Removing wood from a gatepost

Stan in Oly, WA

Well-known Member
Last summer I built and installed a big, heavy wooden back gate. I thought I had allowed sufficient leeway for expansion of the wood during the damp part of the year, but I didn?t. Right now, following months of hot, dry weather, the gate is about half an inch from the gatepost on the latch side when closed. By the end of last year, it was so tightly swollen shut that we couldn?t use it. I need to remove ?? or 3/8? from the gatepost, a pressure treated 4X6, the full 80? height of the gate. For a number of reasons, removing any wood from the gate rather than from the gatepost is not an option. Moving the gatepost entirely would be the worst possible solution, so I'd do almost anything else first---including just not being able to use the gate for seven months of the year. The result will be highly visible for as long as we?re in this house, so I?m willing to go to quite a bit of trouble to get this right. I?d appreciate suggestions that would give me more methods to consider. Thanks.

Stan
 
Most wood expands and shrinks across the width of the grain rather than along the length of the grain. Are you sure the gate posts are not moving as the soil conditions change? It might help to post some pictures.
 
Stan,

I would use a marking gauge and draw a line down either side of the post at the depth you want to remove. Then I would attack it with a belt sander with a coarse belt stopping just shy of the lines. Then I would use progressively finer belts to sneak up on the line.

It won't be perfect, but if you take your time and concentrate on making it flat and smooth as you are finishing it I think you could make it acceptable.

Cliff(VA)
 
Working on the 4" or 6" side?

As you describe it my first thought would be to use a circular saw and go at it from both sides. To keep a straight edge you could finish nail a strip of wood inboard from the edge at a distance set to where the cut will get you what you need. I have used this to trim doors and it works pretty well. Easier to do if you are working the 4" dimension.

The other thing I have done is to set the circular saw blade to the depth of what you want to take off and then make repeated cuts across the face. Spaced closely you can knock the loose pieces out with a hammer and then either sand or chisel off the high spots. I have used this one when building mail box posts, firewood racks, anything where nesting 2 pieces of wood together will give be a more ridged structure. It's just a poor man's dado approach.
 
(quoted from post at 13:22:46 08/20/18) Most wood expands and shrinks across the width of the grain rather than along the length of the grain. Are you sure the gate posts are not moving as the soil conditions change? It might help to post some pictures.
Agreed.
 
Couple of options, Best looking is the circular saw ripping to depth from each side, rarely do the cut edges align perfectly. Will have to finish up the cut near the ground with a hand saw or Sawzall. Draw lines down both sides and cut with a chainsaw with very small teeth, have helper make sure your on the mark so you get a square cut /could follow up with a belt sander. gobble
 
+1 on the coarse grit belt sander, will go faster/easier than you think. Just make sure to not let the belt get too hot, can cause PT lumber to get gummy.

Since I have one I'd use my power planer to get the first 1/4" and the belt sander for the last 1/8".

Make sure to reseal the lumber when you're done, should be a piece of cake.
 
Agree about the planer. Have a previous version of
this Harbor Freight one & have used it many times
for roughing boards in, like bowed 2x?s. Loaned it to
my folks for similar work and they bought one to
keep.
HF planer
 
Hi, I don't know exactly what you are doing but if it's what Im thinking, I would nail a strip on each side for your circular saw to run against then the piece in the center left uncut can be quickly cut with a sawzall. Ed Will Oliver BC
 
ss55; Virtually no possibility of the gateposts moving. They're set two feet deep in concrete in narrow holes in hardpan, and there's a lintel across the top of the gateposts. The wood is expanding across the width of the grain the whole length of the 4X6's, and also undoubtedly along the whole 80" length of the 2X4 frame of the gate. When the gate is closed, its frame is flush with the 4" width (3-1/2") of the 4X6 inside and out. In the winter the latch side of the gate was jammed so tightly against the 4X6 that I couldn't get it open. Now there is a 1/2" space there.

