Simple Way To Make A Rolling Gate

Simple Way To Make A Rolling Gate FENCING Gates 28-6-26 With a tree on one side and a sidewalk on the other, there was no room for swinging gates on Matt Laipple's picket fence. So he came up with a sliding gate that opens nearly 16 ft. wide, yet fits the yard. "Rubber castor wheels would have required a track and taken up space," says Laipple, who tried different methods. "I wanted something I could mow under and yet would be part of the gate." He considered using a barn door track, but recognized that it would be costly and unsightly. Finally he came up with a way to use garage door rollers that could be tucked out of sight. Using a table saw, he cut a channel on the top side of the top 1 by 4 rail and on the bottom side of the bottom rail. Then he put rollers on them that fit into the C-channel grooves. "Because the rollers are on adjustable plates, they can be moved up or down to lift or lower the gate height," explains Laipple. "If the gate starts to sag over time, I can easily adjust it." Laipple has since built an 8-ft. gate and suggests that a similar apparatus could be built for tube-style metal gates. It would use sections of pipe to act as rollers. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Matt Laipple, 6100 Ballentine Ave., Shawnee Mission, Kansas 66203 (ph 913 268-5623).

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.