Tuesday, November 17, 2015

Gates Weekend Project...


Living up to the saying an English man's home is his castle saying and also that we like to define our land, I have been wanting to put a gate on the drive way for a while.  On a serious note it lets me close up the back of the house so when i am not there no body can just pull in the back of the house.  Its pretty hidden away at the back so I'm always concerned about break in etc.  Its also a lovely feeling when your home at night to close the gates and nobody is going to stop by.  Above is the finished gates


The plan.  My inspiration is a typical english 5 bar gate which are all over the family farm.  But of course to buy one in this country i would need to sell the house to afford it. So necessity is the mother of all invention.  How hard can it be. So i set too with my trust power tools and this very technical drawing (ha)


This is sort of what I'm going for...sort of ....




What is great about the drive way is that i can just use the 10ft lengths of 2x4 planks so the cutting was minimal, not that its particularly hard to cut 2x4 shorter.  Especially since i splashed out the 7 dollars and bought a new cutting disk for the circular saw- life changing, no more fighting to cut through the thinest piece of wood.  Here i am setting the gate post in.  Digging is normally the hardest bit but there was a couple of giant stones here and once they were out I was able to easily sink the gate post in.  Then it got cemented in the same way the fence went up.  Very simple just adding the dry mix cement in and adding the water and letting it set up. Main thing it to keep it level and give it time to set. 


Theres the giant stone..


Here we go,  a work in progress.  Its projects like this when you really need another person. Lifting these gates up a 100 times on to the hook and lining up the eye (that the metal bit in the photo below that goes over the hook) wears thin after a while.  But i have to say i was pretty pleased with the way it was shaping up.  The gate on the right is hung.  There pretty high off the ground, my thinking is that if we have the many feet of snow that we had in February this year then there is a fighting chance the gate will still open and close.



Placing the cross pieces.  The easiest way to assemble this is to get all the horizontal and vertical pieces in place and the lay over the cross plank.  That way you can just mark the angle and not have to worry about measuring to much.
Also I'm going to wax lyrical about my power tools for a moment.  I didn't buy them new, like most things I turned to eBay and got a set of Bosch for a great price.  This way I got to buy a better make of tool that I wouldn't be able to afford, just simply because they aren't the newest models.  Also I'm not a full time contractor so its not so important that they are in tip top shape.  I did however buy a new batter pack as is one of the first things to go in a rechargeable set up. Also please note that Bosch tools are the least offensive color of power tools.  They are not day-glo which i thoroughly appreciate 


There she is.  Trusty Miranda (the truck) full up as usual.  Half the battle with these projects is getting all the materials you need.




Branching out into video


Getting real hi tech with my angles.  You think I could find a ruler.  Once the cross pieces are placed its easy to mark with a ruler (or a scrap of wood) and the rip through with the circular saw


The proper gates use a set in construction and if I had more time I would love to do this form of wood construction, true carpentary.  But alas i didn't have the time so its just as simple laying the wood on top of the uprights and screwing in well.


The cross piece can be laid out and cut to size one all the  vertical and horizontal planks are in place.  The cross piece is what gives integrity and strength to the gate, and also gives it great character.












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