I decided to make the entrance gates square and thought 4' would be a good height and length. We started out by working on the end posts first. For these we used 1 1/2" PVC. We cut it to length and using a 1 1/4" hole-saw we drilled a hole in the top and bottom. This was a little too small for the other pipe (see side pic) to fit into so using a pocket reamer we made the hole a little larger. The top hole is an inch from the top and the bottom hole is as near the bottom as we could get.
After the four holes were drilled and reamed it was time to work on the top and bottom cross bars. For these we used 1" PVC. We cut 2 pieces 50 1/2" long and they slipped into the end post holes. The gate will stand by slipping the 4 vertical end posts over rebar pounded into the ground. Now is a good time to make sure that the bottom cross bar isn't too long and the rebar has room to slide up the bottom of the end posts. If not then cut down the bottom cross bar as needed.
For the diagonal pieces we used 1/2" PVC. We cut four pieces a little longer than necessary and laid them out on the gate frame. We just eyeballed where we wanted them. We then marked and drilled holes in the frame.
We dry fitted everything and when I was happy with it we used PVC glue and glued it all together. We ran into a bit of trouble with the two left diagonal pieces. In order for them to stay in place they were bowed and that made the frame lopsided. To fix this we had to make the drilled holes a little bit larger to account for their slant. Paint your fence a flat black. Next we drilled a thin sheet of plywood to the top. This is where the cemetery name will be displayed.
Next I laid out some black rope. In hind sight I should have bought white rope because I ended up painting it. I bought 20' and had about 3' left when it was done. I just eyeballed it how I wanted it to look. We drilled thru the pipes and threaded the rope through. Please click on the picture for more instructions and pictures for this step. I then painted the diagonal PVC pipes white from the rope down. Then I secured some black weed blocker to the back of the web design to make it stand out. To do this I used washers and screws on the PVC and for extra security I also stapled the weed blocker to the back of the rope.
To have this stand pound 4 pieces of rebar into the ground and slip the end posts over them.
Original Author: Spookdawg (Michelle)
Original URL: http://usersites.horrorfind.com/home/halloween/spookdawg/gate.html