# T&G Gate - WIP



## OPJ (3 Sep 2011)

Recently, I asked for some advice on making a ledge-and-brace gate with tongue-and-groove boards that would need to fit in to a tapered opening, where the distance between the walls increased by 20mm from ground level up to the 2m mark, which is approximately where the top of this gate would finish. JasonB provided some excellent advice, there - see this thread, in case you missed it.

So, it's out with the old, which my mother has never liked for the lack of privacy and draught-proofing:







And, in with the new...

I originally bought (most of) the timber for this job back in October or November last year!  So, it's been hanging around for some time, relocating to a new "storage space" every other weekend...






We're only required to work half a day on Fridays so, with the afternoon to spare yesterday, I got going on setting out a plumb opening, which would give me the measurements needed to calculate the width of this gate.






Following Jason's advice, I ploughed a wide groove in to the back face of each wall plate or hanging post (94mm x 44mm). I stopped them short at the top but, when I came to scribe and fit these, I realised it was actually the top from where I would need to remove the most material. :roll: So, I continued the grooves right through to the end, at a depth of just slightly more than the necessary allowance for a good scribe (one wall needed 13mm taking off!!).






I've only treated the first 6in or so of the bottom end of each, as I believe (whether wrong or right) that pressure treated timber is only really "essential" in areas of ground contact or high exposure to moisture and damp. If we can put a little more thought in to the design of our exterior woodwork - and, perhaps most importantly, look after and maintain the timber, as the years go by - then, I see no reason why "untreated" softwood cannot last on a project like this. Only time will tell, I guess! ;-)






That's why I bevelled the ends on top of each post...






...And also, planed a bevel along the full length of each of the rail's top edges.






All of the timber was given a single coat of Sadolin Woodshield (available from Homebase), which doesn't appear to have had may bad words said against it. It's important to get all the tongues coated, as the boards are likely to shrink later on and this would otherwise expose dark lines or voids in your "finished" paint job. Also, I wanted to get a coat on to all of the unseen surfaces for protection (back face of each rail and brace, etc.).






Removing the old gate wasn't easy, as these bolts (possibly roofing bolts?) had very large threads and, without a screwdriver bit of the right size to fit in my cordless drill, they were very difficult to remove. Not only that but, they'd all pretty much seized up in their sleeves and weren't prepared to budge. I gave each a good soaking with penetrating oil and, later on, my little impact driver did the rest. There was only one resilient so-and-so left and, after drilling the head off with a 6mm cobalt bit, I had to remove the remaining stud with a cold chisel! :twisted:






After scribing my lines down both edges of the wall plates (I used an 8mm drill bit on one wall), I found my power planer was the most effective way of quickly working down to my lines. I eventually fixed them in place with hammer fixings and, I'm very pleased to say, that the discrepancy in width of the opening is now less than 3mm...  I did try using frame fixings (very similar) but, despite drilling my holes 10mm deeper and trying to remove most of the dust with a screw, I couldn't get the sleeves or screws to drive home properly, even after countersinking the timber.






Without building a jig for this single purpose, I wasn't quite sure of how else to tackle this next step so, I resorted to temporarily screwing and bracing the frame components together using some odd 2x2ins I had. As this gate is being painted, I'm not at all concerned about extra screw holes.






It worked out well in the end, though and I was soon nailing the boards in to position. If I'd have had more time to spare that afternoon, I'd have also fitted the braces at this point, as it would've been a simple task to mark the mitre angles directly on to the wood. But, I'm no fast worker and time was running out. That old metal gate was an incredible amount and, with a need to re-secure the premises before I left that evening, I had to get 'something' up and in to the opening...






That's my dog, who was glad to get out of the house for the afternoon, even if she was to spend the afternoon barricaded in my mum's garden behind two sheets of 18mm MDF! :-D The two dogs that live here are much bigger and may've quite easily found a way over that obstacle.






...That was how it looked last night - minus the latch, which I only got around to fitting this morning as I needed to trim it. Both bolts were in place though so, it was reasonably secure.






I deliberated for some time over which screws to use. I knew that annular ring shanks would offer the best in strength and retention but, packs of these nails in stainless steel can be hideously expensive. Lost heads may have looked tidy but, it is still possible that the boards could curl away from the rails as they shrink and cup. So, my thanks go to DougB for his suggestion to use Polytop nails (which are, essentially, stainless steel ring shank nails) and carefully prise the plastic caps from each of the heads. It's a time-consuming task on a gate of any size but, they're ideal for the job and so-much cheaper than other options.






They leave a 7mm diameter head on show but, that's not the end of the world on a project like this. I also used these nails as spacers when fixing the boards. A lot of people say that you should leave a small gap (2-3mm) between each board to allow for expansion during the winter months. Otherwise, it can react havoc on the construction and fitting of your gate. On the other side of the coin, some seem to think that timber which has been reasonably kiln-dried won't leave you with anything to worry about.... I decided to play it safe and, I also hope it may allow some of the rain water to escape from these nooks between boards.

For an opening post, this one's going on a bit so, I'll leave it here for today. More progress has already been made and I have the photos to prove it so, with hope, I'll be back here tomorrow with the second instalment on this project.

Thanks for reading so far.


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## alan2001 (3 Sep 2011)

were you ever tempted just to fix some timber to the existing metal gate?


