# WIP driveway gate (update 25 oct)



## Chris_belgium (21 Jul 2009)

I'm finally gonna start on my drive way gate, I've had the wood for a couple of years already but due to family and other things never had the time to get into it. 

It will probably take me some months to get it all finished but will try to keep this thread updated, I always find it great to follow someone else's work this way, so i'll try to return the favour this way. Altough the level of workmanship will be a lot lower that most regulars in this forum.

Some spec's my driveway is 5m wide, plan is to make a rolling gate wich will be roughly 4,5m long. 

The wood I'm using is aphselia doussie wich is supposed to be one of the most stable woods there is.

The wood I have for this build:

2 x 6200mm by 180mm by 60mm

5 x 3000mm by 180mm by 60mm

and a whole lot of boards 

this is what i'm trying to achieve 







Big sturdy frame all round with verticals every meter, the gaps filled in with thinner boards. Pegged M&T joints for all the big boards the thinner boards will be brad (spelling) nailed in.

The two long beam's are offcourse not perfectly straigth, been messing around with a piece of string and they are roughly 10mm out in the middle. I do have the impression that the two ends are bent and the middle part is straight. Since I only need the gate to be 4500mm long I can cut a piece of off both ends. Only problem is how do I determine wich part of the beam is straight? Any tricks to do this?

Hope this makes sense, English is no my first language so if something sound weird, forgive me


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## head clansman (21 Jul 2009)

Hi

measure the width of the gate down the length to be cut and stretch the string to that point see how much bow you have then , if any , it might be so little its not worth bothering with, or you might need to run it over a planer , timber of that length will bow / flex any way so whilst constructing the gate allow for it when you cramp it up they will pull it out. hc


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## EddieJ (21 Jul 2009)

Now that's an ambitious project!  

I wonder if it may be worth cutting a hidden grove and T shaped piece of metal along the bottom rail to help ensure that it all stay true. I have no idea if it would work, but may also give you an extra track on which the gate could roll along.

BTW.. Whats the motard?


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## Chrisp (22 Jul 2009)

That looks great, I have been thinking of a similar project when we find a bigger house, keep us updated with lots of pic's, I wouldn't have guessed that english wasn't your first language, you came across very clear.
Regards Chris.


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## Mailman14 (22 Jul 2009)

HI to Chris_belgium!

Have you got a final drive surface set up in front / behind the gates (whichever way the gate swings _over_?

If it's not flat and level (fingers crossed), then your idea of having ONE gate may not be feasible with rolling wheel / castor underneath - it'll foul on a ridge / the gate will want to drop into a hole - twisting the gate either way each time you open + close it... Sorry - thought I'd mention it before you made the final items. Good luck either way - your English is as good, if not better, than some "Englishmen" posting on here... :lol: 

Running very fast...


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## Chris_belgium (23 Jul 2009)

Hello, thanks for the replies

@ HClansman, I was thinking something along the same lines, I was just hoping there was maybe some failsafe tradesman trick to do this, apparantly there is not.
Now all that's left is determining how much bow is acceptable on a 4.5m long gate, any toughts?

@Eddie, a 4.5 mtr long metal bar wich is both straigth and won't flex will be massive in size, so don't think that is an option. The motard is a 2002 Husaberg.

@Mailman, it is not a flat driveway, in fact is has a reasonable slope to it. But the gat is not going to swing open but retract backwards perpendicular (hope this is the word I mean  ) tot the driveway to the area where the gate will roll on will be reasonably flat.

Have ordered a new saw blade for my cutoff saw from axminster, hopefully it'll arrive before the weekend, then I can get started with some real work!


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## Mailman14 (23 Jul 2009)

Sorry Chris_belgium, hadn't spotted that detail in the pics.

Try laying the beams out, with "hills", move top one along bottom one till you get a 'best match', trim your lengths to size, make the gate panel like that (hills, not valleys), Gravity would induce some straightening along the lengths, rather than inducing more of a bow.

