Artificial Black Mangrove Project

       The project is coming on well with the simplicity of construction and easy to find materials.  The design has changed slightly from what I had originally planned.  The original plan was to take 7/8 dowels and shape them into curvy lines to mimic a root system, then attach them to plywood 7/8 thick sheet.  The trouble with that, the dowels proved to be too thick to curve and i could not really provide the right equipment/method to do so. I instead used the wooden dowels as a barrier to hold sand on the plywood to help weight it down when it is placed in the water.I later came up with a different design method to mimic the root system.

          The artificial black mangrove system itself is very basic in material and in construction.  The materials consist of 7/8''x8'x4' sheet of plywood cut to a 4'x4' square.  Bamboo that has been cut to various lengths and varies widely in diameter. Pine wooden dowels 7/8 diameter and 4' length.

Step 1.  Measure out my 4'x4' square.
Tools: Dry Wall T-square, Sharpie
Materials: 7/8''x8'x4' plywood

The back line is were I need to cut.

Step 2. Cut the sheet to proper size.  Following the black line with circular saw

Tools: Circular saw

I have never used a circular saw
Harder task that I thought.

Step 3. Attaching wooden dowels to the edges of the plywood sheet and drawing out root system. And cut bamboo and trim of the excess leaves.

Tools. Drill, and drill bits.  Knife and a pair of cutters.
Materials: Wooden dowels and 1 1/2" wood screws. Sharpie.

Trimming off the leaves.

I had to cut a little excess off the ends on the left
Then i drew out random curvy lines like the root system of
the black mangroves.  Those lines are were my pnuemataphores
are going.

Step 4.  To attach the bamboo to the ply wood.  

Tools: Knife, Drill Drill bits, A pair of cutters

Finding a drill bit close
to the same diameter as
the bamboo

Shaving off a bit of the bamboo to make it give
a snug tight fit in the drilled hole

A few problems have risen on this project and has set me back a few days.  Originally my plan was to set it out in the field on the 1 of November.  That has no been set back to the 7th.  I have come to find out, the bamboo likes to dry and shrink.  This made the bamboo smaller than the hole.  Not every pieced dried up and got smaller but the board did need some replacing on some of the peices.