GARDEN ENCLOSURE VIDEO 3 OF 3
Video 3 – How to Build & Attach The Garden Fencing
Complete the enclosure after the raised beds are built: install and brace posts, adjust for stepped heights, router rail notches, attach the mesh and build the no sag gate.
Quick Access Video Guide
* Select a topic to jump directly to that part of the video.
0:25 Install corner and intermediate posts
Attach the main posts to the completed raised beds and establish the enclosure structure.
10:20 Align posts with string and braces
Plumb the posts, use a string line for a straight run and secure the angled supports.
14:48 Plan caps, rails and fence mesh
Coordinate post spacing, rail elevations and mesh attachment before cutting the stepped heights.
21:09 Compare 2×6 and 4×4 posts
Understand Henry’s post choice and the practical tradeoffs for strength, straightness and fastening.
24:06 Mark and cut stepped post heights
Transfer level lines around the enclosure and use a guided circular-saw cut for consistent post tops.
35:35 Build the router templates
Make reusable jigs that locate and control the routed notches for the fence rails.
42:20 Install caps and horizontal rails
Route the posts, fit the cap and rails, and maintain clean transitions where the enclosure steps.
54:15 Refine the jig and finish the gate
Apply Henry’s final jig improvements, install the mesh and complete the reinforced entrance.
Build and Attach the Garden Fence Posts to the Raised Beds
With the raised beds completed, Video 3 covers the remaining enclosure construction: posts, braces, stepped heights, routed rail notches, caps, mesh and the gate.
1. Attach the Corner and Intermediate Posts
Start at the corners, changes in direction, elevation transitions and the gate. Fasten each post to the raised-bed assembly using the plan details and video instructions, then add the angled braces to keep the posts plumb – same applies to the double up posts for the gate.
- Before starting and filling beds with soil, confirm all raised beds are level and straight along all sides of the enclosure
- Plumb posts in left/right before securing the diagonal brace and then plumb inwards or out with the brace – highly recommend GRK RSS screws for attaching the posts to raised beds. See my review on these here
2. Align (plumb) Long Fence Runs
After the main corner posts are plumb and secured (with braces too), stretch a mason’s line between reference posts. Align intermediate posts to the line without touching or deflecting it. Recheck plumb and brace every post. It is more important to align posts for visual appeal versus perfectly plumb posts (except for gate opening where the posts should be plumb in both directions for proper gate function).
Henry explains why he used 2×6 posts rather than conventional 4×4s. The choice works very well with the raised beds and routed mid-rail system.
3. Mark the Stepped Post Heights
Use the planned fence height and level reference to mark each run. Where the beds step, determine exactly where the cap changes elevation so your posts heights are high enough the trim to height later (very important these are not too short – watch the video). Transfer each line around the post, then use a circular-saw and jig to cut for straight accurate results.
Set the blade square, clamp the guide securely and confirm that the saw and guard can clear the jig.
4. Make The Router Template for the Rail Notches
The router template keep rail notches consistent from post to post. Build each jig around the router base, bearing position and actual bit diameter. Test on scrap first!
A bearing-guided router bit follows the jig edge and ensures the notch is accurate every time.
5. Install Caps, Rails and Fence Mesh
Fit the rails into the prepared notches, maintaining the planned step transitions. The notched rails provide straight, secure backing for the exterior mesh and keeps mesh tension even, use appropriate exterior staples and avoid placing staples too close to an edge that the wood can split.
Square the gate frame, use hardware sized properly for the gate weight (go overkill if you are not sure – undersized hardware WILL FAIL) and fasten the hinges to the doubled, braced gate posts. Check the swing and gate operation before the final mesh is attached.
FREE 24-PAGE PROJECT GUIDE
Download the Garden Enclosure Plans
Use the videos to see Henry’s construction methods and the plans for the project layout. The guide covers adaptable design options, lumber and material guidance, ground preparation, raised-bed layouts, post spacing, cap and rail details, bracing, gate construction and wildlife-deterrence considerations.
PDF · 24 pages
FROM HENRY’S TOOLBOX
Tools Used in the Videos and Henry’s Recommendations
I’m often asked which tools I used and what I would choose today. You do not need every tool below—or the exact same model—to build this project. These are the ones I have used, prefer or would personally choose for this work, along with the practical reason behind each recommendation.
Makita 18V Drill and Impact Driver Kit
Why I use it: A drill and impact driver are used constantly on this project. I prefer this Makita combination because it is compact, dependable and, in my experience, the batteries run longer than comparable packs I have used.
DEWALT 6½-inch Cordless Circular Saw
Why I use it: For work spread around a large enclosure, I prefer a light cordless circular saw. It has enough power for the site cuts shown in the video without dragging an extension cord around the beds and posts.
Makita RF1101 2¼ HP Router
Why I use it: For the post and rail notches, I want a straightforward router with a strong motor and a simple base. This Makita is the style I prefer because it is durable, easy to handle and accepts both ¼-inch and ½-inch collets.
BOSCH Carbide-Tipped Router Bit Set
Why I use it: Router bits do not need to be the most expensive available, but they do need to cut cleanly and hold an edge. I have found Bosch bits to be a good balance of quality, durability and price.
Tajima Chalk Line
Why I use it: Tajima is the chalk-line brand I use. The mechanisms and lines have held up well for me, and that reliability matters when snapping long cut lines across multiple fence posts.
