I am in need of a set of plans or ideas for building a garden lighthouse for our church Vacation Bible School program.  I have been asked to build the lighthouse and I can only find one free set of plans for one on the net.  I have some ideas but I am asking if there are other ideas or plans that might be available.  I have searched the site and I cannot find any plans listed here.  I am hoping to make this about 6'6" tall with a working light for the program, if the project comes out good and my wife doesn't want it in the yard I am thinking about auctioning it off at our church and giving the money to the VBS program for next year.  Any ideas or plans would be welcome.

Thank you,
Doug

Try u-build.com

Thanks Dewey, those are the plans that I found online. I was just wondering if anyone else had a different set of plans so I don't miss anything while designing and building this.

Doug

I built one made from landscape timbers. Started out cutting 6 pieces 16" long with 30 degree mitre on each end. Then another set at 15" and so on until it tappered to the top. Bought the rotating beacon from Meisel Hardware Specialties. For a picture go to my post under woodworking from 1/16/2012.

LMONSESS, thanks for pointing this out for me and yours looks great. i am trying to complete this one in more of a classic lighthouse style to match the Vacation Bible School materials that are supplied for this. I am also trying to complete this with only the resources that I have on hand so I am going to try to modify/build the light from a revolving light for a truck to save money.

I've come across several free plans on the Internet.  As I see it, you need to decide what type of lighthouse you want to build.  With round ones, you might be better off with sheet metal, otherwise plywood might be the better choice. 

Here is a link for a free plan:  http://pages.areaguides.com/ubuild/...thouse.htm

Other plans can be found at:  http://www.woodworkersworkshop.com/resources/index.php?cat=638

This url may help with dimensions and style:  http://www.ncsbarns.com/static/brochures/nautical%20lighthouses.pdf


The one thing I did not see in your initial posting was what style of lighthouse you are wanting to make.  You really do not need a set of plans.  What you may want to do is identify a lighthouse such as the Cape Hetteras Lighthouse, find its dimensions, scale the dimensions down to the height you want and then use them to build the lighthouse.  After all, the full size dimensions can be regarded as inches instead of feet to help the conversion.  Once you decide on a lighthouse then go to google to reasearch it and google images to get photos on it.

Here are some urls that will help you with this.

http://crm.cr.nps.gov/archive/20-8/20-8-6.pdf
http://www.nps.gov/maritime/lt_index.htm
http://www.nps.gov/maritime/ltaccess.html

You could do this on a smaller scale and wrap it with heavy paper or fabric and paint it. The framing will show, but that will add character.

Philr, thanks for the links. I really like the pdf with the color schemes, this will help alot with the finishing and painting. I do have the plans from ubuild already so I have decided to build this out of plywood or OSB, it will be an octagon style lighthouse and I found a great help with an online octagon layout calculator that I found here, http://www.pagetutor.com/octagon_la...index.html
Woodwizard, that is the program that our church is doing for VBS so that is why I am making a lighthouse. I want to do something that they can sell to raise money for the next years VBS so I am going to build this so it can be set up in a yard.
Thank you all for the ideas and links which have helped so far. I think that I might use a rotating light for the program and then change this out for a solar light when it is sold so that there is no need for the person to run wiring to have a yard light.

Meisel has light house plans check this out http://www.meiselwoodhobby.com/