Does that sound right to the rest of the peeps on here? That's what I'd do if I was stuck. (But there again, i'm a rustic fan).


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## Fecn (24 Jul 2009)

Hi Chris,

I built a large 5M sliding gate for my driveway a couple of years ago, but used a steel frame to support everything. If it's any use to you, the thread is here... https://www.ukworkshop.co.uk/forums/view ... p?p=194129

I expect I can dig up the plans I made for the gate if they're any use to you.

Cheers,

Fecn


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## head clansman (24 Jul 2009)

hi Chris 

don't worry about any small bow in that length of wood , when you fit the end stiles and any intermediate with all the mortice's and tenon's glued up and waiting for cramps when you apply pressure with the cramps it will straighten out as the shoulders of all the joints come together . not only that as the gate is 4.5 mm long when made it will flex to a certain amount over it over all length .hc


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## Chris_belgium (25 Jul 2009)

@ Fecn:Followed that thread at the time you were building. I'm a welder by trade and making a gate like this would be easier for me but really want to give it a shot af making one out of wood first . I prefer the look of an all wood gate to a metal framed one.

@Clansman, what amount of bow would be acceptable for a long beam like this?

Had a fight with sketchup and managed to get some sort of a drawing wich will make it a bit more clear as to what I'm trying to achieve.

The long part will slide to the left offcourse, the smaller part next to the right hand pillar is a fixed part.






Here you can see why the length of the gate is limited to the 4.5mtrs, it can's slide further back otherwise it would cross the access path to my front door.





Drawing of just the gate, wich consists of 4 identicall parts and a smaller part at the left side of the gate, this part will only be visible when open, when closed this will be the part that is inside the left hand pillar, then only the 4identical parts will be visible.


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## head clansman (25 Jul 2009)

hi Chris 

really don't worry about the bow , in your sketch it show two end stiles and three intermediate mullions all with shoulder cut on them so you have to cramp the bottom rail and top rail down to the shoulders on these this will straighten out any bow that you have .hc


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## Chris_belgium (25 Jul 2009)

head clansman":20z1q53a said:


> hi Chris
> 
> really don't worry about the bow , in your sketch it show two end stiles and three intermediate mullions all with shoulder cut on them so you have to cramp the bottom rail and top rail down to the shoulders on these this will straighten out any bow that you have .hc



Have found the parts in the beams with the least bow in it, put the bows in the two beams opposite to each other and then clamped them together, and you are correct, the opposite bows eliminate themselves whem clamped up. Only a 3mm bow remains, wich is ok for me on a gate this long.


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## head clansman (25 Jul 2009)

Hi Chris 

there you go, an other happy customer  hc


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## Chris_belgium (27 Jul 2009)

Got some work done this weekend:

Put the beams on top of each other with the bows in opposite direction, there was quite a difference, but when clamped together, very little bow remained. And the force needed to line them up was very little so I'm not worried.






Cut the two long beams to length, took me two hours for four cuts, moving these pieces of wood around alone is hard work!! Used a CMT fine toothed blade for this and this gave me a near perfect cut, was an expensive blade but worth every penny!





Then started on the mortices in the two long rails. Mortices are 80mm long, 25mm wide and 74 mm deep. I used the wealden tenon cutter for this in combination with a router extension. Have to say that with the router extension my router started sounding a bit stressed.






Just put a piece of offcut next to the beam and used two small nails as endstops, kept about 2mm of the shoulder and then chiselled the mortices square. 













Last thing I did this weekend was routing a groove in the top rail wich will house the planks. 













Couple of years ago I made a smaller gate, then I also used m&t joints for the planks, this was a nightmare when glueing. This way, I can glue up the complete framework and then put the planks in afterwards.


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## Chris_belgium (9 Aug 2009)

Update

Cutting the uprights to length, made a simple mdf jig to get every upright to the same length, worked perfect.






mortice and tenons nearly done, only two left.











