hello
I’m making a gate that is 1500mm high and 620mm wide. I’m decided to challenge myself and have a go at mortise and tenon joints for the frame - 2 trial runs down and getting there
We have batten fencing and I'd like to match the gate to it so to further challenge myself, I'd thought to fix the battens horizontally within the verticals(not sure the correct term?) of the gate again with mortise and tenon joints. All together it's going to mean around 20 battens with 40 joints so I will either succeed and learn how to make them reasonably well, or throw my toys out of the pram and take the simpler approach of attaching them to the outside of the frame.
I'd wanted to avoid the simpler approach partly because I think this is a good opportunity to learn, and also because I wanted to keep the thickness of the gate down a bit. It's always there as a failsafe option.
If I do succeed with the mortise and tenon approach, do I also need to put a diagonal brace in? My understanding is the diagonal brace helps transfer load from the outside top to the hinge side bottom to prevent sagging, but if I have the battens as part of the structure of the gate will they serve that purpose adequately?
Also, I asked this on another forum and I had a reply that said I should not consider mortise and tenon joints for external work as they will rot. If that's the case, what is a reliable/robust alternative?
Sorry for any incorrect terminology
Cheers
David
I’m making a gate that is 1500mm high and 620mm wide. I’m decided to challenge myself and have a go at mortise and tenon joints for the frame - 2 trial runs down and getting there
We have batten fencing and I'd like to match the gate to it so to further challenge myself, I'd thought to fix the battens horizontally within the verticals(not sure the correct term?) of the gate again with mortise and tenon joints. All together it's going to mean around 20 battens with 40 joints so I will either succeed and learn how to make them reasonably well, or throw my toys out of the pram and take the simpler approach of attaching them to the outside of the frame.
I'd wanted to avoid the simpler approach partly because I think this is a good opportunity to learn, and also because I wanted to keep the thickness of the gate down a bit. It's always there as a failsafe option.
If I do succeed with the mortise and tenon approach, do I also need to put a diagonal brace in? My understanding is the diagonal brace helps transfer load from the outside top to the hinge side bottom to prevent sagging, but if I have the battens as part of the structure of the gate will they serve that purpose adequately?
Also, I asked this on another forum and I had a reply that said I should not consider mortise and tenon joints for external work as they will rot. If that's the case, what is a reliable/robust alternative?
Sorry for any incorrect terminology
Cheers
David
