As I keep repeating, the nice thing about loose tenon mortise and tenon joints is that you can dry fit everything, disassemble and modify if need be, and measure for what's next directly from what you've got so far. THAT came in real handy with this project. As mentioned earlier, the design cirteria changed AFTER the two panels closest to you in the left picture below had already been made. The panel closest to you was to run down the driveway, the shorter one before the door to run acrossed the driveway, square to the existing fence. Because the mortises in the top and bottom rail and the mortises on the posts are all referenced from the same ends the panels were easily interchangeable. And because I'd made all the rails and posts BEFORE I made the door, I could dry fit the "outside" and get the width of the door directly from what I had - without a measuring tape - just using slip sticks.
Before final glue up, using 30 minute epoxy, I'll drill out a hole in the bottom of each post for a threaded T-Nut which will be hammered in place AND epoxied then thread in a short carriage bold to a) get the end of the post off the ground, and b) allow for some leveling if necessary - which will probably need to be done since the driveway slopes a little and the top of the existing fence doesn't. When everything's all together I'll add 2x4 top plates to tie everything together- attaching them with screws in countersunk hole, capped with plugs in case this thing needs to be reconfigured at some point in the future. I'll bevel the top edge so water won't sit on top.
more to come
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