Loading…
11
Put my first gate hinge in crooked three times before I figured out the trick
For the longest time I would just eyeball the hinge placement on wood gates and then wonder why they sagged after a season. Last spring I was putting up a 4 foot gate on a job out in Lubbock and my helper asked why I wasn't using a spacer block. I had no clue what he meant. He grabbed a scrap 2x4, clamped it to the post, and set the hinge right against it for perfect spacing every time. Has anyone else stumbled onto a simple jig or trick that made a basic job way easier?
2 comments
Log in to join the discussion
Log In2 Comments
kim.hannah5mo ago
Actually I was reading something last week about how the old school carpenters used to mark hinge placement with a pencil line on the gate stile and then just line the hinge leaf up to it by eye. Sounds crazy but they had steady hands I guess. My first few gates I did by myself looked like they belonged in a funhouse until I learned about the spacer trick from a older guy at the lumber yard. He told me to use two pennies taped to the hinge leaf for consistent gaps between the gate and the post. Now I just keep a stack of pennies in my truck for that exact reason.
4
betty_ward5mo ago
Pennies for hinges, thats a good one.
9