Tenon cutting method, two pieces of offcut next to the beam and use the fence of the router. 






Shoulder cut, have used the wealden tenon cutter for this, wich has two upcut edges and two downcut edges. This bit is supposed to leave a perfect edge bu in reality left a hairy edge. If this is due to the type of wood or the cutter, I don't know.






Chisel out the waste, this cuts the time routing the tenon in half.





Tenon cleaned up with the router





Finished tenon, edges chamfered for ease of installation.






End result, not bad even if I do say so myself  , here you can clearly see the 'hairy' edge left by the wealden router cutter, a swipe with some sandpaper will clean this up, but still a bit dissapointed that the cutter did not leave a perfect finish.






Poor man's woodworking bench :twisted: , still having lot's of trouble planing end grain, I got the blade razor sharp, but still a lot of force is needed to get a shaving.





Added a simple fence to my tenon plane to keep everything square, worked quite well.


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## Chris_belgium (9 Aug 2009)

Have a couple of questions about the dowelled m&t joint I'm planning on using.

The holes I have drilled in the mortices are 11.5mm, should I use dowels wich are the same diameter or should I go for a 12mm dowel to get a really tight fit. Am offcourse worried about wood splitting.

Also read that the hole in the tenon should be drilled slightly offset to the hole in the mortice, again, how much should this be, any guidelines or rules for this?

And thirdly, I'm planning on using some dark wood for the pins to get a nice contrast with the lighter shaded aphselia, any suggestions for a dark wood wich is nice straight grained for making dowels?

Thanks, Christof.


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## OPJ (9 Aug 2009)

If you've drilled 11.5mm holes then, ideally, you want dowels of the same diameter... You may find that you cannot buy such a thing and will have to attempt to make your own. :?

Yes, the hole in the tenon should be offset by 2mm or 3mm closer to the shoulder, so it pulls the joint up tight. Any less of an offset (1mm) and I've found it doesn't make any difference.  Tapering the very end of the dowel (use a sharp chisel or Stanley knife) before you drive it in helps it to locate in the second hole. :wink:


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## Chris_belgium (10 Aug 2009)

OPJ":3kgidvip said:


> If you've drilled 11.5mm holes then, ideally, you want dowels of the same diameter... You may find that you cannot buy such a thing and will have to attempt to make your own. :?
> 
> Yes, the hole in the tenon should be offset by 2mm or 3mm closer to the shoulder, so it pulls the joint up tight. Any less of an offset (1mm) and I've found it doesn't make any difference.  Tapering the very end of the dowel (use a sharp chisel or Stanley knife) before you drive it in helps it to locate in the second hole. :wink:



Wow, that's more than I expected, this may sound as an arrogant question but I mean nothing wrong by it. Have you personally done this or did you hear it from someone who heard it from someone else who read it somewher,... you get the picture  ? Large tenon in hardwood with an offset like this? Just worried about splitting the wood.

Thanks for the advice!


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## Chems (10 Aug 2009)

Its a very old technique called Draw Boring. I'm sure Olly has done it as he's been studying furniture making for 2 years now. 

Lovely progress being made. The wealdon cutter is something I've thought about investing in. Looking at your pictures I'd say the cut was pretty damn good. I would test it on some good hardwood next and see what sort of finish you get I'm sure it would be the perfection you were hoping to see.


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## OPJ (10 Aug 2009)

Chris, don't worry about asking a question!  I am speaking from experience as I used this technique on my workbench, made entirely from beech. 1mm offset didn't pull the joints up enough so, on the next set of joints, I increased it to 2mm and it worked brilliantly! :wink:

I did manage to split some 3"x2" softwood once though, and that was with a 2mm offset...  To be honest, it was cheap stuff and I wouldn't expect the same to happen with a half-decent hardwood (tapering the ends slightly really does help!).


