Quick of it here.... have a deer blind, never done legs out of wood, so this is first for me Only about 3 to 4 foot legs, box 48x42 square.

I have 2x4 frame for floor, 3/4 floor on that, blind built on that.

Now I want 4 legs, and have 4x4 for that, but want them angled out 45 degrees from the inside corners.... to provide more stability.

I'm thinking 2 birdsmouth cuts like on rafters... but I'm not at all sure thats right... but it has to be recessed on 2 sides to get that leg pointing out both directions...

Any help? Much appreciated... have 4 windows to build, and insert glass into, and hang, and hooks on the inside of the door plus these legs to work on. And trying to get out of here late Friday to the lease....

Of course I'll have a 2x4 band around the legs to tie them together and am going to bolt each leg onto a 2x4 with a 3/8 carriage bolt....stability should be fine... Its how to cut the notches in the 4x4....

I would never claim to be a carpenter, but have installed crown molding with the help of a compound miter saw. Can't specifically address your question, but one thing I learned dealing with fit up to corners that are not square is to use scrap pieces and find the correct angle by trial and error. Set the saw based on that fit and then cut material to be installed. A bit time consuming, but when all else fails, may work for you also.

yep, if no answer going to my scrap 4x4 pile and draw the angles I have on the good piece and cut. Just ran out of light tonight and never got the cord and skilsaw out to play.

I surely can't help with the carpentry, but these work great to accomplish what you're trying to do.

www.e-ztower.com

Jeff,......I've got a spare "Curve-o-mark" contour marker....

Link: http://www.pipefitter.com/dolphincart/category.php?cat=Cat0028

If it'll help, lemme know, and I'll fire it off in your general direction.

It's what I use for that sorta' layout problems,.....and I reckon it'll work on wood as well as steel.

GTC

cool, but yow... 120 for 4? I have less than that in the complete blind....

I should have just welded my own brackets like that, can't be more than 40 bucks of metal in there even at todays prices....

Only problem, I'm out of time....

Preciate it... ain't got time... will have to do a test cut Thurs if I don't get better info by then...

Unless you just need more stability from the wind you can't get in a box blind with post at each corner and move the CG outside the box (which would make it unstable) - as long as you stay inside.

Yeah, a little spendy to buy, but much cheaper to build yourself. I have 4x4 legs on my stands also, but just straight legs, as the 4x4 is also the corners of the blind. 4 ft. legs, no stability issues, but they are staked down to t-posts. Have a good weekend!!

I've been in carpentry for too long...

Anyway, I wouldn't recommend a 45 degree angle for posts. If your stand is 10 feet high, a 45 degree angle would put your legs 10 feet from your inside corner. A 15 degree angle would be about right.

If I was building it I would put my posts plumb and run angled braces to stabilize it fwiw.

+1; Certainly no more than 30.

If it were 10' high and you did 45 degrees you would need a 4x4 a little over 14' long to make it and each post would obviously stick out 10' making the foot print of your stand at least 24'....

At 15 degrees 10' tall you would need a 4x4 10'-4 1/4" long and it would stick out only 2'8 instead of 10'.

Hard to type what I"m saying... I didn't want 3 foot posts straight down off each corner, I wanted them pointed out at a 45 degree angle from each corner IE the duplex angle... but the actual angle vertically off 90 so to speak I had at 15 degrees as a target angle.

What I have in my head, is simply a birds mouth on each side of 2 sides of the 4x4 and that would allow the leg to angle out just a bit. Amazing I just grabbed 15 out of the air after studying the desired outcome.

I actually want the footprint of the legs larger than the blind, more so due to big bulls in the pasture, rather than straight up.... though at least 2 legs will have a 5/8 rebar driven in next to them and tied on....

I don't need lots of height, long story, but I need to clear a feed pen fence as this is mostly a photography blind, but get the blind up just enough in case....

Wish I had a way to sorta draw what I'm after....

Typically, this is done with beer and napkins.

SO, looking down from above, the legs would come off the corners, as if you were extending a diagonal through the structure?

Yeah he wants it to look like a bell roof from the top. Even tho I lay this stuff out with a calculator and my head all day every day I still would just put them on vertically. The only thing you ever need a sloped support is you are trying to counter another force other than the weight just above you.

But if you want to go all out go for it. If you still want to post a pic draw it on a piece of paper and take a picture and post it.

Rost, I have built lots of blinds. I run the legs straight down and drive a T post next to each one. Then I wrap slick wire around the post and the stand leg. Looks like Hell but you can't knock them over with a pickup.