Kreg 3-inch Face Clamp
Why I use it: I keep several of these clamps because they are useful for far more than pocket-hole work. In this project they hold router guides, jigs and framing parts securely while leaving the work easy to adjust.
STABILA Three-Piece Level Set
Why I use it: I have used many levels over the years, and STABILA is the brand I trust most for accuracy and durability. The three sizes cover most of the work here, from checking a raised bed to plumbing a fence post.
Channellock Fence-Tool Pliers
Why I use it: This is a simple specialty tool that makes fence work easier. The smaller head gives you more room to drive staples without hitting your fingers, and the puller is useful when a staple needs to come back out.
Garden Enclosure Video 3 FAQs
Direct answers based on the project design and Henry’s demonstrations.
Can I use 4×4 posts instead of 2×6 posts?
You can adapt the structure, but the connections, notches, straightness and material quantities must be considered. Henry explains why he selected 2×6 posts for this project. Watch the comparison →
How do I keep a long run of fence posts straight?
Plumb and brace the main posts first, then stretch a string line between reference points. Align the intermediate posts without pushing the line out of position. Watch the alignment method →
Why plan the rail and mesh positions before cutting post heights?
The cap, horizontal rails and mesh must work together at each elevation change. Planning the complete assembly prevents awkward step transitions and it is difficult to pre-cut these precisely beforehand. Watch the planning section →
How are consistent rail notches cut into the posts?
Henry makes reusable router templates, positions them from known reference marks and uses bearing-guided bits to control the cut. Watch the jig build →
What helps prevent the garden gate from sagging?
The gate opening begins with doubled, well-braced posts tied into the raised-bed structure. Keeping the gate square, use appropriate hardware and verify clearances before attaching the fence mesh. Watch the gate completion →
What fence mesh should I use?
Choose exterior mesh strong enough for the wildlife you anticipate, with opening size appropriate for the animals you need to exclude. we used stucco wire for most of the enclosure and smaller mesh near the bottom to keep out the smaller critters.
Video Transcript
Read the complete spoken lesson or use the timestamp links to return to the matching demonstration.
Open the complete video transcript
A lightly edited transcript of Henry’s spoken instructions. Obvious transcription and spelling errors have been corrected; the instructional meaning has not been rewritten.
0:25 Install corner and intermediate posts
Welcome to Country Life Projects. I’m Henry Reinders. We are now going to be starting the posts on our garden enclosure. And there’s a couple steps. And one of the first ones that you want to be doing is the corner posts. So, we’re going to be putting our corner posts in on all four corners as well as the ends where our gate’s going to be. And from those, we’re going to run strings to plumb and straight have a nice straight line with all our other posts. Now, you’ll notice with the corner here, we’ve put two 2 by sixes together here, and we’ve stained the inside where it’s going to be up against the boards here. and we stain the bottom to prevent them from rotting as quickly. And then for the posts that go in between, we got our flat 2 by sixes here, and they’re just going to go on the surface. I’ll be showing you shortly how we’re going to go about doing that. And the first thing we’re going to be doing is the corners as well as these. And then we’re going to put our braces on afterwards because the braces
are going to be used to help plumb the posts that are in between from corner to corner and also to set them perfectly straight. So, we’re going to start with the corner post post over here and then we’ll do these and then we’re going to do a step up post. And when we get to that, I’ll show you just one small consideration that if you do have to do a step up in your enclosure that these posts here have to be a little bit longer. When I get to this, I’ll show you why. Okay, we’re going to start with our corner posts. It’s important that these are plumb both ways. And you can do that by just putting a screw near the top or near the bottom and making sure that this is tight to your box both ways. We’re going to go ahead and plumb this one up and screw it in place. And then I’m going to show you how to do the post in between because they’re a two two-step process. So, we’re going to put them on first, plumb them this way, and then later we’re going to run
a string line straight down. And then we’re going to line all the post up to that string line going from each corner post to corner post. That’s why it’s important these are plumb. So, we’re going to finish this off. We’ll go to the next post in a second. Okay, we’re going to put in a intermediate post here between our corners. And you’ll notice we’ve done the same thing here. We’ve stained it on the back side just to prevent rot. And what we want to do is we want to center this on our boxes here. So you got half and half on both sides. And again, we’re going to be 2 in off the ground here with our block. And one of the things that you might be asking is how do we get the tops all exact uh later on. And so for now, what we’re going to be doing is we’re going to plumb this post this way. We’re going to do all of them. And then we’re going to come back later with the braces here and we’re going to use the brace to help plumb the post this way. Once all that’s done, now there’s two ways you can do this. Once all that’s done,
you can go and you can snap lines across the top of all your post. That’s what we’re going to be doing. I’m also going to make up a jig so that you can cut that accurately and square. Uh, but if you are lucky enough that when you put all your garden beds in, they’re all the same level all the way around, you may want to uh just cut them all the same length and then put them in at the same height from here down and here up so that they’re all the all the same height without having to do any cutting after. And if that’s the case and your boxes are all perfectly level, all you have to do is take the height that you want to come down off your box. Let’s say if you want to be an inch off the ground, that would be 15. You would mark all your posts at 15. And I would mark it on the side, too, so that when you go to put them on, in this case, it’s going to be a little high. So, I’ll take this block out for now. Now, the other thing, hang on. I’m going to do one thing first. So, our posts are 6 in wide. So, I’m going to mark
off 3 in on either side of this line. I’m going to do both sides just in case I need to look at it from one side or the other. So, you would put your post in where it’s got to go. And you might need two people for this, but you put your leg on the bottom and set it on that line. Have a screw ready to go so that you can just screw that in near the top here. Once you have it secured temporarily, then you can plumb it up, screw the other side, and finish screwing or nailing the whole thing off. We’re going to be using screws and nails. And I recommend a good size 4 inch. Well, for us here, 4 in spiral galvanized. And the screws we’re using are 4 in coated. So, we’re going to use both because the screws are quick and easy for setting it up. But for us, we’re going to be chopping the tops off afterwards. So, we’re just going to use a block. We’re not going to worry about our height. We’re going to put it on there. And then we’re just going to do the same as what I just mentioned if you were lining it up and just put a screw in the top.
