Craig Smith of South Milwaukee wrote in to share his excellent hobbit door he built in his fence:
At my backyard fence to the alley, I did something a bit different for the gate; A Hobbit door. The fence panels had higher and lower stringers added so the curved cut would allow the small segments of pickets to remain fastened. I spent a few days bending green treated 1X2s to create a trim around the curved opening in the fence. The gate (door) was made like a standard wooden gate, but with a 6′ diameter roundness to it. The far left green door board is actually a part of the fence, as that creates a straight vertical hinge point for a pair of heavy-duty hinges. You can see the heads of the lag screws to the left of the door where the hinges fasten to the left fence post. Once or twice I opened the gate and inadvertently scared some kids who were curiously turning the door knob. At 6′ tall I am hardly a wee Hobbit.
(See Craig’s cool Firefly Workshop in MAKE Volume 23!)
MAKE Volume 23, Gadgets
This special issue is devoted to machines that do delightful and surprising things. In it, we show you how to make a miniature electronic Whac-a-Mole arcade game, a tiny but mighty see-through audio amp, a magic mirror that contains an animated soothsayer, a self-balancing one-wheeled Gyrocar, and the Most Useless Machine (as seen on The Colbert Report!). Plus we go behind the scenes and show you how Intellectual Ventures made their incredible laser targeting mosquito zapper — yes, it’s real, and you wish you had one for your patio barbecue. All this and much, much more.
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