Wooden Gate - Reused Materials

I'm in the middle of the house renovation, and I've had some wood that was coming from demolition and was in a good condition. I was in a desperate need of the gate, to make sure my dog can't get out. I did some temporary solution with a metal mesh, but I dreamed about the white "Brittany" inspired gate. So I did it myself. It's my first carpentry project and I've learned a lot along the way. I will summarise my learning at the end.

• Old wood that was dividing two rooms inside the house (Groove and tongue joint)
• Plywood 120x40x0.5
• Black hinges and lock
• Table saw
• Router with 6mm straight bit and 14mm straight bit
• Wagner W950
• Outdoor acrylic white paint
• Outdoor white matt lacquer

After taking the measurements and creating a sketch of the Fence

I've prepared:

• 4 vertical pieces 10.9cmx113cm with a 9mm groove on one (long) side
• 2 horizontal 10.9cmx113.4cm with a groove on the one long side and lounges on the short ends (the bottom "horizontal")
• 2 horizontal 11.8cmx113.4cm with a groove on the long side and tongue on three other sides (the middle one)
• 2 horizontal 10.9x113.4cm with a tongue on 3 sides and one (straight long side)
• 10 vertical 10.cmx42cm with grooves on the short sides
• 24 10.4x2cm pieces to hide vertical tounges
• some "cut" tongues to hide grooves on horizontal pieces
• 2 pieces of plywood 133.4cmx40cmx0.5cm

I've made grooves and tongues with a router and a straight bit. I've used 6mm for grooves and a bigger one to clean out surface and make tongues. I've constructed a "fence" for my router to "pretend" the router table.

When prepared all the wood. I've done the first fit. I've realised that my vertical pieces are too long, and it doesn't look good so I decided to cut them shorter.

After I was happy with how the gate looked I glued it together. I didn't have a clamp long enough so I use a belt to squeeze the glue out. For shorter pieces (hiding the grooves) I've used my clamps. When it was glued I've sanded it to make sure that it's smooth and ready for the impregnant.

Firstly I've secured the wood with the impregnant and wait 24 hours for it to sink. I've prepared the surface to paint in my "garage" without the doors. I've used thick foil to secure the wall, and diluted the paint with the water. It was the first time I've used the Wagner pesto, so after the first layer I've had to sand some parts to even it out. After It I painted it with the second layer, and when it was dry I used white matt lacquer to secure it on top.

I fitted it before mounting but I didn't calculate the ground level differences which caused the gate to be not levelled correctly. I pre-drilled the wholes in poles as I used 5cm wood screws.

What I would do differently:

• Level the ground (I can still do this and just put one pole a little bit lower)
• Be more accurate with a measurement I've had some perfect fits and some very not perfect fits.
• Don't do grooves on the whole length. It has made the vertical pieces to not be stable during glueing and made the whole assembly harder. I would just do grooves on some parts and made tongues to fit.
• Use longer clamps, the belt solution was ok but not the best.

What I've learned:

• How do I want to setup my workshop (Where should be the tablesaw etc.)
• What stuff do I need to buy, I've watched a lot of YouTubers and I wasn't sure what do I need but now I know what is essential to me.
• I need a jig for miter cuts
• I will probably build a router table.