Make sure we’re centered, which is that mark. Now that’s going to stay put. Get another screw set up on that side. And just going to make sure it’s bang on plumb, which it is. Once you got a couple of screws in there and you know it’s going to stay where it’s put, then you can go ahead and either finish screwing it or nailing it, whichever you prefer. So, for now, I’m just going to put another one at the bottom just to make sure it doesn’t the lever over. And then once we have all these posts done, we’re going to come back and put our angle brackets on. And then we’ll show you how to do the adjustment with our string line going down the whole length. Okay, we’re doing a step up here. And we have several of those in on the enclosure we’re doing here. And more than likely, if you have to do this yourself, each step up is not going to be identical. And also, one is going to be lower than the other one, obviously. And so, in that case, uh on the previous post, I talked about how to do your post if your enclosure is level
all the way around at the same height with no step downs. But when you have step downs, the chances of being able to do all your posts at the same height and figure out where they’re going to be at the top is not going to be easy at uh best. And so if that’s the case, what we’ve done is we’ve cut these posts about 8 in longer. We only have a 6 in drop here, but we made them 8 in longer just to make sure that we have lots to cut off at the top. And you won’t be able to um pre-cut all your posts if you have these stepups. And so because we’re not doing that, we’re just going to put a small piece of wood in the bottom here just to keep it off the soil. And then we’re just going to put it in place. The same thing we did with the other posts. We’re going 3 in from center either way. If you’re using standard dimensional lumber, it’ll be 2 and 3/4. It’ll be 5 and 1/2 material, but this is a full 6 in, so we’re going three. And just like we did on the other post, we’re going to put a screw at the top first right on our line.
And then we’re going to plumb it up. And we’ll put one at the bottom. There we go. There. And that’s all you have to do when you have a step down like that. Just make sure this one here on this side is as close to the bottom as this one as you can get so that you have fully secured to this box and you’re fully secured to this box. And make sure you allow the extra length so that you have enough to cut off at the top so it can match up to the next post that’s on the same bed as this one here. And we’re going to go ahead. We’re going to get all these in place. Then we’re going to come back and we’re going to show you how to make sure they’re all nice and straight.
10:20 Align posts with string and braces
Well, we’ve got all our posts in. It didn’t take too long. Once you’re at this stage, screwing them into the bottom, leveling them out. We did all this in about an hour and a half. And the next step that we’re going to do is we’re going to plumb them out this way. And we’re going to use a string line for that. Now, there’s a technique for using a string line that you should use. And you want to take a block on either end from this post. You can see I got a block here. And you want to run your string down to this end. And I have exactly the same thickness of block mounted here. The reason for that is that your post might be out this way or that way. And if they’re touching your string, if you were to run it flush with your posts over here and they’re touching the string, then your string’s going to be out. This way, you want to use a block that clears all the posts. And then you want to use another block when you’re adjusting your posts exactly the same thickness as
well. And then you’re going to adjust your posts with the same block. And when you move these, you go in and out, you’ll be able to set it. So, as soon as the lines in line with the block here, then you know your post is the same as the ones on the two ends, the two corners. Now, this is a two-person job. So, what we’ve done, we got these brackets on the inside. We’re going to come over closer with the camera and take a look at that and show you how this is done. So, with two people, one person to pull or push on the post and tell you when you’re lined up. So when this block is right there, you know the post is going to be the same as the two corners. So with one person holding a post where it should be, the other person can screw the bracket to the top of the garden bed. Okay. So at the bottom of the bracket here, you can see that we got two holes here pre-drilled. Now, this is a full 2in 2×4. you’re probably going to be working with one and a half if you’re not using rough material. So,
pre-drilling is a good idea. You want to pre-drill so that one screw is going into this side over here. One screw is going into this plank over here from this bed. And also, you want to be drilling straight down. You don’t want to go on an angle either way because that may push the bracket over when you’re trying to screw it down. You want to screw it down exactly where it’s got to go. And the other person with the spacer on the post has it positioned. You don’t want it moving. So straight down. Push it that way a little bit. And we’re going to just adjust it this way a bit. A lot of tension on there. Okay. That’s And we are in position. Is it good? Yeah. And that’s it. One on either side. And it’ll hold. The advantage here, if your posts ever go out, you can take these out or they’re ever go out of plumb, you can take these out and you can readjust them 2, three years down the road if you wanted to. That’s better. Perfect. Okay, let’s do the next one. It’s not far out either. Good. Still good. Yeah.
