STEP 1: THE DOOR LOCK
Before even starting to build our gate, the first thing I did was choose the digital lock. Reason being, I wanted to lock to look like it was integrated inside the battens for a neat and seemless look, so I had to make sure that the size of it would fit.. Let me explain...
For most digital locks that I've seen online when I was looking, the backsets were either 60mm or 70mm. *The backset is the distance from the edge of the door to the centre of the handle*
Meaning that, the amount of timber you need to have from the edge of the door should be "backset + half the width of the handle" . This is your formula to go by. If your handle is 80mm wide and your backset is 60mm, you need to have at least 100mm wide of timber frame. Which can be a bit tricky to achieve.
I've seen some people in the past use an extra batten inbetween 2 others where the lock is and I don't think it looks that great so here's what I've done to avoid that.
What I did was place the middle support to cover the top half of the handle and I installed the diagonal frame support exactly where the bottom part of the handle was left hanging in the air therefore giving me enough timber to securely screw the back plates of the lock onto. There was only a little tiny bit of the handle that wasn't covered but luckily there was no screw hole just in that spot 👌
This is the digital lock we've chosen:
STEP 2: THE TIMBER AND HARDWARE
For the frame I've chosen to go with a hardwood, my timber preference for gates will always be kiln dried hardwood as it doesn't twist and warp over time unlike pine or other lightweight timbers.
For this particular door, it seemed like a lot of our local suppliers were out of stock of F17 timber so I found some 70 x 35mm F27 Hardwood at bunnings and decided to just go with this. A bit dearer than the F17 but for a reason, it's definitely more dense and more solid... the downside on the other hand is that it's definitely heavier meaning you're gonna have to make sure you use really good heavy duty hinges for your door.
We have a pretty small door 1500mm high x 900mm wide and we've used 3 of these Hinges from Bunnings. They also matched the nickel finish of our digital lock perfectly
They're self-closing, galvanised and not too bulky making it the perfect fit for a small gate. Unfortunately, there wasn't a chart where I could get a rough idea of how much weight it could handle, but I installed the top and bottom hinges first and saw it was ok, the self-closing mechanism was working fine but it did feel like it needed a little more support so we've added a third hinge.
STEP 3 : PREPPING
The battens I've used are Silver top Ash bevelled battens 55mm wide x 40mm deep and just like every natural timber, it had a fair bit of tannin in it so we've given them a good rinse at least a couple of times and sanded them back both times after they dried before applying the stain.
Some of you may want to apply some tannin and oil remover as well .. but I found the stain I used sealed the timber quite well so I didn't think it was necessary. We've used Cabot's Aquadeck in Natural .
We also rinsed and sanded back the F27 hardwood as well before painting it white
STEP 4 : MAKING THE FRAME
I personally think that the best most solid way of building a gate frame is with lap joints but you can make it in other ways if you prefer
Mark your Vertical supports with a pencil and a square
Mark your half lines and draw a cross on the section that needs to be cut off
Adjust your saw blade to the desired height, make sure the teeth sit half a mm above your line
Add a little block behind your timber to that the blade can go all the way through and cut little pieces at a time. (Make sure your block sits lower than your cutting line)
Once done, take a hammer and break off the excess
Use a sharp chisel and remove any other excess until the surface is flat and even
Cut all your check outs then assemble the frame using 35-40mm screws depending on your timber thickness
I've actually assembled the frame and installed it in place so I could have everything pre-drilled and routered before painting and staining, instead of doing it afterwards
STEP 5 - ASSEMBLING AND INSTALLATION
The rest of the process was pretty simple, once you've worked out the gaps your battens should have, install them on the door so you have all of them pre-drilled into place as well (Don't forget to number them so you don't forget which one goes where)
Mark and trace the shape of your digital lock on your battens and frame and router out the shape of it. If you're familiar with a trimmer/router, you can try to cut it out free-hand... if you don't trust how steady your hands are, you're going to have to make a jig and use clamps...etc.
For this particular lock, it had a rubber backing at the back of it, so I had to router the shape to the size of that backing NOT to the size of the actual handle
Paint your frame and stain your battens
Put everything back together and Voila... There's your beautiful gate all ready to have it's digital lock installed 👏
IF YOU HAVE ANY QUESTIONS ABOUT THE PROCESS, FEEL FREE TO MESSAGE US 💕🫶
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