Keeping character, or restoring a pond

[MarkV]

The post looks great Harvey. I had no idea that could be done with powder coating.

MarkV

 

[jinman]

The post looks great Harvey. I had no idea that could be done with powder coating.

MarkV

Almost too 'purdy' to put outside. I look at Harvey's powder coating and wonder how long it will be before steel sheeting will look like wood instead of solid colors of paint. If the sheetmetal industry could perfect that look, there'd be lots of metal buildings that look like wood siding.:thumbsup:

 

[wroughtn_harv]

If we are able to accomplish what we want with this job then we will have a fence in an upscale neighborhood that appears to be furniture grade Jim. I'm hoping the combination of the light and dark woods along with the stainless fasteners take the concept of fence to another level.

One of the things I'm working on now that we've got the pests covered is weed eaters. Even though powder coating is harder than a bad girl's heart and tougher than Donald Trump's mirror I don't believe it can survive many years of weed eater whuppings. I'm thinking the best solution involves a metal plate that is placed over the post after it is set. The plate will prevent plant growth next to the post and provide a space barrier for the weed eater operator. I'm thinking the same thing in plastic would have too limited a shelf life.

In Cavellon Haiti I saw a set of doors downtown that made me do a double take. I thought it was some doors off of an old wooden ship and so I had to take a closer look. They were metal and it took me a couple of minutes to figure out that what they were made of was old corrugated tin that had been worked over with a hammer of some type. I suspect a wooden mallet with a singular face designed just for that application. The paint was awesome but what gave it the character that knocked my socks off was the texturing.

What would be the kewelest thing ever for me would be for that craftsman to see this fence when it is done and approve it.

Wednesday afternoon we are supposed to have the blessing meeting at the powder coaters. They will have the post, three brackets, and five rails done so we can assemble a section and see if the client approves. If they approve then it's production time and we will find out if the fence looks as good built as the one I've told the clients it can be, pudding proofing one oh one you might say.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Almost too 'purdy' to put outside. I look at Harvey's powder coating and wonder how long it will be before steel sheeting will look like wood instead of solid colors of paint. If the sheetmetal industry could perfect that look, there'd be lots of metal buildings that look like wood siding.:thumbsup:

You already see lots of this product in commercial buildings. Most of the stuff I see them making are window frames, metal ceilings, and furniture pieces. If a beautiful wood prehung window looks too perfect to be true you might want to tap it to see if it is metal or wood. The same thing goes for trim pieces that appear to be marble or granite too.

I do believe we are the first ones to use the process for a residential fence of any size. I know there are short wall sections in commercial applications that have used this process but nothing of size. Most of those projects are done with aluminum because it is impractical to make it out of steel and then get it galvanized for a small project.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Today the clients and myself met at Quality Powder Coating to bless the color selections.

These are some photos I took of the event. Grade will be five to six inches below the bottom rail. 001 gives a good idea of what the weave pattern will look like.

Jim at Quality told the clients that in four to five years everyone will be stopping to question them about the stain they used that is holding up so well.

 

[jinman]

Harvey, the top plank of the basket-weave looks like it is a knotty pine pattern and the others are just grained patterns. Are you going to mix-n-match or use a single style for the whole gate? In my opinion, the knotty pine shows up much better and you won't miss that the gate looks like wood. The other planks (at least in the photos) look like wood only when you look longer than a fleeting glance.

 

[Renze]

I knew the galvanizer needed to dip the post in vertically but I figured a 1/4" hole would be enough for them to install a still wire that would hold the weight of the post during the process. They thought not. So I drilled two holes so they could run a wire through the post for their purposes.

Galvanising happens in a bath of 450 degree celsius. If you drilled just one hole and bent a hook to the wire to hang it from, the wire would simply unfold when its heated in the zinc bath to 450 degree celsius..

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Galvanising happens in a bath of 450 degree celsius. If you drilled just one hole and bent a hook to the wire to hang it from, the wire would simply unfold when its heated in the zinc bath to 450 degree celsius..

I knew it got hot but not that hot. They never shut down the dip tank, contents start solidifying at 500 degrees Amercian.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I picked up the first pallet of posts today and delivered them to the job. I have an agreement with the water district, no post hole drilling Fridays or weekends. That's because the line was installed in the fifties by farmers and no one knows where it is. And, they think I can find any buried utility better than anyone else can. So we will start setting posts Monday, weather permitting, weather is even more cranky than the water company when it comes to me setting posts.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

There's a lot going on in the picture of the post next to the tree. The most important thing was we had to get as close to the location as possible without damaging a significant root. The last thing we want to do is damage a large root and hurt part of the limb system.

Then there is the thing about post spacing. This is a basket weave fence. That means the spacing must be consistent to maintain the visuals we are looking to have. The basket weave pattern would accentuate any spacing differences. There is also the issue of rail positioning. We had to have the bottom rail on the outside of the post at this location. Again, basket weave pattern meant that the whole line's pattern is based upon the needs of this post.

We got lucky. I used the eight inch auger and it went down without a hitch. This also gave us the 7' spacing that I wanted. If I had went to a six foot spacing then I would be short of posts for the job. 8' spacing on the other hand won't highlight the pattern as much as a 7' would. If I was the praying sort I would have considered this one prayer answered.

So we set 13 posts yesterday afternoon. We are using a twelve inch auger and going down just over three feet. Even with us keeping the concrete down four inches in the hole we are using two large bags of Maximizer per post hole. I'm using the 24 year old Little Beaver hydraulic post hole digger that Texas Don liked so much when we did his gate project. I love this particular machine. It will work you like a dawg but there is so much more control and feel when digging in sensitive areas. It is heavy and when I pull it out of a three feet deep hole with a twelve inch auger attached I feel every minute of my 64 years.

We got snowed out today but hopefully tomorrow we will set the two arcs that are going to highlight the entryway. I will set up the Hilti rotary laser level and shoot grade on both sides of the drive level. These sections will be solid basket and accent the entry along with directing the eye to the gate.

The color and textures of the posts are way more than I hoped for. One of the neighbors commented that he would be terrified if he was in my shoes of hurting the posts during installation. I'm not worried, we're careful, have to be.