So, as you can see, just using the angled bracing, we’ve been able to make this very straight. And on the top, you want to get your top rail and cap on as soon as possible because these probably will twist a little bit, but being 2 by sixes, you can twist them straight when you nail the cap on and works very well. Okay, we’re going to the next step we’re going to do here is we’re going to be cutting our post down to the height that we need to work with our wire mesh and our rails and our cap. And so before we
14:48 Plan caps, rails and fence mesh
do that, before we get started with that, we have finished some of the enclosure already. So we’re going to go over there and I’m going to show you in more detail what the next steps are so that as we start doing them, it’s easier to follow along and understand what we’re doing. So, let’s go over to a section that’s finished. And I’ll show you. Okay, we have our finished section over here. And a couple of the important things that you want to know before you actually determine the height of your post and where you’re going to cut them is the wire mesh that you’re going to use. We use stucco wire here and then we cut the bottom piece out of a full height 48 in roll. I’m going to go over that in a few minutes when we go outside the enclosure here and show you how we did that. But right now, I want to show you some of the features that we’re going to be using and why we did it. Now, you may, if you look over here at this rail that we have here, you’ll notice that we’ve notched it in to
our post. And it might seem overkill to some of you, but this is for bears, this part of it. So, if a bear on the outside climbs up and he’s putting his weight on here or he gets his claws in here, it’s not going to move. It’s also very easy when you go around and you put in your your rails, it’s always going to be in the same spot because we use a measuring stick to determine the bottom of the notch here. So, when we go install these, we don’t have to measure anything. We can just put them in place and we can just nail them. Makes it very easy. Now, as you go up top here, you’ll see we have a top cap and we have this rail here. And the top cap is well, the top cap is screwed down into this rail. And then this is screwed on an angle up to here. I’m going to show a little bit more detail later on that how to go about screwing that and how to screw your butt joints. We’ve also made our caps where we can 16 ft long. That just adds a little bit more stability to the uh fence.
And then down near the bottom, you’ll see that we also have a a rail on the bottom. And that is 2 in up, inch and a half down, and that’s screwed into the back of the garden box here. This piece is for the mesh here on the outside to be stapled into. So the whole outside is a nice flush surface. Makes it really easy to put your wire on. So, the next step we’re going to be doing over on the post that we haven’t cut yet is to cut them to length. But I want to show you on the outside first what you need to know before you do that. So, let’s go on the outside and take a look. So, before you can determine the length of your post, the you’re going to have to know what kind of wire you’re using. And on here, went with 48 in stucco wire. and it’s actually 47 and a half. And so you got to find all that out before you actually decide how long these are going to be. And there’s a variety of materials you can use. There’s more expensive fencing wire, uh 2×4,
it’s 12 gauge. It’s a little bit thicker than this, uh, a little bit flatter, easier to put on. But if you only have deer to be concerned about, you might only need chicken wire. And chicken wire comes in 3T, 4T, 6T lengths. Here we use the 48. And then we cut a 21 12 in strip on the bottom, which was half of what the uh roll allowed us to do. And then we also set our chicken our stucco wire here an inch and a half in on each section here. So on the middle rail and on the bottom, it’s a little bit heavier, but minimum inch and a half. The reason for that is you don’t want the staples too close to the edge here because they may split the wood. So, you want them in far enough that you got some good solid hold there. Also, if a bear was to be climbing up here and pulling on it, you got lots of staples in here and they’re a little bit higher, it’s just going to give you that much more resistance. Now, as far as the height goes, you’re going to need to calculate
if you’re going to be using say a 6 ft height on chicken wire, then you want the 6ft height. You want some play at the bottom here. An inch to an inch and a half is ideal. And up top here, two to two and a half inches from the top rail. So your post height is going to be two and a half inches higher than your mesh. So on the bottom here, you’ll have to figure out how far down your your wire is going to come regardless of what you use. And that will determine with the box height plus the height of your wire and the allowance on the top here will determine where you’re going to be cutting your posts and also what size you’re going to cut them at when you screw them to your garden boxes before you do cut the tops off. So that’s all really important. So we’re going to go over and we’re going to use a jig that I made to cut the tops of the posts off. Once we do that, we’re going to be putting the caps on. And then I have some measuring sticks and some jigs for making
these notches to make it really easy to cut these out. Doesn’t take very long once you have the jigs. Now, one more thing. We’ve located this rail here based on this height of this lower section of uh stucco wire that we have. Now, you might go 36 in up on the top and 36 on the bottom. So, your location for this rail will also be determined by the type of wire you’re using. In our case, we’re 52 1/2 in down to the bottom of the rail. That’s what it works out to for our stucco wire. But, be sure to check what you’re going to be using and position this according to that wire, allowing that inch and a half down on your wire as well. So, that said, we’re going to go over. We’re going to grab the jig for cutting the top of the post. And you’ll also notice, if you take a look at the top here, the jig allows us to cut the tops of the uh posts really square. When you put your cap on, get a nice tight joint along here. So, let’s go over and get that started.
