Background
I wanted to finish the entrance to the deck with a gate. I had noticed that wooden ones tended to sag, dragging across the deck surface marking it so i decided to buy a metal gate. In the spirit of 'reduce,reuse,recycle' i purchased a second hand gate locally on Gumtree for less than a quarter of the price of a brand new one. The only part i had to make for the gate was a securing catch on the post.
The gate was purchased second hand. It had a few bends in some of the metalwork but these were easily removed with some careful bending with mole wrenches. The hinges and latch were dismantled and cleaned up. The metalwork is free of any rust and will need to be rubbed down before being painted.
The process was repeated for the second gate post. Both gate posts were attached to the frame leg directly below using countersunk stainless steel coach screws.
I looked for a suitable gate catch but found them to be either too big and out of proportion or too expensive so i decided to make my own. I had some metal plates lying around so i cut one of these with a hack saw to create a ramp and holding latch. It was then temporarily secured in place using a few screws until i was certain that it did the job properly. When i am happy it works as desired i will drill holes in the plate and paint it the same colour as the gate to give a matching finish.
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The gates posts are 75mm x 75mm x 1800mm pressure treated posts. These had to be 'notched' to allow them to fit around part of the frame of the deck. As shown in this photograph the area to be removed was marked then a saw was used to cut small sections. A chisel was used to gradually remove the small sections of wood working from both sides until the correct profile was achieved.
To create a stiff supporting structure for the gate, holes were drilled through the newel post and gate post and M8 stainless steel threaded bar was cut to size and passed through both holes as shown in this photograph. Stainless steel dome nuts were used to provide a clean snag free finish on the inner and outer post surfaces. M8 stainless steel nyloc nuts were used on the inner surfaces to set the correct distance between the two posts and to provide the tension to stiffen the structure. Since this picture was taken the ball tops were added to the tops of the gate posts. The gate was also cleaned, lightly sanded and painted a dark green to match the trim colour of the caravan. |
This picture shows the completed gate after it was painted and the posts had the decorative balls attached.
As of January 2016 i have not decided whether or not to paint the handrail the same colour as the gate.