| Blog series by WoodHoarder | updated 11-15-2016 04:56 AM | 11 parts | 14690 reads | 11 comments total |
Part 1: Design and Preparation
So, the old ugly driveway gave in after some strong winds. I’ve been planning on replacing it with something nice for about five years. I guess the time is now. I drew up some design ideas in Sketchup and my wife and I agreed on a design. I took a lot of inspiration from English driveway gates. It will be built of knotty cedar to maintain a rustic look, keeping in line with the house. The space below the arch will be some custom welded iron work (my father-in-law is quite t...
Part 2: Purchasing and Preparing the Stock
A trip to the Lumber store took about three hours longer than expected. My wife and I needed to sift through nearly all the cedar in stock to get some that were workable. Almost wanted to give up and go to clear cedar or redwood. None-the-less, we prevailed and took the rough stock home. To get the 2-1/8 thickness, I need to laminate a piece of 1×6 stock to a piece of 2×6 stock. I tried to select the pieces to compliment each other. I cut all the stock to rough dimensi...
Part 3: Laminating, Laminating, Laminating
This step took roughly a week and a half. Couldn’t clamp more than two a day as clamps were in short supply. Each board was planed on one side and laminated together one piece at a time with Tightbond III Lott’s of glue Lott’s of clamps! Did I mention Glue? I used about a half-gallon. I must say that the Rockler glue roller was life saver. I highly recommend it for applying large amounts of glue quickly.
Part 4: Creating the Arc Template
In the midst of jointing and planing the stock, I took a bit of time to create the template for the arch. Eventually I will use it to draw the arch on the boards and will use a pattern bit to finish up the edges. I posted the second go around as I messed up the measurements on the first. I used CAD to determine how the arch will fit and the dimensions. Using the two stick method (which I learned from other LumberJocks) I drew the top of the arch. Cut outside the line with th...
Part 5: Dimensioning the Stock
The crucial step of dimensioning the stock was a physical and tedious process. I’m in decent shape, but wasn’t expecting such a workout. Each piece needed to be planed to 2-1/8” thickness and be perfectly square so that the joints line up. Quite a task on long heavy pieces. After the laminating was finished, the stock was made flat and square. The length of the wood made it a challenge for my 6 inch Jointer. Planer and dust collector got quite a workout....
Part 6: Whats in an arc
I’m gonna focus a bit on how I made the arc as it is a little more complicated than the rest of the process. To get the arc to the right proportion, I needed to laminate two pieces of wood. Here, I am laying out where the arc will fit using my template. I’m used biscuits for alignment and to hopefully protect against de-lamination. It’s important to lay out where the biscuits are so that they don’t show when the arc is cut. Biscuits are cut. ...
Part 7: Cutting the Mortises
Now that everything is laid out flat and square, the mortises need to be cut. I used to have a desktop version of the mortiser. The full size powermatic makes the job much easier. Final cleanup with the hammer and chisel. Next time tenons. Here’s a little teaser.
Part 8: Tenons and Some Details
Last time was the mortises and now the tenons. I had a pretty rough time getting these cut. The biggest issue was getting the shoulders straight all the way around. The first technique was with a router and a jig. For the flat. For the edge. Having never worked with such large joints, this turned out to be incredibly tedious and I couldn’t get the shoulders to line up. I tried table saw, hand saw…. wasn’t working. So, needed a new tool. Enter Stan...
Part 9: Chamfer, Channel, Weep Holes, and Drawbore
It’s been awhile since I’ve posted on this project to I’d like to catch up with the progress. Last time I posted, another lumberjock mentioned a concern with a lack of diagonal bracing. I’ve been seriously looking into altering the design to make sure I cover this issue. I posted in the forum and received some pretty great feedback. Here is the link if anyone is interested: http://lumberjocks.com/topics/167994 So moving on, I needed to do some detail work the edges....
Part 10: Vertical Slats
I decided to go with pre-milled tongue and groove slats from the lumberyard. They came in 10ft lengths so they were cut to length on the miter saw. The backs were really rough so I ran them through the planer. The channels were a little small so I thinned the edges of the slats where they fit into the channels with a block plane. I tried to match the color and grains as closely as possible to each other.
Part 11: Diagonals
After some discussion on diagonal bracing, I decided to go with 3/4 inch diagonals that fit flush with the rails behind the back of the panels. The diagonals were to be put in compression. After another trip to the lumberyard and dimensioning with the planer, jonter and table saw. Built some “jackstands” to get the gate to a better working height. Laying out the geometry. Cutting on miter saw. Cut rabbets with the router. Chamfer with rout...