21:09 Compare 2×6 and 4×4 posts
Okay, I’m sure there’s a few of you out there watching this that have thought by now, you know, why aren’t we using 4x4s? And, uh, there’s a couple reasons. Uh, one, they’re more expensive, but also at the bottom, in order to secure the 4×4 easily to your garden bed, you’re going to have to notch the 4×4 out. That’s more work. Also, you’re probably not going to be able to get everything done over just a couple days, depending on the size of your enclosure. And if a 2×6 like we have over here starts to twist a little bit when we put the cap on, we can twist that back in and nail it in place. And also with the 2×6, it’s pretty sturdy as it is. And when you’re putting the 2×6 on a joint here between the two garden beds, you have a fairly wide flat surface to screw into the beds on both sides. With the 4×4 over here, we’re just going to have to pretend we’re on a joint here because all the posts are on. Um, you only have three and a half inches. And if your garden
beds aren’t lining up perfectly, which there’s a good chance that’ll be the case, you know, even a 16th of an inch out, you’re not going to get your post sitting nice and flat up against the beds. The other thing, if these posts do start to twist, they’re going to be very difficult to twist back in place or if they warp out or in. The other thing, too, with the bracing that we used on the back of the 2×6 post, when you’re using 4×4, you can’t screw from this side. So, it’s not as strong. Over here on the 2×6, we have our bracing behind here. We can put a screw in here and a screw in here. That makes it a lot stronger. it’s going to hold a lot better for a lot longer. The other thing, which we’re going to be getting to shortly and showing you, is when you do your notches on the 2×6, all you have to do is take a little bit out here and it’s only and you’re taking out the full thickness of the 2×6. If you’re doing a 4×4 and you want to use that same technique, you got to make up a different jig because you can’t notch all the way
through. That would look terrible. So you’d only be able to notch partly into the post and that’s more work with your jig. You need a different router bit or you have to set up your jig a little bit differently. You have to be a little bit more precise. It’s not going to work as easy. So overall, you don’t really need the strength of a 4×4. Also at the bottom, once you notch it out, you really lose that strength anyways because you only have half the thickness of the post actually securing it to the garden bed. So, we’re not going to use 4x4s. We don’t plan to in the future. We don’t really think it’s necessary. If you want to, that’s basically what you would have to do. So, we’re going to put this away and we’re going to start on cutting the tops of the post next.
24:06 Mark and cut stepped post heights
Okay, we have our post height determined to be 72 in. What I’ve done is made up a quick measuring stick at 72 in long. That makes it really easy to go around mark off all the heights of your posts. And if you have an enclosure that’s level all the way around, you won’t have to worry about step downs. But when we in this garden, we have lots. So, I’m going to show you how to do those and what we do in order to make sure that the post or the top rail across this bed is level and then the next one dropping down is level as well. So you can see if I put this stick on here that this notch up here which our top plate for this section is going to fit into is 72 in. And then what I want to do on the same bed on this side of the post only is come over here and all I have to do is mark off on the top here. When we get our jig later, you’ll see that this mark, just put it on the front here a little bit so it’s easier to see. That’s all we need with the jig to be able to cut the top of
these this post square. Now, we’re going to do the next section, which is two beds. And what we want to do between those posts is we’re going to go from one post, we’re going to skip a post, go to the end corner post, and we’re going to snap a line to give us a perfectly straight top. So, I’ll mark off this side here. And you’ll see when I do that it’s going to be lower than the other one. This line here is where our top plate is going to get dadoed in. So we’ll go over that shortly as well. So I mark this one here. And then I’m going to go over to the corner and put a mark. We’re going to snap a line across and you’ll see how that goes. So, we come over here and we mark it off here. And I’m not quite tall enough to see that properly. So, now what we’re going to do, snap hook a line over here. It’ll come across the top of this post and that’s where we’re going to get a nice straight cap going across by using a chalk line here. So, we’re going to snap that. We’re going to snap the lines
off. I’m going to mark all the lines off. And then we’re going to grab the jig that we’re using. I’m going to show you how that works before we actually use it. And then we’ll set it up and you’ll uh see it in action. It works great. Okay, this is the jig we’re using for cutting the tops of the posts. It’s really straightforward. The main thing is you want this strip equal parallel and then this piece in behind it which is a full piece. Initially you want to make it uh a little bit wider than the distance from the edge of your saw guard or your saw plate the base to the saw blade because this gets cut after which in turn allows us to just set it up on our post on our mark. That’s exactly where it’s going to get cut. You’ll see how that works in a second. But, uh, the first thing you want to do once you get these pieces cut is screw to a straight edge here at the bottom. And then you want to square this piece up to the bottom of the jig. So, this will be square in here and square at the top. So,
you can do it either way. And you do this after you’ve cut that piece. So, you probably have to clamp this together or screw it together first to make sure you get that cut. So once this is screwed at the bottom here and squared, then you put another screw here and here. That keeps this secured to there. This piece, all it’s for is just to keep this part of the jig together. And the reason that it’s cut shorter like that is so that I don’t accidentally use that against the post because it may it’s not square. This one’s square. So I’m going to go up the ladder and show you how to set that up. It’s pretty quick and easy. So, here’s our mark at the top here. So, all we have to do, keeping in mind that we’ve already cut this with our skill saw, is line that to the top of the line here. And then we just clamp this on here. Make sure your guide is tight to the post at the top here. So, if that’s not moving, it’s nice and solid. We’re on the line. We’re ready to cut. And you should use safety glasses for this. I don’t have mine on right at
