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Picture heavy - 7 posts!  Please bear with me ...Okay!  Have four projects ready to post - finally!  Been working on them for over three years and haven't posted them - because NONE of them are fully complete yet!!!    But gotta draw the line somewhere.  Here's the first.  It's tough to turn a couple hundred pics into a manageable thread, even the explanation gets long winded!  This thread is for the newbs to show how easily things can "complexify", but I hope some of you WW veterans will enjoy it too.  The pics are so old - July 2010 - no need to comment on technique.    I didn't even have C25 then, just flux core blowin' holes thru 16ga.  The last pic was dated Thanksgiving 2011, a lifetime ago!  Anyway, lets get started ...Pic#1 The old gate - when covered with cats claw, it was one of the best looking in the neighborhood.  Now the new walls in front are done, time for a new gate!Pic#2 Start with a drawing! All designs usually start freehand, as did this.  But there comes a point that it's easier to measure and calculate in Acad.Pic#3 This project is before the Rage3 Saw.  Ridgid chop saw, 14" Sait cut off wheels, and a fixed 45deg fence to clamp the stock to. Chopped 12 mitered pieces - all came out perfectly 45deg - pulled the fence, then cut the remaining 13 shorts.Pic#4 All these projects have "hidden" parts,   for this one it's the hinge supports.  Tap hinges into "16ga"(0.055") steel tube?!?  ROFLMAO!!    So cut a 1/4" strap x 1.5"w x 9"L and plug weld it inside the tube.  But, all the holes had burrs inside the tube that needed to be filed off, then a wood wedge jig made to clamp the strap tight behind the holes in the tube, then plug weld it.  The remaining holes are the pattern for the hinge, drilled 13/64" and tapped 1/4-20.Pic#5 Grind off the plug welds, sand 50 grit, then 80 grit. All that effort vanishes! Next ... Attached Images
Reply:Pic#1 Forest of clamps!  Think I used every one I had except for the bar clamps.  Two 23" sidelights are tacked, laid together, then the 47" gate laid over it.  All clamped up and tacked.  After welding up, using a boat trailer as a workbench, the gate and both sidelights are perfectly square and flat - 10ft "winder sticks" were dead on!!!  Pic#2 Welds -     ! HH140, V=2, speed 30 - flux core wants to blow right thru the 16ga.    The flux pinholes and edge undercut get filled by another bead, regrind again ...   Pic#3 Exposed welds are a big NO NO on this project, especially the inside corners.  Grind it, sand it all out.  This is the pic where I say "Yeeooowww" and I HATE FLAP DISCS!!!    Thought they would work perfectly into an inside corner radius - they did - almost.  BUT - they also cut a longer radius into the tube beside the corner - made the whole thing "wavy". (Although nobody else ever even noticed!) "Ruined" it. NEVER AGAIN!!!  Two Minute Hate!!!      Pic#4 Faces and corners sanded, then a 1/8x3/4 strap tacked to the bottom of the squares.  Just got my tank of C25 - can finally get nice looking welds! Pic#5 I was worried that if I fully welded that strap to the 16ga tube, both sides, one of them would get all wavy - or warp at least a little.  So, I took this stuff and filled it.  Research showed that other plastic bondos had cellulose filler were subject to moisture expansion, but LabMetal was aluminum powder and everlastingly stable.  So tried it.  Very difficult in that it had air bubbles and shrinkage while filling.  Next ... Attached Images
Reply:Pic#1 However, a quick roughing down with a rat tail file and sandpaper around a dowel cleaned it up and finish radiused it real quick.  Pic#2 Sidelight panels need legs! Chopped out 1+3/4" square and welded 2x2x1/8 to bottom corner of sidelight for wires and etc ... Pic#3 Here's a box for David R's "Box" thread, but kinda goofy.    4x4x6x1/8"thk.  First weld longer than 2" in a couple years!    Had to stop in the middle because my left glove heated up too much, and didn't have proper hand support to weld a long bead.Pic#4 Now I pretend to be a pipeliner!    1" galv pipe cut into a 3 way miter - 45deg each axis.  Wow!  Need it to run wires into the gate, shows up again in pics 16, 19 & 30.Pic#5       Ospho!  They say just brush on rust then paint.  Sheeeeeet!  No fookin way!  That sh*t telegraphs thru the primer AND paint!  Had to wash it down repeatedly to get to the next pic.  However, if I read my chemistry right, it did "phosphatize" the steel for a good rust preventative base for primer.Next ... Attached Images
