so it doesn't bend around as much as other designs.

 

[Far Beyond Driven]

One nice thing about the single round stake is that it will let the decoy rock in a 5-15 mph wind. A bad thing is that above that they begin to spin or shake voilently, and while movement is good, and bunch of decoys whirling in circles or rocking like attention starved Romanian orphanage babies doesn't look that real. We just push them down farther if the wind picks up to either have the bill or belly touch the ground for two (2) points of contact.

 

[fowlpursuit]

Remembered my harborsales login. 24x24" sheets are $2.19 each at quantities of 1 to 49 and drop to $1.65 each at 50. I ordered 60, and shipping was not that bad as they don't weigh anything. You can get two decoys out of each no problem.

Nice thing about 24" long decoys is that 40 of them stack nicely into a Cabela's silhouette bag.

You're local, if you want to see some of the ones I made let me know. Live in Holland work in GR.

Yes I am local I keep hoping to run into you at the farm although I haven't been there nearly as much as I'd have liked.. Anyway I've got e-mails to 6 different sign makers in and around town.. So far the cheapest I've found is 30$ for a 4'x8' 4mm black piece.. Which I guess isn't terrible provided my main intention is to make sleepers for late season.. I can get 25 per 4'x8' sheet.. I'm waiting on 5 quote responses yet so we'll see..