the moment. And because we’re already this far, I’m going to go ahead and cut it. So, pull your guard back and start back here and just go. And that’s it. This is square. And I also set my skill saw up with the blade square to this plate. So, not only are we square this way, we’re square that way, too. So, when our cap goes on, it’s going to sit flat and level, which is a nice feature. Now, one other thing, your saw, if you have a 7 and 1/4 in saw, which most of us have, you’re going to have a m maximum depth of cut. We’re using 2-in material here. And with this saw, we’re just able to get the depth we need by using a/4 in guide on the bottom here. Now, if you’re using 1 and 1/2 in material, which is your standard dimensional material, you might be able to go a little thicker on this bottom piece, and the bottom part of your saw, the motor of your saw won’t interfere when you’re going across here. So you can make this piece thicker if you’re just using dimensional lumber here. This is
2 in. We have to go as thin as possible to get the full depth of cut. But that’s it. You just go around to your marks that you’ve cut off. Just be remember when you’re doing a step down that the height you want for the post is the higher of the two boxes. And if you look over on the next post, we’ve snapped the line. Well, you’ll see that any sections where they’re all the same height, you can snap a line up to about four or five posts long. You don’t want to go more than 40 ft because then the line might not be accurate, but uh anything up to 40 ft should be fine. So, we’re going to go ahead cut that next post and then we’re going to go to the corner and I’ll show you how this jig works on the corner. It’s quite easy. Now, one more thing I wanted to mention. You’ll notice that we’re about 3 in past the post on either side. That’s so that you can start your saw before the blade actually cuts your wood. Your saw will be sitting nice and flat on this part here. If you were to go just to here and here with the
jig, then when you start your saw, you might get a little bit of this because you’re not going to have a flat surface. So, by the time we cut through and hit the post, we’re sitting nice and flat. On the corner post, you only have to mark one side of the corner, one edge of the corner post. Once we cut through here, we can take the jig off and we can just line up this side here to the saw cut. And also on these corners, you have this extra depth here or width here. So, when you make your jig up, make sure this piece here that holds this part of the jig together is the widest, a little bit wider than your widest section that you got to cut. Once you get rolling with this jig, doesn’t take any time at all to go around and cut all the tops of your post. Heat. Heat. So on the top of this one here, as I mentioned earlier, this saw cut of course carries through now. So, all you have to do is line the top of your jig up flush with that saw cut and then just cut through and you’re done on the
corner. It’s 90° both ways and perfectly flat or level. Okay, so we have our corner set up the same height as our measuring stick. And we don’t have to mark these two posts here. These beds here are all the same height. So, we only have to mark off this one over here because we have a step up. That’s where our notch is going to go. That’s not where we’re cutting the post on this one. On this post over here on this side is where the bed steps up. So between this post and the corner, we’re going to snap a line here. Between this post and that corner, we’re going to snap a line. And we’re going to get these all cut. Then we’re going to put the caps on. Once we have the caps on, we have another measuring stick that we’re going to use and our routering jigs for the notch for the rail. So, we’re going to finish cutting these. We’re going to get our top rails and then we’re going to show you how to do that. There’s a nailing technique for that as well. So that’s it for cutting off the caps. Took about 5 minutes to go through them
all. Couple minutes to snap the lines. It’s really easy. Once now that we got that done,
35:35 Build the router templates
we’re going to go cut our uh cap material and then we’ll be back. We’re going to put that on and then we’re going to show you how to do the notches for the middle rail. The face plates for the template marked out. And this here, this square here is what I want to cut out. I have the same thing on this template here. It’s a little bit smaller. I’ll show you why later. And this line that I go all the way around here, this distance from here to here is the same distance that I did earlier from this fence here to there. So when I put these fence boards that I have pre-cut over here, these guides on and I router the hole, my router bit should be right on this edge, which is the size that I want. So I’m going to router those out. I’m going to screw these guides on both templates. Once I’m done that, I’ll show you the final step to making these jigs. This is a real quick way to figure out the distance from the edge of your router base plate to where your router bit is. All I’ve done here is taken a piece of uh 2 in or cut 2in strip of
plywood, screwed it to this scrap piece of plywood here, and just ran a channel with my router. Now, all I have to do is measure the distance from this edge here to this board here. And that gives me the measurement I need when I’m making the jig for placing the uh fence strips on the jig. So, when I’m done the jig, I’ll show you that. Okay. So, I’ve put a fence on the back of the jig here that’s going to go against our posts, and we’re going to clamp that to the post to be able to cut the notch for our fence rail. So, you can just see this piece of plywood with a 2 by two on the back of it. And what I did is made sure that the screws are not anywhere near where the router is going to be going into the wood. And then what I did on the front of the jig screw at the bottom first and then I turned it over and put a level or a square on it just to make sure that it’s nice and square to this section here. So this is square now. So when you put this on your post, your notches are
going to be square. After I squared it up, I just put a screw at the top and then just a couple extras just to make sure it’s not going to move. And then I took the router and routered where the fence is there to the depth that we’re going to be making these notches. So once we get down to where the posts are, I’m going to show you how this works. We have one to notch out a 2-in section as well. And that’s for our top rails where the fence steps down if you need to do that. Okay, we’re going to be putting our caps on. And uh this notch here is the bottom of the cap, which will come across sit on top of this one. Now, before we put the caps on the rest of it here, this is fairly close to the top here. If we put our cap on first, our jig won’t fit in here to router this out. So, we’re going to router out where they step down because when we dado this or router this out, this is going to be the bottom of the cap that goes that way. We got one more over there. And these are the jigs that I showed you how I