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## head clansman (10 Aug 2009)

hi 

hows it going , nice to see it started , looking good , Chris seeing you had your timber some time it has discoloured a bit, don't forget to shoot and clean up all face and edges before gluing up, plane back the colour rather than rely on sanding the natural colour back .hc


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## Chris_belgium (11 Aug 2009)

OPJ":b84fkj7t said:


> Chris, don't worry about asking a question!  I am speaking from experience as I used this technique on my workbench, made entirely from beech. 1mm offset didn't pull the joints up enough so, on the next set of joints, I increased it to 2mm and it worked brilliantly! :wink:
> 
> I did manage to split some 3"x2" softwood once though, and that was with a 2mm offset...  To be honest, it was cheap stuff and I wouldn't expect the same to happen with a half-decent hardwood (tapering the ends slightly really does help!).


`

Thanks, that put's my mind at ease a bit  I'll think I'll make some test pieces from the offcuts I have.


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## Chris_belgium (11 Aug 2009)

head clansman":3fxit9a8 said:


> hi
> 
> hows it going , nice to see it started , looking good , Chris seeing you had your timber some time it has discoloured a bit, don't forget to shoot and clean up all face and edges before gluing up, plane back the colour rather than rely on sanding the natural colour back .hc



Yes, I've had the wood for over three years now. 

Planing the aphselia long grain is no problem, it planes very nice even without an expensive/fettled plane. End grain is a whole other story tough!!!

What do you mean by shooting and cleaning all edges? You mean the tenon face?


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## head clansman (11 Aug 2009)

hi Chris 

no no , i mean shoot all timber face & edges with a jack plane ( rails stile mullions the lot ) to clean it up, to restore the colour back into it before you glue it together . hc


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## Chris_belgium (11 Aug 2009)

Chems":1tzqatb6 said:


> Its a very old technique called Draw Boring. I'm sure Olly has done it as he's been studying furniture making for 2 years now.
> 
> Lovely progress being made. The wealdon cutter is something I've thought about investing in. Looking at your pictures I'd say the cut was pretty damn good. I would test it on some good hardwood next and see what sort of finish you get I'm sure it would be the perfection you were hoping to see.



I've reread my text about the cutter and it is a bit negative, the cutter is a really great cutter, have done all the routing ivolved with this build with this one cutter and it still goes strong! No smoke, no burn marks, only that hairy edge, but it might just be inexperienced me who has unreal expectations from this cutter. 

I will definately be ordering more cutters from wealden!!!


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## Chris_belgium (16 Aug 2009)

Update

Finally done with alle the mortice and tenon joints, and offcourse everything went ok until I test fitted the last one. Wood split while I forced the tenon in, I know I shouldn't of forced it, but it was the last one and was a bit fed up with it 

Anyway, i'm thinking of putting a big screw in from the back and then plugging the hole.







Did a test fit, everything lined up ok, a couple of m&t joints had a small gap, but this is due to the rails not being perfectly straight, when some clamping force is applied they close up nicely, except one wich is open for 0.5mm wich is a result I can live with. Also measured the diagonals wich are only 4mm different again, on a 5000mm gate this is a result I can live with!











Also made a test m&t to decide what offset to use for the dowels, and as OPJ suggested 3mm is the offset wich works the best. Not too much force needed to drive the peg in and the m&t closes up nicely.

Left the tenon full width, that way I could test a couple of different offsets.






No dowel






Dowel in place, there is something very satisfiying to see the m&t close up 'perfectly' while driving the dowel in  





Hoping to have all the boards cut to length and routed this week so I can assmeble everything next week.


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## Chris_belgium (16 Aug 2009)

Do you guys think I need to fit some diagonals in the framework? Bear in mind this is a rolling gate, so very little diagonal force will be applied to the frame!

Thanks.


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## Boz62 (17 Aug 2009)

This big woodwork is so impressive . 

