Cedar Gates

A little late posting this one. Our daughter ( 18 months old) developed a fascination with the front yard this summer and was not content keeping to the backyard where her mom could keep an eye on her while gardening. What better excuse for a fun little project than to keep my little princess safe!

Contacted a local mill and ordered some rough cedar. Milled it all up and set to crafting a set of gates. I decided on wedged through mortise and tenon joinery. I built a jig to cut the mortises using a straight bit and guide bushing. I do wish I had found a longer bit, I think I had a 1 1/2 inch bit, so true 4 inch wide stiles meant a fair bit of chisel work to finish the mortise.

The panel is made up of tongue and groove panels with the center stiles set with a short stub tenon, all floating a grove milled in the rails.

25 odd hours to build a set of gates, true, I could have hammered out something in a short afternoon, but where would the fun have been in that. I still have to set a support wheel on the right hand gate. The left hand, active gate is hung to a post which is firmly affixed to carport, but the right post is only set in a saddle bolted to the top of a wooden retaining wall and has a bit of sag to it.