Driveway Gate

[RichT]

After getting some amazing estimates ($2500-$4500) for an arched, double driveway gate, decided to take it on myself. About $300 in materials later, some 14in cutsaw work, aided by a metal cutting blade, welding (Hobart HH187), and a couple Boxer silhouettes courtesy of my Thermal Dynamics Cut38 plasma rig. Now in rustoleum primer waiting for rustoleum satin black topcoat.

 

[ultrarunner]

Nice work Rich... What are you going to use for hinges?

 

[weldingisfun]

Nice work. Send us some more pics as you finish the project.
How did you bend the square tubing?

 

[EddieWalker]

Looks great. I really like the dogs, they add allot to it!!!!

Eddie

 

[AlanB]

Nice.

The top bend is sweet.

 

[bx24]

Rich-

How wide is each gate? Is the frame box channel or angle iron? Did you bend the top pieces?

I am in the exact same boat but I was going to go even cheaper by using 1/2" thinwall conduit for the verticle pieces

Would you do it again?

Paul

 

[Onthesauk]

Nice job! Looks professional!

 

[RichT]

ultra - I'm using 5" barrel hinges (pic below)

fun - the top (arch) piece is 1x2 tube. I had a local guy with a tractor mounted hydraulic roller roll a 20ft piece of the 1x2 in a semicircle. Then I cut 4 segments and welded them together to get the arch.

paul - each gate is 6ft wide. The frame is 2" 16gauge sq tube. The pickets are 5/8in sq tube. Absolutely I'd do it again. In fact I likely will for a couple other gates on the property.

 

[AlanB]

ultra - I'm using 5" barrel hinges (pic below)

fun - the top (arch) piece is 1x2 tube. I had a local guy with a tractor mounted hydraulic roller roll a 20ft piece of the 1x2 in a semicircle. Then I cut 4 segments and welded them together to get the arch.

paul - each gate is 6ft wide. The frame is 2" 16gauge sq tube. The pickets are 5/8in sq tube. Absolutely I'd do it again. In fact I likely will for a couple other gates on the property.

Rich, any chance of a picture of that roller? I sure want one, but I think I will have to fabricate, as all the bought one's I find are well out of my price range. Nice way to do it out of segments like that.

Looks like your skills are great, but in the stuff I do, If you can make at least one side of the hinge be adjustable, and not fully welded, it can sure make installation easier, and later adjustments a lot more reasonable. Just a thought, but I would add on a bolt plate or something similar so I had some adjustment ability. With mine, it never fails when I go for solid welded, I end up with something drawing I don't expect when welding, and at the end of the 6 foot run, you will notice it.

 

[RichT]

Rich, any chance of a picture of that roller? I sure want one, but I think I will have to fabricate, as all the bought one's I find are well out of my price range. Nice way to do it out of segments like that.

Looks like your skills are great, but in the stuff I do, If you can make at least one side of the hinge be adjustable, and not fully welded, it can sure make installation easier, and later adjustments a lot more reasonable. Just a thought, but I would add on a bolt plate or something similar so I had some adjustment ability. With mine, it never fails when I go for solid welded, I end up with something drawing I don't expect when welding, and at the end of the 6 foot run, you will notice it.

No pic of the roller, sorry. The orig plan wasn't to do segments, rather to do a couple bends on the 1x2. Well, the fellow I took it to, an obvious long time metal craftsman, said ... no way, the 1x2 will buckle. He recommended the semicircle bend and segments to fab the arch. With my dimensions, he figured out what radius was needed for the bend.

Thats a good idea on the adjustable hinge, but in my design I don't know how I would accommodate it. My plan is to line up the gate, line it up again, then CAREFULLY tack the hinges to the gate, repeat this process until the alignment is proper. Then fill in between tacks, also CAREFULLY.

 

[Farmerford]

That does look good!

What material did you use for the screen and how did you mount it?

 

[RichT]

The screen is cut from std 4'x7' perforated sheets, usually available at any fence supply. I got the large (3/32") hole version. I needed 2 sheets, about $30/sheet.

 

[AlanB]

I would take plenty of breaks and do some short little welds, but judging from your workmanship, you already know that.

One of the first big curved gates I did, I did all welded hinges and mounts, and left myself no way to accomodate changes when I did the install. I still wish I had done something different on that one.

Only thing that saved me was the buyer (who was a contractor himself) was watching me and he said, what are you fussing with?, that 1/4" there?

He said God was perfect, and I was not, it looked fine..... Handed me the cash, and a $300 tip.............. A very memorable moment when you are as broke as you can be and think you are going to get a hard time from the customer because of the misalignment.

Yours looks really great.

 

[Nickahawk]

Very well done. Think how good you will feel coming and going past the gate on the way to buy more materials with the money you saved by doing it yourself!

 

[ToddW]

After getting some amazing estimates ($2500-$4500) for an arched, double driveway gate, decided to take it on myself. About $300 in materials later, some 14in cutsaw work, aided by a metal cutting blade, welding (Hobart HH187), and a couple Boxer silhouettes courtesy of my Thermal Dynamics Cut38 plasma rig. Now in rustoleum primer waiting for rustoleum satin black topcoat.

BTW, thanks Rich. I made the mistake of showing this post to my S.O. and I now have the task of duplicating it added to my "honey do" list.

/Todd

 

[RichT]

I mounted the gates today, carefully tack welding, leveling, more tacks, more leveling, etc etc. No matter how careful you are taking measurements, there is always some anxiety when you actually position the gates. I planned for 1/2in gate separation and it turned out to be 3/4in...I can live with that

Tomorrow I mount the latch, vertical sliding tube/concrete anchor, then paint the welds and nicks. First picture taken while I was checking fitment. I used bungycords to hold the gates in place (man, those things are handy), resting on wood blocks. I used the wheel dollies to move the gates around (~120lbs/gate). Mr. Boxer inspecting the work. Second pic taken after final welding of the hinge blocks.

Todd, you can do it. Thx everyone for the compliments.

 

[crbr]

Looks great!

 

[archerynut]

Great looking workmanship. Great pics and project.

 

[AlanB]

SWEET!

 

[river rat]

Really nice job! The pic of the garage was a little frustrating for me, though - looks like you've got a lot of "stuff" in there, but it still looks organized.
Mine has a lot of stuff, too, and we do a lot of projects there as well; difference is, ours always looks like tornados spend their off season there! LOL