made earlier. I’m going to show you how they go on. It’s really quite simple. This here, either line will line up to the bottom on there. So, we’re going to bring this over here. And we just put it on here. We line it up to that line and we clamp it on. So that one’s ready to make our dado here and notch it out for our top cap. And to make it a little easier to see on this one down here, you can see I’ve already routed this out. Now, the reason this is so wide here when we’re actually routering 2 in is so that when we put this on, I haven’t marked this one off yet, but this is what this one’s for. It’s for the lower rail. You put it on here. Oh, one more thing, too. You see the depth of this here is about a/2 inch quarter inch to/ inch less than the width of the post. That way you don’t have to worry about a sticking pass interfering with your clamps. So we’re going to put this on here. And it just clamps on like that. Make sure it doesn’t move. We’re going to put one on the bottom
like that. So, when you’re routering, the reason this is wider is that you can get your router bit in here without catching the wood first, and then you can actually feed into the 2×6 edge here once your router is in place and flat on your jig here. So, I’m going to grab the router. I’m going to router that one out up there. And, uh, it’s pretty straightforward. And you can get a bit of a kick every once in a while when you dig it in like this, but And there we go. Now, when we put our cap in here, we can nail into it from above underneath and it’s not going to move. And over time, it’s not going to sag down or anything like that. So, we got one more of those to do. We’re going to go around. As soon as we get to these,
42:20 Install caps and horizontal rails
I’ll show you once we get the caps on, we’re going to mark these off. I made a marking stick for that. Once we get to that point, we’ll come back and we’ll show you how we did that. Uh, we finished routering our notches for the uh, top cap. Now, before we go and put them up, I just want to show you how we’re going to be doing it. And two things as far as using dimensional lumber. This is uh, standard 2×3, 2×3, or sorry, 2×4, 2×4, 2×3. Now on the top, if you’re butdding them together, if you don’t want these to start cupping up and pulling away from the edge here, staying nice and flat, then where you butt them together, I would put two screws like this on an angle in like that. There and there, there and there. But when you first put them together, do these two screws first because if you’re putting these in on an angle, might tend to pull them apart. The reason I’m showing you a 2×4 and a 2×3 here, obviously, if you’re This is a cap, it’s going to be the same width. It’s just the difference in what you
choose for a cap. If you have a 2×4 with dimensional lumber, 1 and 1/2 by 3 and 1/2, uh, with this much overhang, you could get it cupping a little bit more than you might want. Not a lot, but if that concerns you, if you go with a 2×3 cap, you only got a/ inch on either side. More than likely, this will never pull up. But I just wanted to show you that, you know, take your screws in from an outside point in on an angle here. Keep them back a little bit from the joint so they don’t split. Go back on an angle that way. And your cap should stay nice and tight over uh the years to come. So, just show you that before we start. And when you put the cap up and you’re going to be putting the upper rail on, which will be up here. So, the cap’s going to be like that going across top of here. We’re going to put the rail up after and then we’re going to screw it in on an angle up into the post. Now, just wanted to show you when you’re screwing that one up, this one here, that line there represents a screw.
Same with this one. You want to be on a good sharp angle and you want to make sure this is going into the post near the bottom of the 2×4. If you put it in like this and it comes up here somewhere, nothing’s really holding the bottom of that and it probably will pull back and forth or twist over time. This will be much more secure that way. So, when you’re screwing into your post, try and do it this way and not so much on an angle that way. So, a sharp angle in if you can do it. So, we’re going to put the uh caps on now. As soon as we have those done, we’re going to come back and we’re going to notch out for our rails and then we’re going to finish up with that part of the project. Okay, all our caps are on. And what makes it easy with the caps on if you’re using a measuring stick to mark off the bottom of your notch here for your middle rail, you just make the measuring stick. This one we just matching up to what we have here, which is the bottom of this notch. All I have to do go around, hold it tight up to the top rail.
Mark it off. Go around. Just do that with all the posts. They’ll all be identical. And when your rails go in, they’ll all be nice and straight, the same as the top rail in parallel. So once you have those marks on there, then all you have to do is take your jig that went over earlier, line it up to the on the bottom with the mark, and just clamp it on. Double check. put it on the top. Now, if it wants to pull a little bit of an angle that way, which this one is, it’s kind of coming away from the board. You can put a clamp on the front from here to there to hold it as well. That’ll make it a little bit uh tighter there. This one seems to have a bit of a bevel on it, so I’m going to put it on the front on both. But either way, with this piece on the back sticking back here, you can clamp it from the back. Or with these pieces sticking up a little bit on both sides, you can clamp it from the front. That’s why these extend past the actual plate here. So, I’m going
to go around. I’m going to router out all the notches for our middle rail. And we’re going to get all the pieces cut. And then we’ll come back and we’ll just show you one section how we go about installing everything. And then from there, we’re going to finish up, get it stained, and then we’re going to move on to the uh mesh or the uh stucco wire and putting that up. Okay, we got all three pieces here now for this section, which is typical for all sections. I got this top one here just lightly tapped in place. There’s nothing holding it. It’s just tight. And like I showed you with that uh little piece of wood with the caps. First thing we want to do, and this is a nice part of having your cap on first, is we’re just going to make sure this is flush. And that’s going to push it up tight to the cap there. And we’ll do the same thing over here. Good sharp angle so it’s catching near the bottom of the board. And then at the top here, we’re going to screw down from a top above. And we’re going to use a spacer for that.
