Lessons Learned from a Dog Gate
My latest project was a simple gate. I won’t describe in every detail what I did and why here, I have a full build video where I show you the process of how I made the gate if you are interested in that, but I do want to talk about what I learned.
I received some wise advice years ago from a professor which I think about often. Your current project will be your best project you’ve ever made, and your next project will be better than all of the previous projects. At the time that didn’t seem possible. I’ve had past projects I was very proud of, but when I thought about it I realized that he was right. Every project is practice for your next project. Your current project should challenge you to learn and grow so you can carry those skills forward and make your next project even better. Even if you feel like your current project is kicking you in the pants and that it will never be good enough, remember, you are in the process of improving, so more forward and improve so you can look back and cherish how great that project turned out.
Previous Learnings Applied
What I learned from previous builds that helped me with this one. I knew I needed dead flat lumber and consistent, parallel joinery. This build was essentially a shaker style cabinet door frame with slats instead of a solid panel. I’ve made cabinet doors and done them wrong with warped wood I thought would work which I had to redo because the doors would not sit flat on the cabinet. I knew that, so I took the time and care to carefully flatten my outside rails and stiles.
What I learned this build
There are three things I would have changed on this build to make it easier, faster, and better.
Test different stains in a real life scenario
Leave wiggle room
Use spacers for the install
Test different stains in a real life scenario
First one, staining. I’ll start by saying, I don’t like staining projects. I prefer to use high quality hardwoods which require no alteration, just a protective finish. But this project, given the budget, I went with poplar. Poplar is fine, but it’s considered paint grade wood because it is not the prettiest. The grain is fine, it’s just the coloration. It’s green and varies widely between boards, so I decided to stain the piece with a “walnut” stain. I say walnut in quotes because stains are not named after the wood they are supposed to imitate, but rather signify a color. In this case walnut means darkish brown.
My test piece was darker brown than the final. Could have been the wood or the lack of sanding.
I tested using conditioner and no conditioner on a test piece of poplar I had in the shop and I liked the conditioner version. But this was my first mistake. I used a piece of poplar from a previous project and I didn’t sand it to the level I sanded my finished project. Those two factors lead to me having a particular color in my head that didn’t pan out on the finished piece.
Next time I would use an offcut of the project, sand completely, test multiple stains, and then decide on my color.
Leave wiggle room
I thought I left 1/4 gap for the gate to open and close. Turns out I didn’t. In fact, the gate didn’t fit when I tried to install it. The whole thing was too long by about 1/8 of an inch. I planned for a 1/2” stop, giving me plenty of wiggle room in case the gate was too small, but somehow I made it too long, subconsciously I was worried if I made it too small I’d have a much bigger problem.
Not too big of a mistake, I had to do some trimming, which I could do, but it was not ideal to show up, get half way through the install and have to leave to go make a single cut on my table saw.
Use spacers for the install
Speaking of one cut, I really had to make two. Why? Because I decided to install the gate, go trim the stop in the shop, come back and be left with a quick and easy stop install. I was lucky that was my plan because I put the gate up and it was too low to the ground. The stairs had a nice plush carpet, but the weight of the gate pushed the carpet down. As I lined everything up I meant to keep the gate a 1/4 above the carpet, but that was impossible to do without a third or fourth hand, so I inadvertently installed the gate too low such that it was dragging on the carpet.
Hence my second cut. Rather than changing the mounting location, I knew I needed to return to the shop to make a cut on the stop plate so I opted to trim the bottom of the gate. An avoidable step if I had simply brought a couple of half inch spacers to put on the floor, ensuring I would have the gate at the proper height in the first place.
Simple stuff, and most of them easy fixes. There’s nothing wrong with making the mistake as long as you learn from it, so here I am, telling you my mistakes so I don’t forget to learn from them, but more importantly, so you can learn from my mistakes and make a better project next time.