Alan

This was mine for a lot of years. 4'x8' and the floor was 16' off the ground. I did have four guy wires and four T posts not to mention the tank battery stairs to hold it up. I made it through a hurricane and a tropical depression. A tropical depression got it last year. It was time. Even treated wood has a limit. Glad I wasn't in it!

Alan

I think I'm seeing what your wanting to do.

If you cut a 15 degree angle on the bottom of your posts, you can then cut a 15 degree angle on the top of your post. You'll be going from the long point of the angle on the bottom to the short point of the angle on the top.

It sounds like you want to notch the post in the corners as well?? Once the angle is cut you can make your notch.

This isn't a compound angle, so I'm not positive it's what your looking for though...

Just buy some post hole diggers and set your legs straight 2' deep. More stable than any angle set on the ground.

I can picture in my head how to do it on a compound miter saw, but can't make a calculation without getting real intricate on paper or CAD.

With a compound miter saw, I'd just take the 4x4 I was going to use, have it cut to the length I want, support on the saw on the edge of the board (the point or corner so to speak) not the flat side. Then tilt the blade maybe 10 degrees and cut, then see what it looks like. If that doesn't give the desired final width, crank it up another 5 degrees and cut it off until the final leg width is what you wanted.

Easy to build, hard to type. (assuming thats for the leg on the bottom of the stand. sides or creative notches for other boards require more creativity.....)

the birdsmouth you seek is commonly made on rafters.a rafter square will show you how to do it,mostly,if you know how to read one.
If I lived closer,I could figure it out for you.

But a 45 is way too much of an angle,I think 10 degrees would be plenty.

look here to start and here I use these tools alot to figure angles in my work.

Thanks for the chuckle Alan... at first glance it hit me, hmmmm, outhouse on stilts.

From one termite to another , that was my first thought

Jeff, the 'inside corner' comment threw me.... If you want a 45 off the outside corner. cut your bottoms at the 15 degrees and the top at 85 degrees, with a 45 angle set on the bevel of yer saw(depth to meet in center of 4x4).........

Chuckling here.... it'll be hard enough to drive in a #5 rebar next to the legs. Drilling a hole would be impossible in the rock....

Got it all folks, I'll do a test cut this evening, may even back up to 10 degrees... if that fails what I want I'll just put em straight and see what happens.

A larger foot print would be much more stable, just like a windmill, but maybe thats not in the cards.

Just can't get it in my head if I make the birds mouth on 2 sides if I'll have what I am after or not.

Promise to take pics if its not a disaster....

Take pics if it is.

Some of us live to see disasters.

maybe this will help. start by cutting your legs to lenght with a 15 degree angle cut from point to point(not on the flat side of the 4x4) to determine the bottom of your leg.the short side of the angle is the inside corner point of your leg. the top of your leg can be cut the same or square, your choice. a skill saw can make alot of the cuts needed but cannot complete the cuts because of the saw over run needed to get to the bottom out of your cut.(curve of the blade) you will need a jig, sabre saw. starting at the inside point of the top of leg, make a 15 degree cut, down from the top, the depth of your floor base plate.(i think you said it was 2x6)you want this cut to be 1/2 of the 4x4 deep.(theoretically 2 inches) from the 2 inch depth mark, draw a cut line(on the two inside flat sides) from the cut to the top of the leg @ 15 degrees also. the top will have less than 1/2 of your 4x4 left after cut.heres where the jig saw comes in to complete these cuts. in my minds eye this would work. best of luck

Thanks, thats about what I had in my minds eye. That eye can be blurry at times... grins..

Point to point. I already had a 15 degree angle cut on one, but flat to flat so that was wrong, but I took a drop measurment, ended up 4.5 inches for a 2x4 clearnance IE angle made basically an inch of difference, actually 7/8... hard to understand I know... then cut birdsmouth on that same 15 degree angle and depth of other cut to finish birdsmouth though is only determined by height of 4x4 into framework and angle of cut, IE depth is appx a little over an inch which should be fine.

I'll note your notes.... and do a test cut on one tonight. Have a recip saw with wood blade handy... of course I have a good handsaw too that I use most of the time..

Thanks, Jeff

twrh111

You hit the nail on the head, it was what I had drawn up already, but it worked.

I'll try to get pics up... the first was a nightmare just hoping my thinking was right.. the next 3 were better, not easy, but better.

Well enough to do what I needed done.

Jeff