Thought I would take a second to show this off. It took a while to get right. At first we only had the outside square and it was not staying a float as well as we wanted as you can see in the pic. We put a 80 pound bag of cement on it to test. It was floating but not to my liking.



Then we modified it up and now it's working great! We used 4inch PVC 5foot long for this plus the elbows for those who may want to know. I believe now I could put 100 pounds of food in it and be fine. It looks off center in the pic but it's not as you can't go by the legs you have to go by the spout on the bottom to find center. If I have to I will just put 1 and a half bags in instead of 2 bags but I think it will take em both now no problem.



RC

RC,
The original design had 2x4 spanning the middle. When you went to the 2nd design it appears the 2x4 are still in the middle but did you add 4" pvc pipes around them? Are they full pipes or sawed in half lengthwise? If they are full pipes, how do they attach to outside frame? I see you added an inline 'T' but it seems I see the wood showing too, did you saw out the top part of the 'T' so the wood would stick out and you could screw the wood into the PVC that way? Are the legs poking through holes in the PVC now?

Thanks and wow that looks great! What is the silt plume from in the 2nd picture?

Hey Canyon,

The 2x4s are still there we went with treated ones. And yes that's cut in half 4 inch pvc pipe over them. We put down a gob of silicon caulk in 3 spots and screwed the 2x4's down to each length of pvc that we added to the 2 T's. Then we put on the half pvc to cover 2x4s so food would not sit on 2x4's when it goes off. We then screwed them on from the side into the 2x4's. Then I put the feeder on top of the half cut pvc pipes and we made circles where the legs needed to go. Then we took a paddle bit and drilled holes into the pvc pipe to fit the legs in. The PVC pipe is somewhat humped in the middle so the legs slid into the holes about an inch or so. We will then caulk around them holes real good to seal it. The plume in the water was from me walking out there and pushing it into the water! Finally I will put an anchor on the bottom of one of the 2x4's with an eye bolt and about an extra foot of line where I want it. This way I can move it where ever I want to and bring it in for maintenance if needed. Much easier!! I am happy the way it turned out!! Cant wait to use it! I figured I would post this as it always "seems" to be a mystery or a bit of a guessing game as to how much pvc can hold and at what size.... So here is a good starting point for anyone else if they want to do this.

RC

OK, so UNDER the 2x4s you still have a full round section of 4" PVC that is fit in the 'T's to give you added lift. That added 2 additional 5' sections of 4" PVC gave you more lift/buoyancy? Then you put the 2x4 on top of the full section of pvc fastened with silicon and screws, then added the half pvc on the 2x4 for a cover. That makes sense. Great thinking to cover the board too to keep it out of the sun.

Love it!

What brand of feeder is that you have RC? Have you had it filled up yet and if so is it top heavy? I sometimes get a lot of wind, just wondered how that would fare in a good gale!!??

You got it that's exactly what we did!! And thanks,

RC

Hey Joe it's a Remington/or Wild Game innovations feeder they will both work they are both 30 gallons the feet come in 4 sections I am just using one section here so I can get along side of it in a boat and fill it up rather easy.

Top heavy I don't really think so with the added T's we put in it's not going anywhere as far as flipping over. As you could see in the first pic we had 80 pounds on top of it, it was a little sketchy then but still ok side to side it just couldn't really hold the weight very well. Now that I put the 2 T's in it, it's nice and not very tippy at all. I would NOT go any shorter though then 5 foot sections plus the corners which makes it a little wider still. I don't get a ton of wind on my pond like some but I think it could handle it. If anything it may dip on you on one end for a second if the wind was hard enough but no way will it flip it! It would have to be some dang hard wind I think! Plus if you always wanted to you could cut some off the legs and make them a bit shorter that would be up to you of course.

RC

Then once it's done I only have 1 small rope in the water to get hung up on v.s. 3 legs like I do now. Then I plan to take some small half inch pvc pipe and slide it down over 80 percent of the rope so if we did hit it chances of getting snagged on it are much less of an issue. And if you were to snag a big part of the pipe it should come right off as most hooks will not hang up on pvc...

RC

Turned out nice RC. Is that the one you were considering making out of 6 inch PVC?

Hey Bill yes, I was gonna do 6 inch but hard to find and quite expensive! 4 inch is easier to find on the shelf... so I thought I would give it a try. Well it works just have to make sure you got enough piping is all...lol all in all I think I have about... 85 to 90 bucks in this setup that includes glue and all.


RC

Great job, RC!

I really like the idea of slipping the anchor rope through some small dia. PVC!

A fish can still wrap around it, but we all know once a hook gets caught in just about any kind of rope, you're SOL!

Beautiful setting you have there, BTW!

Keith

Thanks LL I appreciate it! I love being up there and am getting to the point where I don't want to leave and go back to work!!

RC

I like the concept RC! I used plastic draped around the legs to make all feed drop into the "ring" below instead of wasting it on shore on windy days.

One suggestion, do not fill it to capacity with fish food!!! The high humidity and open nature of deer corn feeders let the food get moist and mold. Some molds produce some nasty, lethal toxins!

Feeders like Texas Hunter use dead air cavities to help reduce moisture penetration/molding.

Thanks RM Yeah I don't normally put but just a little over one bag or so in it as your right it's so humid here in Arkansas!!

Thanks again,
RC