The house project is on hold while some infrastructure is setup at my parent’s farm. To that end, I’m applying my skills to various projects over there. This is one of them, a mobile pen for rabbits, where they can graze without escaping or tearing up the lawn/pasture, and with a sheltered area for nesting.
There is no version control system for woodworking.
The overall design is triangular, so I started with the triangle frame pieces. We have a pile of these 2x2s about 36 inches long so I used that size as a baseline. It took a fair amount of trial and error to get the angles exactly how I wanted them, with flat edges and clean joints. The first image is the two small test pieces I made to test the top corner, which is on the right. The full size pieces match these angles, but are longer.
I cut enough pieces for four of these triangles, using a template piece to match the length and angles of all four, then attached the ends with 3 inch screws.
For the beams that connect the triangles, I decided to get fancy and match the angles. I created this template and attached it to the end of a 2x6, then ripped it down for the top and two bottom pieces of each section.
I attached these to the triangles with a nailgun, then attached the sections together with more nailgun nails.
I got most of the way through building the shelter box when two things happened. I started to run out of daylight, and I realized my harepen design would probably stand up to being moved one or two times before falling apart.
Don’t worry, the beta version is considerably more structurally sound.