Reply:Pic#1 The box, welded to the sidelight leg.  Both sidelights in the vise.  The round knob supports the bottom of the gate at the latch jamb.  Locking latch goes in the slot.  4.5"x4.5" stainless hinge.  1/4"x1/2" strap "stop" glued to tube with West System epoxy gave me nice fillet "weld"   corners!   Stops close the gap made by hinges, and the gap on the latch side.Pic#2 Top corners.  Hinge and latch same as bottom.  Access panel in top edge to wire squares for lighting and latch riser.Pic#3 Box is for "viper  keyless entry" actuator motor. It drives the lower latch, a rod to a center pivot, then a pushrod to the top latch.  Too much friction at center pivot  , so rebuilt later to simplify. Sorry, this one's tough to see.Pic#4 Paint!    Sidelites in foreground, gate beyond, little parts inside.  Amerlock2 - don't do this without scuba!  New respirator, goggles, hat, tyvek suit, nitrile gloves, full coverage - still had shortness of breath for four days!!!!       Isocyanacrylates.  Used it as a primer, but lit said okay for topcoat, chalked within half a year.  Threw away half of a $160 2 gal package.    Not worth it.Pic#5  Gate latch parts, hatch covers, etc.Next ... Attached Images
Reply:Pic#1 This gate is WIRED!    Drilled for four LED's in each square.  3 LEDs at 3.6v ea wired in series = 10.8volts approx = 12v.  4 sets of those wired in parallel fills the sidelite.  x2 for the gate.  48 LEDs total. About one amp at 12v IIRC.Pic#2 Glue 'em in, pointed 45deg toward white plexiglas square - not shown - but 1/2" from other face of gate.Pic#3 What's this?     Rube Goldberg?  Jerry Rigged?  Pic#4 Here it is turned 90deg.  Two of these latches provide "keyless entry" for the gate, the "hump" is needed to keep the actuator and latches in the "open" or "closed" position.  Without it, the actuator tends to "relax" into the middle, latches halfway engaged .Pic#5 Demolition!    Before it's even installed!  Decided the "stop" was in the wrong place.  Epoxy breaks down at about 300deg.  Unscrew and heat-gun it and it comes un-glued pretty quik.  Sand out, fill holes, repaint.  Move and re-fasten stop.Next ... Attached Images
Reply:Pic#1 What's this, a peace sign?    Nice "random orbit" finish.  Should show up in pic 29 about 8" from the top and bottom, and pic 33. What do you call those plates that stop the gate from swinging both ways?  Pic#2 Okay.  Install.  You can see the work that was needed to form the footing, etc.  The errors bolting the right and left sidelite jambs don't show, nor do the ???   hours of work to get everything aligned and formed.  Can't get the mixer close enough, so gotta pull and tip a tray ... or six! Lotsa clamping to get alignment!  Pic#3 Footing below, forms stripped, sidelite panels in, old gate behind (gotta keep the dogz in!).  24ga Galvalume "C" panels from MBCI, about a buck a sq ft. Pic#4 Inside pic.  Old wall and G8 being demo'd.Pic#5 There's the box again - buried in a footing!  Lock motor in place and operational, along with wires in conduits for the LED lights.  Cover plate not on yet.Note, in case moisture in the gate frame turns into water in the box, the bottom of the conduit and sweep were drilled with 1/8" weep holes 2"oc, then set in pea gravel and covered with poly.  Also, the finish patio surface is pavers, which can be removed to get to the box.Next ... Attached Images
Reply:Last one! Pic#1 Outside done - June 6, 2011.  More pics of this will show up in the Arch thread soon.Pic#2 Thanksgiving 2011, LED's are already weakening in right sidelite. LED rope light under glass block looks like the "Pure White" test, later replaced with "Soft White".  Will replace the white plexiglas squares in the gate with diamond sawed glass block + LED rope lite later this year and bump the thread with the pics ...Pic#3 Sad dog!    Can't dig his way out under the gate any more!     12x12 concrete footing in the way!   That's All Folks !!! Special SHOUT OUT to the Webmasters!    THANK YOU for the photo resizing routine in the attachment manager!  Saved me over half a day of "Gimp'n" to shrink the pics on just this thread!  Yay!  ... now if you could only find a way to put the text between the pics without photobucket or one of those other third party sites ...  Attached ImagesLast edited by Fabn4Fun; 08-26-2013 at 04:53 PM.
Reply:That was one awesome project, the opening at the bottom will keep the dog from jumping on the door and scratching. Well thought out project.
Reply:awesome job! nice design and great result!
Reply:Thanks guys!  Earlier designs were contemporary "ornamental iron" (one sketch I estimated at 1700 pieces) but the dogs get all afritter when anyone walks by on the sidewalk, so I had to build it solid.  Now, with the pavers in place, the gap is only 2" and poor doggie has given up!
Reply:That's very nice. Thanks for walking us through to the process. You must be proud. Great work .PlasmaCam CNC cutterLathe and Band SawClamps
Reply:Looks great! You've been busy.
Reply:Great job! I hope you're Fabn4 $$$$!!! Very professional!http://www.facebook.com/LockhartMetalArthttp://www.facebook.com/pages/Grumpy...44306259043484
Reply:Very nice, I like it!Heavy Metal Fabricationhttp://heavymetalfabrication.comhttps://www.facebook.com/heavymetalfabrication
Reply:Great looking project.   richey