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Past their sell by date |
Many years of sterling work but they needed replacing |
The other gates did not have signs of the fungus but had rotted in places.
The time had come to make new replacements.
Western red cedar cladding
I like the western red cedar that I have used in many outdoor projects including cladding parts of my shop so wanted to incorporate it into the gates. It is rot and insect resistant so is great for outside projects. Tongue and grooved WR Cedar will be used for the cladding panels in the gate. WR Cedar is lightweight but not very good for load bearing so I chose iroko for the framework of the gates.Iroko
For those who don't know about this timber it is a hard wood that comes from tropical parts of Africa and is grown sustainably. It also is very similar to teak (and also WR cedar) in that it doesn't need any treatment outdoors. It has a natural oil which makes it rot proof and insect resistant. As I don't like the maintenance chore of constantly painting outside items this is ideal for me.Iroko starts out quite yellow but overtime darkens to a rich brown colour. This must be similar to how cherry changes colour overtime. The contrasting western red cedar only greys over time. However when it rains it develops a fantastic mid brown colour, The contrast between the timbers will probably stay for a while but I think they will probably develop a grey patina over time.
It is slightly lighter in density than white oak but will be still quite substantial. I'm led to believe that it works well but has quite a blunting effect on tooling. Only time will tell.
Design
As many readers know I use Sketchup extensively in my designs so it is no different here.I measured the original doors as they have proven to work well for us. One set it slightly wider but much taller than the others. I designed that set first.
Stiles
The finished sizes of the stiles are 100mm (4") wide X 45mm (1-3/4") thick.Cross members and bracing
The cross members and diagonal bracing are made from 25mm (1") thick X 150mm (6") wide stock.The WR cedar boards are premachined T&G 144mm (5-3/4") wide x 19mm (3/4") thick.
View from outside of largest gate |
View from inside of largest gate |
Designing the other set was really easy as I simply copied the existing design into a new project. Then I changed the sizes of each component, moving them as necessary, using the push pull tool to shorten their respective lengths. The resulting design for the smaller gates gives the same overall impression.
View from outside of smaller gate |
View from inside of smaller gate |
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