Made a gate...
Sorry for the lack of posting recently, things have been rather rough after the breakup with Haku. That doesn't mean I've been doing nothing though - I bought myself a bunch of power tools and made a gate for the chicken enclosure!
It definitely beats the old gate, which was the lid off an old chicken run lashed to the post with some rope - ahh, farms.
Construction was pretty simple: I started off with a 2x4 and ripped it down the middle to reduce the width. I cut the square frame and used a spade drill bit to drill 25mm holes, then glued in some dowels. After checking it for squareness, I cut the cross-brace by simply lying the gate on top, lining it up, and drawing pencil marks where I needed to cut - it fit perfectly. The final part of construction was to make the hoop on top by cutting three angled segments and using 10mm dowel to join the ends together. Doing the dowel this way was quite complicated because I had to hold the stock at an angle in order to drill perpendicular to the end, and it didn't fit awfully well when I put it together, but I planed it all level. I did this way because I didn't want the dowel to be visible, just to improve the look. I rounded over the top with a rasp and sander, but unfortunately didn't have any tools that would allow me to round the inside radius (a drum/bobbin sander would be required here). Finally, I attached the hoop with a couple more bits of dowel, straight down into the top of the frame. With the construction complete, I gave it three coats of varnish, tacked on some wire mesh to stop the chickens hopping through, and was done!
There were a few mistakes and miscalculations along the way but I think the end result is acceptable, even though it's not perfect. It would have been a lot simpler to construct without the hoop on top, but I like the look of it and it gives you somewhere to hold it while opening/closing.
Tools used: Circular saw, hand saw, tape measure, set square, clamps, power drill, drill bits, spade drill bits, hand mitre saw, power sander, plane, rasp.
It definitely beats the old gate, which was the lid off an old chicken run lashed to the post with some rope - ahh, farms.
Construction was pretty simple: I started off with a 2x4 and ripped it down the middle to reduce the width. I cut the square frame and used a spade drill bit to drill 25mm holes, then glued in some dowels. After checking it for squareness, I cut the cross-brace by simply lying the gate on top, lining it up, and drawing pencil marks where I needed to cut - it fit perfectly. The final part of construction was to make the hoop on top by cutting three angled segments and using 10mm dowel to join the ends together. Doing the dowel this way was quite complicated because I had to hold the stock at an angle in order to drill perpendicular to the end, and it didn't fit awfully well when I put it together, but I planed it all level. I did this way because I didn't want the dowel to be visible, just to improve the look. I rounded over the top with a rasp and sander, but unfortunately didn't have any tools that would allow me to round the inside radius (a drum/bobbin sander would be required here). Finally, I attached the hoop with a couple more bits of dowel, straight down into the top of the frame. With the construction complete, I gave it three coats of varnish, tacked on some wire mesh to stop the chickens hopping through, and was done!
There were a few mistakes and miscalculations along the way but I think the end result is acceptable, even though it's not perfect. It would have been a lot simpler to construct without the hoop on top, but I like the look of it and it gives you somewhere to hold it while opening/closing.
Tools used: Circular saw, hand saw, tape measure, set square, clamps, power drill, drill bits, spade drill bits, hand mitre saw, power sander, plane, rasp.