Timber Frame Tools

To keep the Gazebo bug free, I needed to put some screens up. We get a lot of wind here at the edge of the lake so I needed them to be fairly strong and secure. I made the screen frames out of 1″x2″.

The largest openings are three window panes wide so these screens needed two middle rails as well as the ends.

To keep the screen in place I used a 3/16" straight router bit in my Porter Cable router along with an Porter Cable edge guide (a router table would have worked just fine too) to cut the channel for the spline. The spline then holds the screen in place. Originally I had planned that the spline side of the screen assembly would be pressed against the exterior of the gazebo, which would hide it from view. The problem I ran into with this is that the frame of the screen then trapped leaves pine needles which gave something for the winds to push against and popped / ripped the screens. It also meant I had to keep cleaning this debris off. So after a few months of that, I flipped the screens around so that the spline faced out from the gazebo and creates no places for the debris to get stuck.

To join the 1″x2″ together at the corners I used half-lap joints and pegged them with small 3/8″ dowel I only glued the dowel. In hindsight (after looking at some of the twists the 1″x2″ have developed) I should have glued the corners too.

I knew there would be times when I would need to remove the screen frames if I had to replace them (remember the splines were hidden the first time around). So I had to have a way of attaching the screen frames to the gazebo that was removable. That ruled out pegs, and since I wanted to avoid metal, that ruled out screws and bolts. A wooden bolt seemed like the best alternative. So I purchased a dowel threader and tap and made my own bolts. (wood threading covered in this post)

As you can see in the photo above, the screen frames literally bolt on to the gazebo (actually probably a better analogy would be that they machine screw onto the gazebo).