If not are there any plans out there

Regards

They originated in china, however they are probably best associated today with bermuda where they are build out of coral. Included are two photos, one of a moongate in SF made out of wood and another coral moongate from Bermuda.

The stones are shaped and require some type of structure to hold in place until the stones are in place and the mortar is cured. That's a job for a mason.

It could be accomplished by an amatuer but they'd need to do quite a bit of homework and develop several new skills.

They are very attractive and I can see why you'd like to have one.

Your probably right

The only person who tried building one had it collapse on him as he was taking the supports down. I may try to build it by splicing together some 6x6s and cutting out the circle that way. Still a lot of challenges though.

Thanks for inquiring

To build an arch you need to understand ALL the forces involved to get it to work for you. But this is an open arch with no supporting walls surrounding it, that makes it more difficult to get it to work. That's where the engineering needs to enter in. You'd also need an adequate base underneath to support the weight of all that stone or masonry, especially if you live where you have freeze/thaw issues.

Good luck with your plans.

You might want ask this question in the Japanese Garden and/or the Asian Gardening forums. I know I've seen some people who built their own fences and various other projects. They may be more enlightened on the subject. :)

Thanks for the input.

If you'll notice that one mention of the guy who built his own moongate, was the one I mentioned above where the original version caved in on his head. :O. I was thinking about some sort of rebar system like you mentioned with foam inside. btw, what is hypertufa?

Excelsior

Dave

Hypertufa is a mix made from/with portland cement and alternative aggregates, some of which may be organic, which give the finished product an instantly rustic appearance. It was developed in England, I believe, to mimic watering troughs made from a stone called tufa. Way too big of a topic to go into here. Just Google it and you'll be swamped with info.

I'd recommend staying away from any organic additives if you want a long lasting project. Making it with a styrofoam and rebar structure is very doable. You can then wrap it with a metal lathe product meant to hold concrete or stucco in place. You can then do what you want with the outside design.

There are a few forums you can get involved with, you'll find those on Google also. Try the forum here too. Link is below. I work with hypertufa also and find it great fun to work with. You can carve a concrete mix while it's still green (not fully cured) to make all kinds of different things in or with it. You'll find a large number of recipes floating around too.

I put "hypertufa/concrete" mixture to kind of give it a range that could be used. There are a hundred personal variations of that range! I guess it depends of what type of armature, the shape, the bearing weight, etc that might determine that. I think you could basically give it more of a "concrete" scratch layer on top of the armature and then bond the hypertufa layer as the final coat to allow you to give it the carvable "rock" look. And then there's the possibility of wanting to seal it to prevent moisture. I think you'll be ok right now going over to HT and asking because things are going well and people are happy and helpful. I'd really try to get Tango's attention for help on what he thinks about the armature structure. He does a lot of heavy-duty, concrete ornamental work professionally.

My hope had originally been that someone had taken the time to figure out all of the arch pieces and molded them with concrete.

I think that my best course of action will probably be to make a structure out of wood cover with wire, then apply a skin coat of concrete. After that I will apply some sort of faux finish,

Unless I get a better idea :) for me figuring out how to do the project is usually more fun than actually doing it.

ExcelsiorDave

PS Here is another moongate, this time made out of brick

Excelsior

Dave

If you were to do it over again would you do anything any differently?

Regards

Dave

As I said before in a previous post, an arch is a very strong feature for any opening in a stone or brick structure. However it has to be remembered that there are different forces/stresses than a square opening that make an arch difficult to build correctly, especially a free standing arch of a moongate.

I took the liberty of using a picture actuary97/Dave posted to help show you what I mean.

The forces most directly involved for an arch are the downward and outward stress. The big arrows show what I mean. The walls in building (blue x's) take these forces and distribute them, making the arch work.

But the Moongate is a free standing arch (inner circles) without those walls to help. So you must take into account those forces to build an arch that will stand on its own.

It's important for a free standing arch to be anchored very well into the ground. The small down arrows show where or how. The support would have to start above the mid-line of the arch to help the arch stay in place. This is where the engineering comes into play. A moongates balance is important too. A wider width (going through the arch) will help the gate stand better without toppling.

This (inner) arch is two bricks thick. It took some very good masonry skill to make this look good. As the inner circumference is smaller, the grout had to be wider at the outside to make the circle look even. It's hard to see in this picture. With stone, it could be cut so that the grout thickness would be the same throughout the circumference, easier to do for the amateur. For cut stone you'd have to know:
1: The circumference, inner and outer, you want your gate to be.
2: Determine exactly how many stones you wanted to have in your arch.
3: The grout width, so you can take that into account to cut and lay the stone correctly to have a perfect circle.
Whole different ballgame there.

So if you wanted to lay say a flagstone (similar thickness) to make your arch you have to do the same as with brick and make your grout thicker at the ouside of the arch to make a good looking circle.

Fieldstone would require a structure to help hold it in place until finshed and the grout was cured sufficiently to take the weight.

I didn't mean to overload anyone with info but there's lots to consider when doing this. Whether you want a stone or brick arch or make one with a concete or hypertufa facade, please be careful.