I've been making a featheredge garden gate this weekend, and have just got to fit the diagonal bracing. Most gates I've seen in the Sheds and garden centres have the diagonals parallel - bottom left to centre right, and centre left to top right. One or two have them meeting in the middle - bottom left to centre right, and centre right to top left.
Any reason one should be better than the other?
Surely it's top to opening side and bottom to hinge side - L & R have nothing to do with it. I assume it's so that the brace is in compression and that avoids having the joints under tension.
An X (or XX for wide gates) design is pretty common, addressing TNP's comments in both ways.
+1
Well all things being equal, I would say one big brace which is lower on the hinged edge. Those with two braces and a central bar, are a little harder to call of course. My old woodworking master at school always baked the doors so that the hanging weight was compressing the cross stay, not pulling it off. Brian
For 'clever' gates made by good joiners/carpenters maybe that's true but in my bodjoinery world the brace will be on one side or the other so the joints will be in shear! :-)
the differences are fairly trivial. I prefer the brace in tension as it tends to pull the door together if any bits get loose.
NT
Compression - always, and a tight fit, unless you want the latch side of the gate to slowly droop.
We had one where the brace went from hinge-top to lath bottom. The joints opened up, and it sagged. So I put a wire across the opposite diagonal, and a little tension got it back in place.
(OK, a lot of tension. Two strands, and a bit of wood wound around and around to twist the wires.)
Andy
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