Garden Gate Construction

[extiger]

We need two garden gates. The existing ones are collapsing. I was annoyed to see that the contractor built this with typical DIY hardware and assembly. Little 90° metal braces screwed into corners, and joining with long drywall screws. the frames are 2x3", with a channel to take vinyl trellis at the top, and wooden slats at the bottom.

For new ones, are dominoes or loose tenons a superior form of joinery? I'm looking for sturdiness and longevity.

Gary Curtis

 

[Pete Pedisich]

I think sipo dominos, if the size and qty were appropriate, would be good for a gate.

The design should help support the joinery, not endlessly bear upon it. Even a wedged through tenon, in white oak, will tire and loosen if part of a poorly designed gate. I use angled wood braces, corbels, etc. to help carry the load.

I have used sipo dominos with success, and even Beadlock in outdoor projects. Although none is more than 4 years old, but they are out in the full New York weather range 10degrees to 90 degrees and dry to humid 365 days/yr and still tight.

 

[tiralie]

the frames are 2x3", with a channel to take vinyl trellis at the top, and wooden slats at the bottom.

For new ones, are dominoes or loose tenons a superior form of joinery? I'm looking for sturdiness and longevity.

Gary Curtis

Gary:
Tenons are a superior form of joinery and loose tenons either made with a router and jig or with a Domino will keep your gate together for a long time.
About 8 years ago B/C Domino I built a large gate  36"x 45" from Ceder with home made floating tenons and it is still together and functioning as well as the day I made it after all this time through 4 seasons weather.
The dog has chewed it, my son has hit it with pucks and it has only been painted with one coat of primer...I was too busy to finish painting it.
[attachthumb=#]
Tim

 

[extiger]

Thanks for your suggestions. I don't have a Domino, but will mark up the wood and have a Festool friend bore out the Domino mortises.

 

[extiger]

[unsure]I'm the OP on this thread. Leave it to my wife to find a solution. She looked online and at the Home Depot website discovered the Adjust a Gate. This is a real 'end run' around the tendency of gates to sag.

It consists of two steel frames, each of which forms a 90 degree angle with a steel plate. You screw a top and bottom 2x3 or 2x4 to form your rails. The frame serves as the stiles. From there you simply screw batten boards onto the rails. I used T&G boards. The hinge for the darned thing is just two eye bolts welded onto the iron frame. An 'L' bolt is run through into your wall or post and the gate is supported by hanging the eye over the upturned L.

This thing looks like you could drive a 3/4 ton truck over it and not damage it. Because the gate frame does away with timber stiles, it is light as a feather. I was astonished when I picked it up after assembly. You could conceivably make massive gates that weigh a fraction of  traditional gates. And no method of wood joinery would offer comparable strength. Whoever invented this baby is going to get rich in a hurry.

Gary Curtis

 

[extiger]

[smile] Here

http://www.homedepot.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/Search?keyword=adjust+a+gate&langId=-1&storeId=10051&catalogId=10053

 

[durango]

I don't want to rain on your parade, however...  My neighbor used that assembly from Home Depot for a double wide entry gate last summer.  Here in sunny, hot, and humid South Florida the metal has begun to rust and corrode badly already.  The turnbuckles are corroded tight to the eyes, the cable to tension the gate is shot already.  The "powder coating" around the ends of the square tubing is rusting where they cap it with plastic.  Maybe two more seasons then it going to be unusable. 

If it was made with better material it would be o.k.,  but it is typical Chinese manufacturing by me.

 

[extiger]

Yeah, living 3 miles inland from Santa Monica Beach, I know the drill. There is hardly a vintage beach car around without the floor pan rusted out and the wheels and hardware tinted with an orange frost of rust.

The China factor bothers me, too.

My shop tablesaw was a Canadian General. But their bolt-on sliding table is from Taiwan. The quality difference between the two pieces of hardware was quite disappointing.

Gary

 

[Kodi Crescent]

That's a nice gate, Tim!  How do you get the pieces curved on the top?

 

[tiralie]

That's a nice gate, Tim!  How do you get the pieces curved on the top?

Thanks Kodi.

I drew up a pattern and made a template from HDF, and cut 2 or 3 - cedar 2x10's to the ogee shape, glued them up and then sanded them flush. I should have used a top or bottom bearing bit to clean up the edges but hey that was 2002 and I was just getting started.
To protect the glue joints from moisture, I re-sawed some 2x8" cedar, to 1/8" thick so I could stack them to form them to the shape of the top rail. I glued up the plies and clamped them in a form to hold the shape while the glue dried.  After the plies of cedar dried I removed them from the form and glued them to the rail to form the top.
The whole gate was assembled with 3/4"x 1 1/2" floating tenons about 2" long. The panels are half lapped 1 1/2" x 5/8" cedar strips epoxied together at the lap. The whole panel was then slipped into a groove on the inside of the rail and stiles.
The Gate was painted white and is still standing and working to keep the dog in the yard. None of the joints have loosened despite 9 years of snow, rain and hockey pucks hitting it.
Tim