Turn a broken gate into a rustic outdoor table

 by Layout
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The gates at the side of our house succumbed to a big wind storm recently. The cause was ground rot on the posts, but that meant that most of the wood was still in pretty good condition despite being over thirty years old. Instead of throwing it out my wife suggested recycling it to make an outdoor table.
 
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Step 1: Gathering the materials

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The materials required for a table were conveniently the same as the materials avaiable from the broken gates, namely

4x4 posts approx 6ft long (4)
4x2 rails approx 3ft (2)
Palings (enough to cover a 6ft x 3ft surface)
Hinges (4)

Tip: because of the age of the wood I found it easier to saw the palings off the frame before de-nailing, to prevent splitting them.
hjin1 says: Aug 7, 2012. 12:40 PM
Circular saw should be fine. As long as you install fine-cutting blade, and adjust the depth to board thickness.
JodyT2 says: Mar 30, 2010. 7:31 PM
 I was checking out Instructables looking for ideas to create a rustic kitchen worktable. Thanks for your post. I liked your approach with the hinges on the edges and using the rough 4x4 posts. You may have completed my search for a design :-) The variations of color on the table top are really pretty.
Layout (author) in reply to JodyT2Mar 31, 2010. 8:53 AM
The colour variations are the result of our watering system. Where the water reached the fence the palings were bleached white. By mixing up the palings from various parts of the fence and playing with the orientations I was able to get this very pleasing effect.
threedollarbill says: Feb 26, 2010. 3:11 PM
THIS makes me really happy.

due to the snowpocalypse there is a ridiculous amount of used broken and forgotten wood laying in dumpsters around here ( tear ) 
i see it all the time and took some the other day,  ill be going back for more after looking at this.
canida says: Oct 30, 2009. 2:54 PM
Nice reuse project!
l8nite says: Oct 29, 2009. 11:32 PM
I really like the hinge detail !
jhines0042 says: Oct 28, 2009. 5:46 PM
Did you prime or otherwise seal the cut portions of the wood to prevent future rot from occurring?
Layout (author) in reply to jhines0042Oct 28, 2009. 6:37 PM
Colorado is a pretty dry climate and I have no concerns with future rot so I didn't bother with sealing or treating the timber. If you are building in a wetter climate then sealing might be necessary, but even untreated it would still take a significant period of time for rot to become an issue.

The only reason the posts rotted is because they were constantly exposed to water where they met the concrete footer. Whoever built the fence neglected to slope the concrete away from the base of the post.
jhines0042 in reply to LayoutOct 28, 2009. 8:01 PM
Well you did a good job repurposing your gate.  Enjoy it!
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