From an engineering perspective I don't think you need a diagonal as long as the rail it runs on is solid, that will take all the vertical forces. I would however be tempted to temporarily fit a length of wood or steel, corner to corner, while you are moving it in the workshop and installing it. Perhaps have a decorative "feature" at the corners so you can clamp/bolt on a diagonal beam when working on it?

Good luck

Boz


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## Chris_belgium (17 Aug 2009)

Boz62":1ua9ybz4 said:


> This big woodwork is so impressive .
> 
> From an engineering perspective I don't think you need a diagonal as long as the rail it runs on is solid, that will take all the vertical forces. I would however be tempted to temporarily fit a length of wood or steel, corner to corner, while you are moving it in the workshop and installing it. Perhaps have a decorative "feature" at the corners so you can clamp/bolt on a diagonal beam when working on it?
> 
> ...



The gate rolls on three wheels. I'm gonna try to run it without a rail, just heavy duty rubber wheels on my driveway. This way I do not have to cut into my new and expensive ( I know I know, should've put the rail in when I had the driveway done, but forgot about it  ) driveway. I'll put in some longer bolts to hold the wheels, and if all goes to ratshit, I can always replace the wheels with metal grooved ones and put a rail in my driveway.


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## OPJ (17 Aug 2009)

Pleased to see the draw-boning technique worked well. :wink:

If you're worried about that split (bad luck! ) then, I'd advise you to rout it out and glue in a strip of wood, which should prevent it from ever getting any worse... I've done this a few times myself! :shock:


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## Chris_belgium (23 Aug 2009)

OPJ":12zmer22 said:


> Pleased to see the draw-boning technique worked well. :wink:
> 
> If you're worried about that split (bad luck! ) then, I'd advise you to rout it out and glue in a strip of wood, which should prevent it from ever getting any worse... I've done this a few times myself! :shock:



Think I'll go with the screw, the split is in the end of one of the 5000mm beams, wich means I'd have to route it vertically, that would be near impossible for me to achieve a nice result.


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## Chris_belgium (23 Aug 2009)

new update

All the filler boards cut to length, and then route the groove for the 'tongue, groove' joint with the bottom rail.

Dry fit:











As you can see, I still need to clean up all the wood to get a uniform colour. Spoilt myself and ordered one of these to get the job done  






Cleaning up the wood and drilling the holes in the tenons for the drawbore pins is all that's left to do, hoping to get it finished next weekend.

Next thing is constructing the posts/piles? I've ordered three square steel beams, 2000mm long, 250mm wide and thickness is 8mm, should be plenty strong! Question now is how to attach the wood to the piles to disguise that they are steel. I'm thinking of making a square box out of wood slightly oversize and just slide it over the steel beams? Maybe weld a small lip at the bottom of the steel piles to keep the wood clear of the ground/moisture? Any toughts?


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## Chris_belgium (30 Aug 2009)

Small update

Fixed the crack in the top rail as to OPJ's recommendations, I'm gonna have to start paying you a consultants fee with all the tips I'm gettin' of you 





















I was thinking of buying 6 bessey clamps to do the glue up, but after seeing the price on those things, I decided to improvise with some stuff I had laying around.


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## Chris_belgium (17 Sep 2009)

What an overwhelming response  anyways, here is a big update:

Planed all the filler planks by hand, had a big struggle with the aphselia, it took the sharpness of the blade very very fast. I've addes a 10° back bevel to the blade and that helped a lot.Plane was set to a rather deep cut so it took of the grey in one pass, this left me with little lines in the wood wich I then removed with a belt sander, final sanding will be wit orbital sander. Maybe a crude method but works fast and when doing 22 110cm by 14cm planks, speed is a important factor!

Clifton hard at work  








Cleaned up the edges of the planks with a shoulder plane.