Stan
 
tomtinker; The gate is 40" wide, 80" high, and 3-1/2" thick, the same as the thickness of the 4X6's. It doesn't swing both ways, but when it's closed it has to be flush with the 6" faces of the two 4X6 gateposts, both inside and outside.

Stan
 
tomtinker; It has strap hinges. Since the gate swings open away from the gatepost on the hinge side, it can close tight, so there's not any space to be picked up from that side.

Stan
 
Wood is going to expand and contract forever. You are just working with too close tolerances for wood. The gate hardware should have enough slack to allow for a half inch or more movement.
 
Cliff; I might do that. The smoke got out of my Craftsman 4" X 24" belt sander a couple of years ago after 40 years of good service. I've been considering buying the Harbor Freight version of that size sander even though it gets mixed reviews. Using a Harbor Freight tool real hard as soon as you buy it is always a good idea. Thanks.

Stan
 
Bob - MI; The 4" side, I'm glad to say. I've done both of those things you suggest, particularly using the saw to cut dadoes. I've done a lot of that. That would probably be my preferred method, but I thought I'd ask and see if anybody could suggest a way of doing it with less possibility of something going wrong.

Stan
 
tomturkey; I'm considering using the circular saw method you described to remove 1/4" (or 3/8") and then finishing it off with a belt sander for the final 1/8". In my experience those deep rip cuts usually end up needing a lot of cleaning up, so I might as well use the clean up for the final stock removal.

Stan
 
booyah11; Good advice. I have a Makita power planer, but I hadn't considered using it because unlike some of the other methods suggested here, I've never discovered a sure way to limit the total depth of the cut. With a router or a circular saw with the blade set to a given depth, you can usually attach a makeshift jig to the work that will limit the depth of the cut, but I've never figured out a way to do that with my planer. But it could be a convenient way to remove almost as much stock as I need, then finish off with a belt sander to maintain more control. Thanks.

Stan
 
Dusty MI; Maybe not. I built a slightly smaller gate of the same style in another place on my property, and it has worked fine without any adjustment for about 25 years now. I expect this one not to give me any more trouble once I've got it dialed in. I'll admit that the problem with it took me by surprise, though. I guess I'm losing my touch.

Stan
 
ed will; It's what you're thinking. I still might do it that way, or do it that way not quite as deep as I want, then get the final depth as I clean it up with some slower method---like a belt sander. I like it that the guide strips prevent the saw from taking off more than I want, but in my experience it also requires something for the outboard side of the footplate to ride on to prevent the blade from tipping into the stock being cut. I no longer feel that I can trust precision work to the steadiness of my hands and the sharpness of my vision.

Stan
 
Stephen Newell; You're right, of course. I'm not sure where I went wrong when I was building it last summer. I copied the tolerances of another gate of the same style which has not given me any trouble in the 25 years or so since I built it. For all I know, maybe building this gate 1/16" narrower would have been all it took. The problem is that it's hard to work on it in the winter but that's the only time I would get immediate feedback about whether I've adjusted it enough. I guess that overdoing it now is one way to make sure it won't stick in January.

Stan
 
Is there any way you could change the hinges to something similar to this. These hinges you could adjust from time to time to keep the gate closing correctly. https://tate-fencing.co.uk/product/adjustable-hook-and-band-hinges/
a277550.jpg
 
A good ole fashion hand operated block plane. You will be surprised how fast one can remove material.
 
Sawzall blade would be long enough .Use angle iron for a guide. Clean up with hand plane . A properly adjusted hand plane will work quickly.
 
(quoted from post at 02:53:38 08/23/18) That adjustable hinge is real slick. I like it. Some of the simplest solutions.
fter 3 days, if words could fix it, it would be done! :?
 
JMOR; It isn't something that has to get done before I can do anything else. Temperamentally I'd rather do a project more slowly and right than quickly and wrong.

Stan
 

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