DIY Flag Pole!

This Whatever Wednesday I will be showing you how we made our own 18 foot flag pole for only $25! Yay Patriotism!

Denver (my husband) got an amazing deal on a 4’x6′ American flag and a 3’x5′ US Navy flag (he was in the Navy). The down side… The flags are huge and we didn’t have anything big enough to fly them at a reasonable height. Denver had an idea that frankly I was skeptical of. He said “lets go to Home Depot, I can build a flag pole myself”. We looked around and he picked out what he felt he needed to do the job. I had doubts but he assured me he would figure it out as he went. The total cost of the supplies was $25 so i figured why not give it a shot. We had some of the stuff already so obviously it will cost a little more if you don’t.

Here’s what we needed:

2 Ten foot hallow steal pipes (1 pipe needs to fit snugly within the other)
2 Blots (size based on the size of your pipes)
2 Nuts (sized to fit on the bolts you selected)
4 Snap hooks (2 per flag)
1 Pulley (size based on the size of the top pipe)
1 Eye hook or 1 Bracket
1 Four foot iron rod
Black spray paint
Grease pencil
A power drill
A socket wrench
A hammer
Rope or Paracord
Gloves
Safety glasses
A cork
A Ladder
Flags

Here’s what we did:

First check that the height will be what you were hoping for.
Next mark out where the smaller pipe will stop within the larger pipe and the holes you will need to drill.
Mark the smaller pipe when about a foot is in the larger pipe. Also mark where the hole inside will match the hole of the larger pipe.

Mark one hole approximately two inches from the top of the smaller pipe.

Mark the second hole approximately one inch from the top of the larger pipe.

While wearing safety glasses and gloves drill the holes. When drilling through steal always take safety very seriously. Also drill a hole for the eye hook if that’s the way you decide to go.

Attach the pulley at the top.
Next we decided to paint ours black to give it a more finished look.
We used a hook to paint the top with out mess and smudges.
For the top we inserted a cork to block out rain. We also taped off the pulley created nice look.
While the paint drys, hammer the iron rod into the ground where you want the flag pole. Be sure to hammer it deep enough to create more stability.
Place the larger pipe over the rod and hammer about 2 feet into the ground. Use a wooded block to prevent damage to the pipe.
Attached the rope to the pulley before attaching the top pipe. We forgot to put the rope on and had to take the entire thing apart. You gotta laugh when you forget the most important part ;P

Tie a knot so the rope is a complete circle. While raising and lowering the flags you don’t want to get to the end of the rope.
Insert the smaller pipe into the larger pipe and secure with the bolt and nuts.
Make sure it’s tight!
Be sure to keep the rope tight at all times. If it falls off the track of the pulley you will have to take the pole apart to fix it… We may or may not have learned this the hard way…
At this point we had to make a few touch ups where the paint got scratched while securing the bolts.
Attach your eye hook or bracket at whatever height is comfortable for you. We used a bracket
We then attached the snap hooks to the rope, separated by the distance of the holes on the flag.
Attach the flags! It got very exciting at this point!
Raise the flags!
Secure the rope so there is no slack and tie it off.
SUCCESS!!!!!
We are so proud of our flag pole! I say we (and yes I did help out) but mostly I took pictures while my husband did the majority of the work. The flags look great and it looks so wonderful in front of our house! I’m so glad we built our own. I had my doubts but as always I should trust my husband who has always been so great at this stuff. It would have cost us a fortune to buy a traditional flag pole, we saved and enjoyed ourselves!
What is the coolest thing you have built?