Lake Freighter Planter

For years my mom has talked about seeing a planter made in the shape of a lake freighter. She vacations each year on the St Mary's river in the UP of Michigan. They watch the boats go by for a few weeks a year and one year she saw a planter in the shape of a generic lake freighter. She said she always wanted one so this year I had to figure out how to take a 1000 foot freighter, and make it into a 4' to 5' planter. To be honest, I am better at making things bigger than smaller, if you have seen my other instructables, but I wanted to try and take on this challenge.

I found that she like a particular boat, but then I also found out that my sisters had their favorite boats too. So I set out to make 3 unique planters, in the shape and designs of their favorite boats. Here was my attempt at replicating the 1000 foot Freighters into something to hold herbs and flowers.

****Tools:

Table saw

Miter Saw

Band Saw

Hand Drill

Random Orbital Sander

Sand paper / blocks

Paint brushes

regular and miniature

Mini paint roller

Putty knife

Razor blades

Kreg pocket hole jig

*****Safety Items:

Safety Glasses

Half Face Respirator

Nitrile Gloves

Closed Toe Shoes

*****Build Supplies:

LP Smartside trim boards

Plastic gutter / end caps

Aluminum tubing

Pocket hole screws

T25 deck screws

Gutter seam sealer

OSI Quad caulk - white

Sherwin Williams paint / primer

Wood filler

titebond 3 wood glue (waterproof)

Rubber feet/ stainless screws

All lake freighters are the same or similar enough to make them the same..... nope, that thought was way wrong.

I found that not only are they not the same length, shape, and color, but they have extremely unique details, bow shapes, and rear tapers. I searched to find reference pictures, watched Youtube videos of them passing by and took screen shots, anything I could find to help identify the unique shapes and cut ins that the ships needed to be the replica I was working to build.

I also had to figure out how to make them last and not just rot away. I saw a quickly thrown together planter made of plywood and it just crumbled in the weather. So why not use LP Smartside that is supposed to be waterproof.

***What happens when it rains too much or if my mom over waters the plants? I need a drain.

***How do I keep water from being in constant contact with the wood? Maybe a plastic liner

***How do I protect it from the sun? High quality exterior paint

***What about moisture trapped underneath whatever it is set on? Maybe small rubber feet.

I cut down the LP Smart side trim into 54 inch lengths. I cut the gutters into 3 foot lengths. Then I pre cut a bunch of rectangle pieces for the front and backs. I traced shapes onto a few pieces to get the shape of back and bow of the ships and cut one out. This became the pattern for the other pieces as they stack up to make the correct height.

I had to use a band saw for this. I also had to trace the shape onto the 54" pieces I had cut as base plates as they also needed to be shaped. These were definitely the toughest to cut as I only have a small 10" band saw.

Once cut, each piece was marked with the boat it was going to become so I didn't mix them up.

I then had to add a channel to the bottom layer for a drain tube which would be put in after paint. I got some square aluminum tubing and cut a groove wide enough to accommodate with my table saw.

I assembled everything with Titebond 3 glue (which is waterproof) and deck screws. I did use some pocket screws as well which were outdoor rated. Each layer for the front and back of the boats was glued, then screwed together before adding the next. There are a lot of buried screws which is definitely overkill but I know it will hold. And if by some chance water gets between a layer and freezes, it shouldn't pop the whole glue layer and still maintain some stability.

Once the boats were assembled, I had to sand them to shape all the pieces together to look like one. I did add wood filler to help with smoothing the lines as well.

These things are going to be outside, in the sun, rain, and general weather. They are also going to have plants in them so they will be watered regularly too. To help protect them further, I primed them, then painted 4 layers of a high quality exterior acrylic on them. Why 4 layers do you ask? Well because the lighting in Sherwin Williams lies, or maybe I am really bad at picking out paint colors that match photos on a phone. The paint was way too red and way too purple compared to the real colors. So I mixed the two and made two new colors and get them closer to the original. So 2 more layers on top after the original 2, thus creating a 4 layer barrier I had always planned for, yeah, that's it.

Once the paint was fully cured, I added the plastic gutter and cut in a hole at the base for the drain line. The drain and gutters were caulked into place with the OSI quad as this is one of the best exterior caulks available. But you can't tool it so you can see in the following pictures where I didn't hold a perfect bead on the side of the gutter as I was sealing it. Oh well, plants will hide that. Hopefully no water ever gets under the gutter or drain, but if it does, it still has 4 layers of paint to stop it from getting to the fairly waterproof wood underneath.

This part was the worst. Trying to match the details of the freighters was no easy task. They are not remotely the same as each other. I had to sort out layers of wood to get the design as close as I could. Lots of cuts with saws, lots of sanding, and a few choice words when I said you know what, it's close enough. Once I was happy with the overall designs, it was moving on to wood filler, and lots of sanding. Then a quick coat of oil based primer and we were ready to paint. Well..... once the micro brushes shipped from amazon. I found out quickly I had nothing small enough or accurate enough to paint tiny window details.

Hand painting these was painstakingly difficult. I am ok with how they came out but not happy. I am not good at painting crisp lines with tiny brushes. You know honestly, I am not good at painting crisp lines with any brush. But I tried to capture as many of the details as I could. Port holes, windows, doors, decks, stripes, smoke stack designs, lettering on the sides of the freighters, even the #1 on the boat that was the first 1000 footer on the Great Lakes. I have a new found respect for people who create miniatures and enjoy hand painting all the fine details. This is not a hobby I would want.

Once all were hand painted and completed, little rubber feet like you use on a cutting board were added to the bottom so the base could breathe and not trap moisture on whatever ledge it was set on.

When I was finished I had to get them to my sisters and mom. I was going to deliver all 3 at Christmas, but it is hard to hide what they are. How do you carry a planter that weighs like 25 pounds and wrap it in something that looks like a regular present. Well I didn't figure that one out, so I wrapped them in some foam and wrote Not a boat on them. I mean they are planters so it should work theoretically. In reality, they seemed to have sorted out that the "not a boat" message was a half truth. They were really excited though about opening them and the anticipation was fun.

Overall I think they were a great success and two of the three have now been planted. One is inside on a windowsill as they didn't want to chance the weather. One made it onto a porch with some beautiful flowers, and the other isn't sure they want to plant it and it may live inside on a shelf with fake plants.

Anyway, I searched high and low for a boat planter or freighter planter and couldn't find anything out there. So hopefully this will help the next guy or gal who is looking to create something unique for their home because they to love lake freighters.