And ideally, what we want is the overhang of the 2×4 equal on both sides, which happens to be an inch. This is a piece of decking that we have, and it seems to work perfect. So, put one screw in the center to start with. These are good long screws. You want them to have a lot of grip. So, right now, we’re flush right here. What that’s going to do is make sure that it’s the same on both sides. And then we’re going to put a screw right down here near the ends on both of them. That’s going to keep this from twisting so that when you’re banging your staples in with your wire, it’s not going to move and it’ll be nice and solid. And then one in between. So that’s a total of five on roughly an 8ft uh length. So, I’ll just finish this off and then I’ll show you the middle rail, which is the best part because that’s where those notching out for the post makes it really easy. So, with five up top, one through here, that’s not going to move. Now, we’re going to do the middle rail. And this uh makes things really easy. So, we got a pre-cut. So,
I’m just going to slide the one end into this notch here. Just tap it over. And what’s good about this is that once it’s in here. You don’t have to do any measuring. And I’m about to show you soon as you put a screw into it. Makes it super easy. Doesn’t go anywhere. Won’t go down. Won’t pull out. So, as you can see, there’s no messing around like you typically would have trying to hold a piece of wood in place in the middle of the fence trying to get it to line up. This way, we just put it in the groove and we’re done. So, and then the bottom rail, this is just to make sure the fencing is all nice and even. We’re going to keep that this top of this 2 in above that. And I’m just going to grab my block. Oh, this block is 2 in thick. So line it up. Make sure it’s nice and tight to the box. And the first thing I do is put a screw at the end here. That just makes sure makes sure it’s not going to move. Stay at the two in one at this end. We’re going to put one at the top to make sure it doesn’t move this way. And one in the middle.
You want about halfway in between. Doesn’t have to be all that precise. And that’s it. That’s all it takes once you have these little things set up to make it easier. So, we’re going to finish everything off. And I’m sure there’s a few things that have probably forgotten, but uh we’re going to do a recap. Once this is all stained, we’re going to put our stucco wire on here, get it all ready to go, and then I’ll do a final go over anything that maybe I’ve missed or the details on how to put the wire up. We’ll cover all that in the last part of this video. Now, over here, we have a finished section. And you can see here too that it is nice and straight and flat. And that is with our cap and rails and everything in place. But it looks very smooth. There’s no reason for that to change over time other than a little bit of settling which can always be adjusted later.
54:15 Refine the jig and finish the gate
So, before we do a final wrap on the whole series of videos here, there’s a few things that we found out as went along that I want you to know about. One of them is the jig that we made up for routering. So, the first thing I want to go over, and you can see we have quite a bit of width here beside our post. And previously, we’re notching this out. And then the waist goes out here and that’s what that space is for. But we also found out that when you’re routering, it’s very easy when you’re coming down to tip in, which is not what you want. So you want to be able to stay nice and flat on this surface around here. So you want to increase this. You don’t need it to have that much space here. That’s what we’re where we made a mistake. So you can bring this in another/2 inch or so on this side. Probably another 3/4 of an inch here. Different than what I showed you on the jig construction. And as long as you have enough room for the diameter of your
router bit to fit here when you first go in. So you can start away from your post and then router into it. So as long as that’s maybe say 3/4 I say 7/8 1 in here, that should be enough and that’ll allow your debris to kick out of there as well. So just make this a little bit smaller on either side. The other thing you can do, you can buy what they call template router bits that have a dado bit on them and a bearing on the bottom. So down in down in this part right here and that bearing would ride around the inside of this and you won’t need these. But uh they’re a little bit more expensive. These chances are you might have one of these. So this is the solution for a regular dado router bit. And just make it a little bit smaller and you should be good. Now, there’s not too much uh I’m going to go over as far as gate construction because there is a lot of ways to build gates. Uh what I do want to point out though is a couple key things that you
need to do for a gate if you don’t want it to sag over time and how we built the framework around the gate here. So, you can see this is the hinge side where I’m standing. And what you want to do when you’re building your gate, make sure you got a brace coming up from the bottom corner where it’s hinged to the middle and then back up to the top or from the bottom up to the top corner here. That’ll keep your gate from sagging over time. So whether you go with a flat design like this or you go 2×4 all the way around on edge, it doesn’t matter as long as you have the bracing in there. Also here we’ve put the double 2 by6 framework on either side of the gate to beef it up so it doesn’t move. And we have the rail across the top to keep the distance across the top equal over time. And on the bottom we put in this wood platform here and where the gate comes up to that. We didn’t give it a lot of space. It’s about 3/4 of an inch. That’s to make sure no animals can
get in there. And this with the boxes being here, this platform is secured to the boxes, so it’s not going to sag. And we also pounded the soil down quite a bit before we put it in. And on the front, right below the gate here, went down 16 in with 2 by sixes to make sure that no animals can dig their way through here at this point because everywhere else we have boxes to prevent that. Not here though. So the main thing with gate on the bottom, make sure your braces come up. Also, we put extra fine mesh down here because it’s low to the ground to make sure gophers and rabbits can’t jump through. And as far as everything else goes, as long as you adhere to that, your gauge should stand up for a long time. So, we’ve got everything planted, seeds in, some of our bedding plants are all in. Uh we even planted some fruit trees in here. That’s one of the reasons that we wanted to make this thing bearproof. But uh overall you can see it looks pretty nice and I hope that uh you have the same results and we’ll see you in the next video.
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