CatDrill Dishwashing Rack

I recently discovered a new pioneering technique used by Scouts in Italy.  It is called CatDrill and it uses holes drilled in small poles secured with cordage.  It is an ingenious technique that uses an overhand knot to lock each end.  It uses a lot less rope or cord than the pioneering techniques we are used to in the US.  Check out the CatDrill website.  ScoutmasterCG did an article on CatDrill 5 years ago, so I am late to the party.

Here is an example of a CatDrill joint (image borrowed from CatDrill website).

I decided to reinvent the Scout stave dishwashing rack that I learned to make from from the Scout Pioneering website.  This time, I'm going to make it using the CatDrill technique rather than traditional lashings.  Our Troop has built the dishwashing rack on numerous outings.  One problem they have is getting all the staves oriented just right so that the basins are held securely.  By pre-drilling holes where the staves intersect, we will eliminate this problem.  

Materials:

8 66" Scout staves

2 33" half staves

2 stakes

14 2' pieces of paracord

1 20' paracord

3 18 qt Sterilite basins

It was a painstaking process of trial and error to get all the holes in the right places.  I will give you the hole locations I used, but this is only going to work if you use the same length staves and the same type of basin.  Otherwise, you will have to figure out your own hole locations.  

Here is the label from the basins that I used:

The 4 horizontal staves had holes drilled 6" from each end.  The 4 vertical staves had holes drilled at 6",  32" and 38" from the top.  The 6" and 38" holes are in the same orientation.  The 32" hole is perpendicular to the others.  The 2 half staves have 2 holes that are 8" from each end in the same orientation, and 2 holes that are 13.5" from each end that are perpendicular to the 8" holes.  This arrangement puts the tops of the basins 35" off the ground.  Standard kitchen counter height is 36".

All of the holes are 1/4" in diameter.  When drilling holes that are perpendicular to each other, I placed a drill bit in the other hole.  By keeping this bit parallel to the work surface, the next hole will be perpendicular.  See image below:

I used a countersink bit to put what the Italian Scouts call a "partridge eye" on each hole.  This makes it easier to thread the paracord into the hole.  

Each place where staves cross is held together with 2' of paracord (much less than a traditional lashing). All of the connections use the CatDrill square joint, except for the tops of the A-frames, where I used the CatDrill tripod parallel joint, except we are making a bipod instead of tripod.

This dishwashing rack is much quicker and easier to assemble now, thanks to our Italian Scout friends and their ingenious new technique.  An added bonus is that you can use the holes to bundle the staves for storage.  I even put holes 1" down from the top of each stake so they could be bundled as well.