Then the boring job of making 24 dowels for the drawbore joints. I've made them using a dowel plate and was dissapointed with the result, for projects in the future, I will order premade dowels online, will save me lot of time and leave me with a far better quality dowel!






And then finally zero hour, ready for glue up. So many things that can go wrong, but in the end all my worries for the glue up were not necessary as everything went together smooth without problems. 

Glue up was done in two parts first part was glueing the stiles into the bottom rails, another BIG advantage of using the drawbore joint, is the need for little to no clamps, the dowels pull the joint nice and tight.

Glue used was West Systems epoxy, with silica filler. Great stuff to work with and if you use the slow hardener, you have 90 minutes to clamp everything together.

Epoxy + hardener






Silica powder added, you just add as much or as little as you want, the more you add, the thicker the glue gets, ideal for a vertical joint, the glue doesn't run down.






Mixed up, you can see on the test piece to the side that the glue doens't run down. 






Everything in place, top rail ready in the chain block, joints taped up to prevent glue spillage, but in the end proved to be unnecessary since you can plane away the hardened epoxy when cleaning up the joint.
Had to get creative with some ropes to get the filler planks in place for glue up.








Joint nice and tight before dowels








Dowels in place, a little bit more squeeze out, so the offset dowel hole technique worked perfectly!







Since the rails weren't perfectly straight they needed clamping before the dowels could be inserted. My home made clamps worked perfectly.






Final cleaning:











Cleaned up joint, I am very happy with the result!






All that's left now is to plane/send the entire thing, and mount the wheel and then I can start on the posts.

Will keep you guys updated!


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## Boz62 (18 Sep 2009)

Oh wow, I'll never complain about a large glue-up again :shock:. Very impressive work, Chris. 

Boz


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## Geno (18 Sep 2009)

Great job so far!

Hope you're going to get some help when it comes to hanging it!  

Thats a handy wee solution for your metal bench - trailer jockey wheels for rising and moving it! Might just use that one myself!! Cheers!


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## Fecn (24 Sep 2009)

Excellent work Chris - I'm very impressed with your glue-up  Can't wait to see it in place.


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## Paul Chapman (25 Sep 2009)

Looking good, Chris.

Cheers :wink: 

Paul


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## Chris_belgium (27 Sep 2009)

Next update

Cutting and jackhammering into my newly laid (2y ago) driveway with a disc grinder made me feel a bit uneasy but had to be done

Hard at work  






Lengthened the metal post by welding U profile to the bottom. Saved me some money on the metal, the shop I go you have buy 6m lengths of steel, since the posts need to be 165cm above to ground, that would only leave me with 35 cm to put in the ground. So I welded the U steel on, lengthening them so I can put them 80 cm into the ground. Might be overkill, but I'd rather be a lot too deep than just slightly shallow  






Posts + rail in place











Finishing up the gate, put the wheels in place, drilled a stopped hole (hopefully this makes sense?  ) put the wheel and axle in, then epoxied a plug in the wood to hide the hole but also to keep the axle in place. Hopefully this is strong enough, should be as there is no side load on the pin.











Put a chamfer on the gate, first time I've used the fixed base for my router, before it was always mounted in my router table, must say for work like this it's very nice, nice and stable.






Stopped the chamfer 8cm from the corner as I didn't like the look of the chamfer continuing in the corner.

Test piece with a continuing chamfer:






Stopped chamfer






All that's left to do on the gate itself is plane/sand the dowels from the wheels flush and it's ready.


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## Mattty (28 Sep 2009)

:shock: Thats Huge! Very impressive scale of work mate. How the heck are you going to fit it!!??


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## Chris_belgium (28 Sep 2009)

Mattty":10cuf8cn said:


> :shock: Thats Huge! Very impressive scale of work mate. How the heck are you going to fit it!!??



