Fig. 177.
Fig. 178.
As board and picket fences have gradually replaced rail and other primitive fences, useful but inconvenient “bars” have begun to disappear, and tidy gates are seen. The saving in time required to take down and put up bars, rather than open and close gates, amounts to a good deal. A good wooden gate will last a long time. Gateways should be at least fourteen feet wide. All the wood used in the construction of the gate should be well seasoned. It is best to plane all the wood-work, though this is not absolutely necessary. Cover each tenon with thick paint before it is placed in its mortise. Fasten the brace to the cross-piece with small bolts or wrought nails well clinched. Mortise the ends of the boards into the end-posts, and secure them in place with wooden pins wedged at both ends, or iron bolts. The best are made of pine fence-boards six inches wide; the ends should be four by twenty-four inch scantling, although the one at the latch may be lighter. Five cross-pieces are enough. The lighter the gate in proportion to strength, the better it is.
Fig. 179.
Fig. 180.
There is but one right way to brace a gate, and many wrong ones. The object of bracing is to strengthen the gate, and also to prevent its sagging. Gates sag in two ways; by the moving to the one side of the posts upon which the gates are hung, and the settling of the gates themselves. Unless braced the only thing to hold the gate square is the perfect rigidity of the tenons in the mortises; but the weight of the gate will loosen these, and allow the end of the gate opposite the hinges to sag. It is plain that a brace placed like that shown in [figure 177] will not prevent this settling down. The only opposition it can give is the resistance of the nails, and these will draw loose in the holes as readily as the tenons in the mortises. A brace set as shown at [figure 178] is not much better, as the resistance must depend upon the rigidity of the upright piece in the middle, and the bolts or nails holding it will give way enough to allow the gate to sag. The method shown in [figure 179] is fully as faulty, while the form shown in [figure 180] is even worse.
