TerryMcK Posted October 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2014 I bet you're very relieved now that you decided to buy house number 31 and not that other lovely one at number 462353242 down the street Absolutely. Two numbers was more than enough for me handheld with a router! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wouldwurker Posted October 28, 2014 Report Share Posted October 28, 2014 Sadly, Terry's first name for the castle, Plato's Retreat, had already been taken. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewald Swanepoel Posted October 28, 2014 Report Share Posted October 28, 2014 Do you live in a castle or something? Who names their house? Come to think of it, I thought the name Dunluce rang a bell. I remember now, some 15 years ago, visiting Dunluce Castle on the coast somewhere in Northern Ireland. It was a pretty awesome castle that sat there perched on the edge of a cliff with a breathtaking view. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted October 28, 2014 Author Report Share Posted October 28, 2014 Come to think of it, I thought the name Dunluce rang a bell. I remember now, some 15 years ago, visiting Dunluce Castle on the coast somewhere in Northern Ireland. It was a pretty awesome castle that sat there perched on the edge of a cliff with a breathtaking view. That's correct. I've not been to NI but interweb gargles have found it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 3, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 The final few coats of finish are going on. It's taken some time but worth it. I will do a full posting of some other work on the project that I've been doing in the next day or so Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
..Kev Posted November 3, 2014 Report Share Posted November 3, 2014 Looking forward to seeing it Terry! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted November 4, 2014 Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 Great looking Terry! I used to live in a castle, with 730 other inmates but that was awhile back and a period I'd rather forget! Hope my children don' t read this! Just kidding Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewald Swanepoel Posted November 4, 2014 Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 I hope we'll be seeing some pictures and explanations of how the gate is hung. I'd be particularly interested in that as well. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bgreenb Posted November 4, 2014 Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 I hope we'll be seeing some pictures and explanations of how the gate is hung. I'd be particularly interested in that as well. Me too! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 4, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 4, 2014 I hope we'll be seeing some pictures and explanations of how the gate is hung. I'd be particularly interested in that as well. I will indeed be documenting that too. It is all part of the project and I'm currently making the hinge post. This will be bolted to the existing brick pillar. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Great looking Terry! I used to live in a castle, with 730 other inmates but that was awhile back and a period I'd rather forget! Hope my children don' t read this! Just kidding Now I know why I like you! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Popular Post wdwerker Posted November 5, 2014 Popular Post Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 So this is going to be a well hung gate ? 5 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewald Swanepoel Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 So this is going to be a well hung gate ? I was waiting for that one Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 So this is going to be a well hung gate ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 OK gate fans you asked for it! This is the design of the hinge post - I know it's just a lump of stock with a bit of hardware bolted on. Ordinarily I would not even consider documenting a piece of wood bolted onto a brick pillar. But as this project has become somewhat of an epic I think it needs recording. It may give you a few ideas. I wanted the post to follow the same lines as the gate but have the following criteria: Made from same species Capable of mounting the hinges Capable of being bolted to the brick pillar Should follow the same lines as the gate Have rainwater run off Be finished with the same varnish. So out came Sketchup again and I drew the post. I also drew in the hinges that I am using with corresponding mounting holes. These are 2 feet long. The top mounting bracket will be mounted upside down to prevent the gate being lifted from its hinges. There is also a self return spring to close the gate. This too had to be modelled in Sketchup. All those models are now available in the Sketchup 3D warehouse as I've uploaded them for other people to use in their projects. The physical spring is made from stainless steel and the hinges are made from mild steel that has been heavily galvanized. The intention is to fix all the hardware with appropriate stainless steel fasteners to avoid rot and blackening of the oak. Hinge post detail. I have opted for 5 - 10mm (3/8") diameter shield bolts to secure the post to the brickwork. All the load is transferred to the lower hinge bracket. I was running out of white oak but had sufficient left to make both the hinge post and striker post. However I needed to do some judicious laminating to gain enough stock. After the epoxy had cured I milled the post to dimension and glued a face board on what will be the front (as viewed from the road). The overhang of the facing board is not strictly necessary as it doesn't do anything apart from hide the gap between gate and post. But it looks attractive especially with the top detail seen here in the Sketchup representation. Top of hinge post detail. The decorative brickwork at the top needs chasing out slightly. This will be done on site when the gate is about to be mounted. I have the hinge post in glue up at the moment. I will show progress on it and why I came up with the hole positioning in a future post. 2 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewald Swanepoel Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 I know bolting a plank to a brick wall shouldn't be interesting, but it is. I have opted for 5 - 10mm (3/8") diameter shield bolts to secure the post to the brickwork. All the load is transferred to the lower hinge bracket. I'm not familiar with "shield bolts" is there another name for them as well? I'm also curious as to why you decided for the lower hinge to carry the weight? I guess, it's a bit like the question of which direction the diagonal member should run where different folks will have different opinions but I'm interested to hear your reasoning. