Trre OnIGINAL HONAE WOOOWORKING RruN ... - Wood Tools

SETECT SilRAIGITT STOGK
A straight fence starts with straight
lumber, but it was tough finding
1x4's at my local lumber yard that
werent crooked or full of knots.
Since I needed some 1x12 stock as
well, I decided to look for it instead,
and found a rack with some beautifirl
16-footers. Quickly calculating
lumber yield in the wider boards, I
bought most of the pile. Even
though it meant ripping a few
boards to get the narrower widths I
needed (not a pleasant task given
cedar's irritating sawdust), the
resulting straight-grained stock was
worth the extra trouble.
START WMI THE SGREEN
One ofthe beauties ofthis fence is its
repetition of elements. The "screen"
- named for its role in screening the
yard from view - consisB of an
alternating pattern of narrow and
wide infill boards separated by 1"wide
gaps (FENCE coNsrRuc-
TION vIEw). As I ripped the infill
Cut $e lover and upper raib to httgUt,
align tie endq then uss a tape and a
squarc b mad($e Inf,ll boad locatiotts
- mrt boft ed$s of each affill boad.
boards to width, I noticed that the
color varied gready fiom one board
to the next. I kept this in mind so
that later, when I assembled the
screens, I could mix the boards to
make sure each section contained a
similar blend of light and dark.
With the parts cut and sorted, I
placed one upper and one lower rail
Alignfteffi boadsand moud
dnm withtvooftetsqerus in
eadt. l.eave Ute top etds Ys" protd
of the upper nll.
together and carefirlly marked the
location of the infill boards (rtc. 1).
Next, I began attaching the infill
boards to the lower rail (rtC. 2). Use
screws here for strength - the heads
will be hidden by the opposing rail.
Allow the infill boards to extend 1/8"
past the top edge of the upper rail as
you screw the infill boards in place.
FENGE CONSTRUCTION VIEW ovERALL stzE:6e!/z"H x312"w xes!/z"L
Post cap
Arched rall (2)
1%"x8nx8n Vc"x71hx94"
Scrcen cap
lVz" x3Vz" x94"
-
'
Ve"
chamfer 1
Upper nll (2)
Vq" x31/2" x94
llanow Inflll
boad (10)
E/4" x3Y2" r47Y2"
lower nll (2)
V+" xf/2" x94"
Wlde Inflll boad (4)
V{ xll" x471/2"
\
TOP
sEcIt0l{
\
SCREEII
sEcfl0il
Mounung platc (2)
3y4u atl2r x68"
Post*
!!2" x!1/2"
* Actual post length
wlll vary dependlng
on settlng depth.
WoRKBENCH O MAY I JUNE 1999 27