Snrub,
I love the Osage posts! How did you set those into the pond bottom? How did you attach the wood strings to the steel beams?
I had cross pieces of sheet steel sheared at a local welding shop then grandsons and I welded them into a formation that would resemble an "I" beam without the upper flange. Then I welded tabs with holes drilled. The stringers sit on top of the lower flange then screws are screwed into the wood through the tabs. So essentially the stringers are setting vertically on steel cross pieces with the cross pieces being 8' wide between the 8" x 40' "I" beams.
We welded up all the metal including the 2" pipe hand rails in two 40' sections in our shop. Then all the metal was painted, top and bottom. All the wood was added after the metal structure was set on top of the posts in the pond.
The outer two post were set in 4' deep in the pond bottom in dry dirt. 24" tractor post hole digger then filled with concrete. Then went south for the winter for three months. When got back all the rest of the posts were set in standing water. Drilled the holes, set the posts, and poured concrete in standing water.
Used laser level to mark posts and cut off with chain saw and shape top. Set 10" channel iron weldment on top of each pair of posts and attached with lag screws to posts (would use SPAX if I had known about them then - twisted a few half inch lag bolts off in the hedge posts).
Put a dab of grease on the top of each channel and set one 40' section on the posts with our telehandler. Slowly pushed it out on the sets of posts as far as the telehandler would reach. Set the second 40' section and bolted to the first. Pushed all 80' out all the way into position. Welded the bolt down tabs in place. I made it so the whole thing could be taken back off the posts easily if I want. Don't know why, but I did.
Once the main dock was in place put all the woodwork together. Then floated the floating portion in place and installed the ramp. Made a metal subframe for the floating part of the dock so everything is metal from the bank all the way out to the end of the floating dock. Hinges were made from scrapped double fold corn planter markers with grease zerks on the 3/4"x6" pins.
Way overbuilt but it is the only way I know how to do it. You could drive a pickup truck out there, at least up to the floating part.
A smart person would have put all the posts into a dry pond bottom but I had a plane to catch the next day and a scuba tank with my name on it. So I did it the hard way when when got back with the pond was fairly full. Wasn't sure how we were going to get all that steel 80' out over the water, but we figured it out and got it done. Would have been a piece of cake had we done it before the pond filled. But didn't decide to build the dock till the pond was mostly done.
Reddy, fire, aim. A comprehensive plan in the beginning would have been nice.
