The TurtleDog stand

[Randy]

The diagrams in this thread helped me a ton yesterday at Home Depot. I was able to measure my 2x2s and cut them right in the store. I took the top rail to the plumbing isle and had them cut it with the pipe cutters (nice clean cut).
This morning I stained it and painted the rail. The only thing I did different is I used chain to go from the hinge to the rail.
Last night was my first night in it and all went well..... as they say " cool beans"

I've had several people pm me about cutting these angles on the tripods so I thought since I was building another couple I'd show how I do it.

I am finding I like the length of the legs to be 75" for the longer legs, and 72-1/4" for the shorter one.

You could make a pattern, but I just eyeball this kind of stuff. I did calculate the spread I thought I wanted originally, but now I just use these rough measurements.

For a 2x2 that's actually 1-1/2"x1-1/2", (typical size,) I go in 1/4" from the edge and down 4-1/2" for the pair of forward legs of the tripod, and in 1/4" and down 2-1/2" for the third leg.



So with the two legs lined up, I just lay the hinge on and align everything so I can see I am on center and the holes are centered on the legs. This works out best as I've ended up with different hinges each time...





Then once I have the two legs together I line up the third leg and mark it.





Once it's all bolted together it's a very sturdy system.







It definitely takes longer to cut the angles but I don't need any lines to limit the spread. Works for me!