Tomato Hut ~ Wild Chipmunk & Bunny Protection

[MetalDesigner]

Between Desert Cottontail Rabbits, chipmunks, various birds, and what-have-you… the Tomatoes were disappearing last year just as they started to ripen.

Tomato Hut ~ Wild Chipmunk & Bunny Protection | CTM Projects

Decide to make a 'Tomato-Hot' to keep out the critters and used SolidWorks CAD software to make some concept renderings.



Cut & welded all the parts together in the Workshop and then bolted it together.



To make it easier to remove the screens and pick tomatoes, I used a Dremel tool to grind out an area in the plastic to put very strong (but small) Neodymium Magnets inside the corner connectors.

There was no need to glue the magnets, because once the corner connectors were pushed inside the Aluminum framing material, they were secure.



Used a piece of flat-bar steel with a center hole drilled in it, and a 1/4″ bolt, plus two ceramic magnets to create the side screen frame latches.



The Upper Side Latches are similar to Side Latches with a piece of angle added.
( Still need to powder-coat the Upper Angle Latch pieces )



The hut has worked as intended ~ Handled a few heavy wind storms ~ No break-ins from the unruly Chipmunk & Bunny mobs ~ Harvested about 30 tomatoes so far this year.