This gate frame is not a square. It's 47" x 42", so the cuts for the diagonal are not 45°. I laid the rectangle on top of the diagonal, traced the angles and determined that the cuts needed to be 50° and 40°.
You want the diagonal pointing down on the HINGE side. As wood shrinks and screw/nails loosen the pressure will continue to keep the diagonal union tight.
And late now but I have built countless gates. about 25 years ago I switched to to this kit and the gates never sag.
So one gate build turned into two. Gate #1 is the one that was planned from the beginning. I needed to replace the sagging gate in a 35 YO fence. Gate #2 just sort of happened because I had a bunch of left over wood.
Gate #1
Key notes - - In order to match the existing fence yet still make the gate as strong as possible, I wasted a lot of wood. Using 2 x 4's for the frame and standard width pickets (5 1/2") would have made the gate too bulky. Instead, I used 5/4 x 6 decking for the frame, ripped down to 4", adding a bullnose on the ripped edge to match the factory edge. I also ripped down the pickets to 3 1/4" to get the spacing I needed and match the existing board-on-board style fence.
- The old gate was sagging for more than one reason. Not only was the original frame built incorrectly, but the hinge post is no longer plumb or straight. It leans in towards the latch side slightly and the top 1/3 also curves towards the latch side. Let's just say that some tweaks were required to get the gate to work properly and appear level.
Here's the gate and one of the required tweaks. You can tell how out of plumb/curved the hinge post is by the way that I had to mount the bottom hinge.
After I finished that gate, I had a bunch of wood left over from the ripped down pickets. Let's see, what can I do with them?
My daughter has a dog and we need a gate on the deck for when he visits. Over the winter we just used a piece of scrap plywood over the opening but spring is here so it was time to upgrade.
I grabbed a few of the scrap strips from the ripped down pickets and came up with an idea. Just for fun, I decided to waste a lot of time and use half lap joints instead of just attaching the pickets to an internal frame, like the other one. I also thinks it matches the deck railings better.
This is what I ended up with. It's not mounted yet, but I'm going to use strap hinges and mount it to the existing gate mounting strip that is still on the house from when we had dogs many years ago.
Wow that fence is 35 years old??????
Anyway,,,,,, ELEGANT solution to the leaning post. Good Job!
It looks light enough to probably not sag. BUT if it does you can add a turn buckle to both sides. Adding to only one side will likely warp the gate.
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