For our new fence, my wife and I had been talking about making an arch over the gate. We then discovered the moon gate and thought it would look neat to make a full circle that is both the arc over top and a cut in arch in the gate itself, forming a complete circle.
Making the gate was quite straight forward. I mad a square base frame using pocket-hole joinery.
I then created a large compass on my workbench to create the desired arc and radius of the circle.
For the upper arch, I then took some leftover cedar planks from the fence and put them on the arc and drew a line.
I then took a number of these drawn arcs and cut them out on my new bandsaw. I then used bits of treated 2×4 to link the arcs together to form a sturdy arc structure.
I then put all the arcs together to form the upper half of the circle, and ensured it had the proper diameter.
I then used my new half-circle and laid it over planks on the gate frame to mark where I needed to cut the planks to ensure a perfect bottom circle.
I then used my jigsaw to cut out along the line to create the gate’s circle.
Putting the two pieces together, created a perfect circle and moon gate for the entrance to our yard.