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## OPJ (4 Sep 2011)

It did briefly cross my mind at one point but, this gate needs to open inwards (for convenience) and, because the pivot point is so close to the wall, any timbers standing proud on the inside could have prevented the gate from opening back against the wall. There's about 1100mm between the two walls, which sounds quite spacious. But, we've always found it awkward getting larger objects (furniture, etc.) through this space, which is why any gate needs to swing back against the rear wall.

Was hoping to get the painting finished today but, the weather seems to have other ideas and it's supposed to be even worse tomorrow. :-(

Will hopefully upload the second part to this during this evening...


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## jasonB (4 Sep 2011)

Comming along well, hope you painted those planed edges of the posts before you fixed them to the wall :wink: 

J


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## OPJ (4 Sep 2011)

jasonB":a1bwoi3f said:


> Comming along well, hope you painted those planed edges of the posts before you fixed them to the wall :wink:
> 
> J



Well, I did slap some more of the Ensele on there for the time being, as it seems to dry a bit faster than the paint. I don't think I've removed the gate from its frame for the last time, though... ;-)


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## shim20 (4 Sep 2011)

top work looks good


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## tisdai (4 Sep 2011)

looks like a plan coming together  It is a good idea about the nails, would never have thought of that myself.

CHeers for the WIP, keep it coming

Dave


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## OPJ (4 Sep 2011)

On Saturday, I had a close eye on the clouds as it looked as though rain was imminent for much of the day - in spite of the weatherman's prediction of a dry day until the evening. After lunch, I took the gate off and set about cutting and fitting the two diagonal braces. I set them so that they start and end 1in in from the ends of each rail. Without being able to easily mark the lines out from underneath, I had to sight down over the top and estimate where the cut needed to be, using a straight edge. Then, it was over to the sliding mitre saw...






My saw (Makita LS1013) will swing round to slightly more than 45° and that would've made for the perfect cut...






...If only part of my mitre saw station wasn't fouling the blade tilt locking lever as it tried to pass! #-o

Instead and, as you'll see in that first photo, I had to line it up by eye (carefully 'rolling' the saw blade along the pencil line) and add a spacer block to prevent the saw blade from snatching the timber as it was pushed through the cut. A work-holding clamp was very handy, also. There was a time when I was going to make a jig for doing just this but, quite clearly, I never got around to it. Plus, I doubt I would've had a way of supporting the other end of a 1.5m length of 89x44mm.

That was fine for the upper ends of each brace, below the square edges of each rail. For the lower ends though, which would meet the bevelled top edges of each rail, I needed to tilt the saw blade to about 10°, making several test cuts in an offcut to ensure I had the saw set just right:






All in all, the cuts came out reasonably well. Except for this one where, as it happens, the PAR job on this particular 4x2in left the timber slightly out of square on one edge:






:evil:

Oh, well. It could've been worse. At least this is one of the 'upper' cuts. If I can't successfully fill, it may look like a shadow line, to some (_very tall_) people... ;-)






I then had to screw these braces temporarily to the rear face of the T&G boards, so that I could turn the gate over and then nail them in place, without them falling out. You may also notice that I decided to screw both braces up in to the undersides of the rails. I'm not sure how necessary this is, really. I didn't bother screwing the other end down in to the rails as I feared the counterbore for the screw could become a water trap. A pair of temporary guide battens were positioned to stop me from missing the braces with the nails.






Next, I wanted to cut an arch on top of the gate and I managed to successfully set this out using a 6mm lath sawn on the bandsaw. At such a radius and, given its size, I'm still amazed it did not snap, with all the dead knots in the centre!






This was then cut reasonably well to shape with my jigsaw. I was impressed by the blade I was using, which is made by Bosch and came free with an issue of Good Woodworking magazine some time ago. Fast cutting and a very clean finish on both sides. Very good, considering that I was cross-cutting pine. I think I've used it before on MFC and, again, the results were excellent:






I've been back today to fit the stops (again, using those nails and Titebond III) and finish giving a first coat to any previously uncoated surfaces. At the time, the sun was almost shining. About two-hours after I finished painting, the heavens began to open and it's not looking any better for the next twenty-four hours... I was quite surprised when I realised I've used a total of *ninety-four* nails on this project - that's a whole lot of work with a hammer and a lot of caps to pop!! ;-)






I still need to get some sealant/silicone to finish around the edges of the wall plates and some more stainless steel screws for the fittings (they only came supplied with the hinges, strangely). I also have a spring somewhere, which should help to prevent the gate from being carelessly left open.






Given the situation I was working in, I had to trim about 40mm off the length of this latch:






I thought it would be fine but, apparently, my mum's tenant isn't happy as his dog managed to get halfway up the road before anyone realised he'd grown tired of waiting for his walk!! I say that whoever last exited or entered through this gate didn't close it properly... Either way, things aren't helped by the fact that I'm unable to fit another part of the kit (not pictured) that basically limits the travel of the bar, up and down. So, for the time being, I've had to improvise with a couple of screws and some penny washers.... 

If I'd have put the latch where it wanted to go originally, it would've meant drilling a hole smack-bang in the middle of two boards, which I didn't like. Where I've broken the galvanising seal after cutting the end of the bar, I've coated it with some paint but, I'm not expecting that to last. I'm not sure what else to suggest at the minute. Obviously, using the bolts means you can leave the garden but not enter it. Well, I've tried it with the large washers and it closes fine for me.... :duno:

Anyway, I've still got some holes to fill, etc. before I can give it a final coating (or two). Hopefully, I'll be able to do that next weekend.


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