The Last Post (almost)

The aris rails on the long section seemed determined to undermine the accepted wisdom that the shortest distance between to points is a straight line.  In retrospect it was perhaps asking too much to expect them not to bow and twist given the gyrations in temperature and humidity recently.

The solution I came up with was to add an extra 'post' screwed to both rails, to help get them back on the straight and narrow. The width of 3" should match in with the visible width of the boards.

At the base of the fence the gravel board stays level and thereby disappears into the slope of the drive.  There's also a retaining board to keep the earth away from the back of the fence.

Finally the painted feather-edge boards get pilot holes drilled to prevent splitting and get nailed in place.

The temporary spacer between the gate posts is to encourage them to maintain an even spacing until the gate is fitted.

The Fence Post Hokey-Cokey

The second post that had to be set into the metal holder in the concrete proved more troublesome. It got well and truly stuck, half way in.  I had to resort to a block of wood with a tenon inserted in the post mortice, and a car jack to get it out.  It was variously in, out and shaken all about.  I finally got it in satisfactorily and started to forge ahead with the second section.

Fence post #7

There's no substitute for looking at everything in place before the final fixing, and I decided the top of the boards seemed a bit low.  I had a plan for this in mind, simply adding a gravel board to raise the level by about 6 inches.  I tried this out and then went ahead with the final design.

The gravel board is screwed to the post using pocket screws, and I made a jig from a feather board off-cut to ensure even spacing.  The overlap of the boards is 11/16 of an inch and they are nailed using 1½" (40mm) galvanised nails. 

Fence Post #6

In the past few days I have:

• Finished and fitted the last mortice & tenon
• Painted the posts and rails with timber treatment
• Made a wooden cap to protect the top of the post while I 'persuaded' it into the metal post holder with a sledgehammer.  The cap broke up on the final blow, but did its job.
• Final installation of the posts and rails for the first section.  This took a bit of patience with only two hands but I got there in the end.

I clamped a few boards to the rail to give an idea of how they will look.

Today I started giving each featheredge board a light sand and paint.  There's over 60 to do, so it's a good job I can listen to the cricket in the background!

Fence Post #5

The post and rails for the second section of fence are now virtually complete.  The post attached to the garage wall had to be cut at an angle along its length, like the one by the house.  This then allowed the rails to be measured in situ as before.

It also took a while to take down the old fence and remove the stump of the gate post from the metal post holder sunk into the concrete.  A combination of drilling and chiselling got it all out eventually, and both post holders were cleaned up and given a coat of hammer enamel paint.

I reckon to give everything a coat of wood preservative before final installation, especially as the post bottoms and insides of the joints hopefully wont see daylight for another 20 years plus!

Fence Post #4

The heatwave has somewhat discouraged lengthy outdoor work, but there's still some progress to report.

The post and rails for the first section are pretty much done and tested in situ.

The aris rail tenons were fitted to the mortises on the post at the wall end, and the gate post clamped in place to measure the final length of each rail.

The tenons are cross-cut with a hand saw and then split and pared with a 1" chisel.

I'm pleased with the good fit of the rails and that everything is pretty level, plumb and square!  The finished height will be reduced by about 6" once the gate post is driven home, and the wall post is cut down accordingly.  The render needs levelling out and a lick of paint before fitting the post.

A little of the roughness of the sawn timber has been removed with a Stanley #80 scraper plane, but not so smooth that the final timber treatment would have trouble penetrating the surface.

Fence post #3

A little distracted by the start of the Ashes cricket today, but making steady progress.  I've figured out and obtained all the necessary timber, with the longer stock delivered this morning.

To make a smarter job, and practice some woodworking skills, I'm going to mortice the aris rails into the posts rather than using big shiny fixing brackets.  In theory they should look something like this:

The first post, to be secured to the house wall, is completed:

The back face had to be cut at 70 degrees to account for the angle between the fence and the house wall.  

Cutting and planing 6' x 3" of timber with a hand saw and plane was good exercise!  The next post and aris rails should be easier by comparison.