Enhancing a simple garden gate by inserting a pane of glass

[Frank Pellow]

Last month I rebuilt a fence for my daughter Kristel in Ottawa but I did not have the time to build a gate. I just finished making the gate here in Toronto and will install it in early July. I decided to jazz up the gate by embedding in interesting square of glass into it. A couple of years ago, I purchased (for $7) the glass in a bargain bin even though I could not envision using it in a stained glass object. It occurred to me a couple of days ago that it would look good in a gate. Here is a photo of the 12 inch by 12 inch glass pane:

[attachthumb=#1]

I made a frame for the glass out of some old cedar wood having first cut this profile into the wood:

[attachthumb=#2]

The frame for the gate itself was made out of cedar 2 by 4s:

[attachthumb=#3]

In the photo below, cedar 1 by 6s have been partly screwed to the frame and the glass has been set on top in order to simulate the final appearance of the gate:

[attachthumb=#4]

In the next photo, a diamond has been cut into the gate boards to accommodate the glass pane.

[attachthumb=#5]

The top part of four boards was then removed, the glass frame was inserted, then the boards were re-inserted and screwed back into place:

[attachthumb=#6]

The glass pane was inserted into the open then secured with molding nailed into place:

[attachthumb=#7]

I won’t be going back to Ottawa to install the gate until early July but I did prop up the gate and take a couple of photos here in Toronto in order to get an idea of how the gate will look when in place:

[attachthumb=#8]    [attachthumb=#9]

 

[peter halle]

That is really really really cool Frank!  Really makes a great gate look even greater.

Peter

 

[Kevin D.]

It's funny you should bring this up Frank.  I was looking at implementing some stained glass into some outdoor projects I'm going to do including that for a possible insert in a gate door.  I was in at the stained glass store in Pickering last week asking about the do's and dont's of doing such, and one thing that was suggested was to have the stained glass enclosed between two pieces of tempered glass and sealed for safety.  A smallish insert encased of one square foot or so would cost about $60 to encase.  I'm still unsure about doing this though.  I look at encasing it as a safety aspect, but i question in such an application it's durability over time.

 

[Frank Pellow]

Kevin, if you were concerned about the glass breaking, a piece of Plexiglas on either side of the stained glass would do the job and would be cheaper.

But, the way I look at it, if the glass breaks, I will just install another pane.  It only cost $7 and there is more in the bargain bin where that came from.

As far as safety, the chances of breaking the glass are slim and, if the glass is broken, the chances of it hurting anyone are really really slim.  To me, it is worth the risk.  

However, if it was a stained glass artwork in the gate with it's leaded and/or soldered joints between pieces of glass that would be weaker than the whole pane that I used, more valuable, and more likely to break.  So, in such a case, I would use Plexiglas.