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 I know bolting a plank to a brick wall shouldn't be interesting, but it is. I'm not familiar with "shield bolts" is there another name for them as well? I'm also curious as to why you decided for the lower hinge to carry the weight? I guess, it's a bit like the question of which direction the diagonal member should run where different folks will have different opinions but I'm interested to hear your reasoning. Yes in Europe they go under the name of RawlBolt. http://www.rawlplug.co.uk/en/products/334/975/1004/1218 Whenever you use a hinge of this type it is impossible to get both bearing surfaces to meet. There will always be a gap. You can set them so you think they are both touch correctly and then when you come back to it a day later you find the wood has moved or the metal has expanded and before you know it there is either a gap or it has tightened up. SO best to build clearance into the setup in the first place. As the top bracket is being hung upside down to stop the gate being lifted off I will leave a slight gap at the top (probably about 2mm or 3/32") to compensate. The next bit is not for Eric to read - nothing to see here A bit of physics here. If you are familiar with parts in a motor engine for an example you find that the crankshaft has one bearing which is held captive (to stop it sliding around longitudinally) and the other bearings float in their respective housings. This is for the exact same reason as I have outlined in the hinge setup. You can't machine accurately enough for one (that's why engineers work to tolerances) and the engine heats up. The components of an engine are usually made from different materials (aluminium - note the spelling , cast iron, steel) and they all have different coefficients of expansion. So if you held all the bearings on the crankshaft captive when the whole lot heated up then the engine would seize up. So they allow for expansion and contraction of all the components in the design. Eric can look again now. If I was mounting the hinge brackets so that they as per the drawing then I wouldn't have to worry. Any expansion or contraction wouldn't matter. One time it may be bearing on the upper bracket - another time it could be bearing on the bottom bracket. Occasionally (but not often - only when I win the lottery) it may bear on both brackets. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eric. Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 What was that blurry paragraph in the middle of your post? Totally illegible type...strange. I'm interested in and enjoy learning about the mechanics of things...I just don't care to illustrate those mechanics with mathematical formulas. I find it pointless. If I can't grasp a concept with visual inspection, my intellectual journey ends there. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dewald Swanepoel Posted November 5, 2014 Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Aha, yes I know exactly what a Rawlbolt is, that's the name we use here as well. I don't know anything stronger than that to mount something into masonry. As for the hinges. Thanks for the great explanation. I realise that you can't have both hinges carry the weight but I'm curious to know why you choose to have the lower hinge carry the weight as opposed to the upper hinge. I mean, you could mount the upper hinge as per the drawing and turn the lower hinge upside down. I'm not sure one way is necessarily better than the other, but I'm just curious to know if you have a specific reason for choosing one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 What was that blurry paragraph in the middle of your post? Totally illegible type...strange. I'm interested in and enjoy learning about the mechanics of things...I just don't care to illustrate those mechanics with mathematical formulas. I find it pointless. If I can't grasp a concept with visual inspection, my intellectual journey ends there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 5, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 5, 2014 Aha, yes I know exactly what a Rawlbolt is, that's the name we use here as well. I don't know anything stronger than that to mount something into masonry. As for the hinges. Thanks for the great explanation. I realise that you can't have both hinges carry the weight but I'm curious to know why you choose to have the lower hinge carry the weight as opposed to the upper hinge. I mean, you could mount the upper hinge as per the drawing and turn the lower hinge upside down. I'm not sure one way is necessarily better than the other, but I'm just curious to know if you have a specific reason for choosing one? Glad you understood the blurry bit . There was no particular reason to choosing the bottom as a bearing surface. I guess it comes from my engineering days when in an application similar to this a thrust bearing taking loads like this was almost always mounted on the end of a shaft rather than in the middle. I'm treating the bottom of the gate as the end of the shaft. The top hinge will only act as guidance and a pivot point. Essentially both ways are acceptable. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 6, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 In the shop at the moment making the hinge pillar. First coat of thinned finish on. Off to London tomorrow to see the poppies at the Tower Of London so no shop time. This is an art installation called "Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red" and there are 888,246 ceramic poppies planted in the Tower's moat, each poppy representing a British military fatalities during the first world war. It finishes on Wed 12th November just after Armistice Day. https://poppies.hrp.org.uk/buy-a-poppy/ Now that's what I call a castle. I wonder if they need a new gate? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Coop Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 When I saw the pic I just knew you were going to say that was the view from your window each morning That is going to look fabulous in person. Now, I guess I'm just a dumb old country fella, cause I thought each hinge carried equal weight. I thought you could stick a gate on a post and you were done I'm totally amazed at how much I learn by neglecting my work here at the office and tuning into this site Terry, I'm totally (my 13 yo granddaughter was over this weekend, totally) out of likes (who set that rule) or I would give you one for real, on the info. Enjoy your trip to the castle! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RichardA Posted November 6, 2014 Report Share Posted November 6, 2014 Oh, how I'd love to see that castle, especially for the remembrence! I wasn't around then,[though I did catch my first 5 years in WW2 as a rug rat] People that fought for those wars, understood what their country meant to them..... Seems like that's gone now! What a shame...... Thank's Terry Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TerryMcK Posted November 16, 2014 Author Report Share Posted November 16, 2014 Hopefully today Sunday the gate will be fitted. I do have to complete a honey do though first. A couple of weeks ago we had our original non broadband telephone line converted to fibre broadband making the 2nd line running into the house redundant. Unfortunately the "new" broadband line is downstairs the original broadband being upstairs. All the fixed computers (servers) are upstairs and they don't have wireless network cards. The laptops and ipads do of course so can make use of the wireless technology. Use of powerline adapters sort of works but is not brilliant as the upstairs and downstairs electrical circuits are on different physical circuits. So I wanted to lay in a structured cable running under the floor. At the moment there is a very long network cable running down the stairs and the boss wants it to disappear. So I spent yesterday Saturday lifting floorboards, repairing construction guys hidden features - they had run some new water pipes and an access floor board had not been fixed correctly, it was 18" long and was only fixed at one end. The other end was hanging in fresh air. Normally it is covered by carpet and a blanket chest is over that area so we were unaware. If it hadn't been we could have put our feet through it and emerged through the ceiling below. I think it has been like this since those cowboys came 4 years ago. It's surprising what you find when you move a carpet! I certainly would not employ them again. So after making repairs I just had time to pull the network cabling through and secure. Sunday morning will be spent terminating the cabling and then hopefully it's gate time. The gate and support posts are complete, fully varnished and ready to go. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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