Welding Tips and Tricks

whenever possible. I bought a home that was owned by a widow, who used to rely on the elder neighbor to do all of her maintenance. You know the type. He has baby food jars with the lids screwed to a shelf over a workbench that is made from an old exterior door, and in these jars is every imaginable doo-dad fastener, clip, staple, and a bunch of other things that may be saved, just in case. But in real life he's a hack. I have been struggling with this gate that he built out of pressure treated 1x 8's, that broke the strap hinges a month after I moved in.

There had been these 4'x6' 1" square tube panels laying against the side of our building for at least 5 years, until I finally asked what they were for and my boss said that they were destined for the scrap yard. Why they just wouldn't be cut up and saved for shorts is beyond me, but I ended up with them for free. So, after work one night, I cut them up and cobbled together this lightweight gate. The strength of which partly relies on the collective strength of the pickets screwed to it. I have about 50-60 bucks invested with hinges and hardware. No more lifting the gate and swinging it, or by the time of this project, actually picking the entire monstrosity up and leaning it against the tree and then sticking it back over the hole.



Now I don't have the hassle when I want to take the boat out and I am sure my neighbors are happier with the eyesore gone. When I Was finished, I had less than 2" of the scrap tubing left and had it designed and built in under 3 hours, not including the paint and pickets.


I notice in the photo that I don't have all the hinge bolts installed. I better check tomorrow to see if I ever did put the others in.

Nice!


Don't forget to install the hinge bolts! I learned about that the hard way. One of the first shows I ever worked on, I was supposed to set a couple of saloon type doors on double action hinges. An actress was supposed to enter the scene by kicking open the doors like in an old western. I set the doors temporarily to make sure they fit, swung right, etc, but I only used 3/4 inch screws on the hinges to hold them before I bolted them on. Then I went on to something else and forgot all about the doors.

They held up for about a week of shows until one night the actress kicked them open and they flew off the frame for about 15 feet and landed somewhere near the audience. One of the stagehands tracked me down at the bar and asked if I ever remembered to bolt the door hinges on......"D"OH!!"

Other Steve

Haha! That's funny. The visual did it for me.

I did install a short gate stop and added a bolt and a pin that sticks in the ground and holds it open as well. The hinge post is just slightly out of plumb, just enough to allow the gate to always close it self. It's for privacy more than anything. I have yet to see anything short of an industrial sized steel gate with constantine wire deter someone if they want to get in. Figured saving weight would be easier on the moving hardware at least. You could break it if you wanted to, but it will stand up on it's own as it is. It didn't rack out of square after I hung it. I used 1x2 box for the hinge pads. I think I filled them a solid spacer of delrin scrap to keep the bolts from caving them in and I used nylock nuts etc.

My son at some point, decided to redo the pavers and now they all rock when you walk on them. lol

Nice job, I like that design. I may have to use your design for a gate I'm considering installing on my driveway. I will probably use 2 gates and would like to have openers on them. Do you have any idea of the weight of the completed gate?

Thanks,

Jason

West Baden Iron wrote:Nice job, I like that design. I may have to use your design for a gate I'm considering installing on my driveway. I will probably use 2 gates and would like to have openers on them. Do you have any idea of the weight of the completed gate?

Thanks,

Jason

Thank you. I got the idea for initially planning on using a cable on a bearing atop the hinge post with a turnbuckle to the bottom corner, diagonally in suspension. Knowing how I typically like to overbuild things, I opted to try something without locating/fabricating special parts. The gate might weigh 60 lbs at most. I was going to trim the pickets to match the top profile of the aluminum say an inch beyond the frame, but ended up liking it as is, or just being glad it was so much better than the killer that was there before.

It's plenty sturdy on the face when it is shut/latched against the gate stop. Other than that, it's light weight is easy on the hinges. I just never cared for the wood gates for these applications typically. They were always racking out of square and bulky. 1"x2" box tubing with the 1" dimension to the face would have been nice as well I think for a substantially stiffer construct in that regard. It swings nicely as designed, though.

Interesting dear.. i must appreciate your spirit.. good..
keep it up..