A-Frame--Need Help with Angles

[BeardedChick]

Actually, the way I built mine was super easy.

Mostly recycled materials, too.

We got a lot of use out of it for the turkeys last year, and will use it a lot for the ducks this year. It's a 8' x 4' footprint.

 

[kycklingar!]

I'd buy two 10-foot pieces of lumber (2x3 or 2x4) for the sides and an 8-foot piece for the footprint.
Do not cut the bottom board. But angle the side boards 23 degrees at the top and 67 degrees at the bottom. That will give you a 9'3 coop, 8 feet wide. Is that tall enough?
(remember, don't just attach the tops of the ribs to eachother - put a "spine" between them for stability!)
Hope this helps!

 

[CoyoteMagic]

Quote:
LOVE IT!!! My big coop is all recycled except for the screws that hold it together.

I'm considering different size wood for this progect and 8ft tall was just a number thrown out there. The reason I am building an A-Frame tractor tall at that, is so there is a large footprint and less likely to be knocked over in the winds we get. Summer storm season is approaching! It will have a 1ft skirt sticking out all the way around it and tacked down to keep critters out and also help with not blowing over.

I have seen tractor made square and rectangle however with the big dogs around here I didn't think it was a good idea to have something that they could jump up on top of and lay down on, and possibly falling through and into the tractor. I figured with the A-fram the chickens had at least half a chance against them!

Thank you for all your help! Those of you with less friendly approaches to this topic can .................

 

[acheeknmanbestfren]

You actually don't even need to know the angle. Lay out the triangle size you want on the ground. Put the 2 vertical pieces in place, stack the upper end on each other so they overlap and use a pencil to draw a line on the both pieces. Make your cuts and they will fit together automatically. You can use these pieces as templates for the additional framing members you'll be using.

Do the same thing with the bottoms on each side of the triangle.

In construction, the less math you use the less likely you are to make a mistake

If you ever have a chance to watch a master finish carpenter you'll be surprised how few times he/she even gets out the tape measure.