No problem now, the wheels are fitted so I can roll it around  Did have to use a chainblock to put it in the vertical position, roughly calculated the weight of the gate and came to +/_ 300 kgs. The metal posts are +/_ 120kgs a piece  might have gone a bit over the top with these


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## Fecn (2 Oct 2009)

Chris_belgium":1kula456 said:


> Did have to use a chainblock to put it in the vertical position, roughly calculated the weight of the gate and came to +/_ 300 kgs. The metal posts are +/_ 120kgs a piece  might have gone a bit over the top with these



No such thing as over the top... You wouldn't want the gate to blow away in a gale would you now.

If you haven't already done so, don't forget to weld caps on the tops of your posts to stop them filling up with rainwater.

Anyway.. it's looking really good now Chris. I reckon you'll have that fitted this weekend.


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## Chris_belgium (11 Oct 2009)

A gate is born  :







In place.






All the fixtures are bolted to the posts, will have to be removed when I fitt the wood to the metal posts.





















Next job is joining the boards to make the 'wooden box' wich will slide over the metal posts.






Job isn't going very well.






I cut the mdf boards for the shooting board with a Festool saw + guide rail, so they should be straight, but no matter what I try I always end up with 1mm gap on one side. The boards are 1,7m long, is this acceptable? I can easely get them together with a clamp on them without using to much force.

Advice would be greatly appreciated.


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## TEO (15 Oct 2009)

Really impressive Chris, 
and great to have been able to have followed it in so much detail. I didn't quite get how you resolved the problem with the cracked rail end; did you glue and screw or go with OJP's suggestion of routing out and glueing in a filler?
TEO


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## Chris_belgium (15 Oct 2009)

TEO":35vam3f7 said:


> Really impressive Chris,
> and great to have been able to have followed it in so much detail. I didn't quite get how you resolved the problem with the cracked rail end; did you glue and screw or go with OJP's suggestion of routing out and glueing in a filler?
> TEO



Followed OPJ's advice, worked perfect. And if had paid a bit more attention to the direction of the end grain before glueing the filler board, it would be a nearly invisible repair. But even now you can hardly see it.

You can vaguely see the repair in this picture.


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## Mattty (15 Oct 2009)

Nice Job Chris. Serious piece of joinery that mate.


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## TEO (17 Oct 2009)

Thanks, I see (or rather don't, V neat), went back and had another look at your pics and there it was. Apologies for an silly person question.
Well done again,
T


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## carpenteire2009 (22 Oct 2009)

Wow, I just stumbled upon this thread, what a fantastic piece of work! Joinery on that scale is very impressive, well done!


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## Chris_belgium (25 Oct 2009)

Used a skew mitre plane to get all the edges straight, couldn't get it perfect, and it was a lot of work, since most of the boards were cupped about 7mm along their length. Worst thing is, I've got a planer thicknesser standing in my garage, but it isn't hooked up since my electrician doesn't have time to come round and do it  

Anyway, made a big mdf shooting board






Glued the boards together and then made a box slightly oversize to the metal pile. I made the box 5mm oversize and this is a bit to small, for the other piles I will make them 10mm oversize.
'box' in place






Electrician came round to mount the motor, gate runs very smoothly, very happy with the result, there is a little bow in the gate, but this has no effect on the smooth running of the gate. Seems that head clansman was right when he told me not to worry about the straigthnes of the rails when I started this project.











Gate catcher, metal will be compeltely boxed in with wood to prevent water seeping in and corroding the metal.


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## Fecn (1 Nov 2009)

Excellent work throughout Chris. Welcome to the Electric Sliding Gate Owners club


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## Mattty (1 Nov 2009)

Superb job all round. Is that a Philly plane in the shooting board shot?


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## Chris_belgium (3 Nov 2009)

Mattty":3adx958p said:


> Superb job all round. Is that a Philly plane in the shooting board shot?



Yes it is, already bought this plane, a clifton and a starret combinaiton square for this project. Have nearly spent more on tools than on the wood itself  

This project is the perfect excuse to justify these tools to the wife though  .


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