Fecn
Established Member
Well.. I would start this post with an apology for my absence lately, but few of you noticed, and less of you care. Even though I haven't managed to make it into the shop much this year, and haven't posted lately, I haven't been totally idle.
Instead of apologising, I'm going to start this post with a gloat. Look at this pile of lovely Ipe. It's a bit weathered, but nothing that won't clean up with a little sanding. Having cleaned some of it up today, I feel really reather guilty that most of that pile of timber is destined to become part of my garden gate.
You may recall that back in January, my garden wall blew over..
Well.. eventually the insurance company paid out, but only for the brick built portion. I got a local firm to rebuild the pillars with some rebar down the centres, and I think they did a great job. Since the insurance didn't cover it, I did all the timber parts myself to save on the costs (and it was a serious saving.) - Prooving that I've learned a thing or two from this forum, I made a couple of jigs for fencing - The first jig I made was for positioning the brackets on the brick pillars and the second was for making sure I got the nails from my nailgun at the right height to hit the centre of the Arris rail.
Ever since I first saw our current house, I was of the opinion that it needed a big sliding gate next to the workshop to hide away from the road. I applied for planning permission in May 2006 and got a round of quotes for getting other people to do the work. None of the quotes I got were in the realm of affordable. Whilst I had the builders fixing the wall, I got them to quote for concreting in two gate posts and a girder to act as the gate rail. The price they came up with sounded reasonable, so I got them to go ahead and order the steel.
The steelwork arrived on March 27th - The photos fail to do it justice. When you look at these photos, remember that each of those fence panels is 6ftx6ft.
The base plate on the support post (the big one) is 10mm thick.
April 4th and the posts are in the ground. The big post is set 3ft down in concrete.
Since I had some spare conduit knocking around, I was smart enough to get the builders to drop it in the trench before they poured the concrete. The yellow tube is for electricals, the white is for compressed air.
The idea is that the gate will slide down past the side of the shed.
May 5th - Found myself a welder. Welder came to visit and welded down the 20mm round bar upon which the gate will run. Painted all the metal work with a layer of red oxide followed by a layer of black hammer finish. Added some extra conduit for power and data to/from the gate motor unit. Managed to dig away through the concrete so that I could run a piece of conduit underneath the rail for the photocells.
Ultimately, all the electricals end up in the shed.
June 15th - After a rather long delay with the welders (chap went to Peru for a month) The steel support frame for the gate finally arrived along with the welding guys to sort out all the detailed work. Hooray.
Here's a test fitting to see if it fits - It does
Wheels being installed into the underneath of the gate.
June 16th - Gate posts cut to height - Rollers added to the top of support post - Four wheels on underside of gate - Toothed Rail bolted to gate and motor mounted by pillar.. and you can't see any of that detail on the photo, but here's the photo anyway.
June 19th - Welders pretty much finished now - Painted everything with red oxide and then hammer finish.
June 22nd - Got all the electricals installed.
This grey box is the gate motor. It has a cog which drives against the toothed rack bolted to the gate. A magent at each end of the rack tells the motor unit when it's reached the open and closed positions.
You need a really big hammer to get the nails on those cable clips through the steel post without bending them.
June 26th - Here's how things are looking today - I painted the underneath of the gate today. I chocked it away from the support post, strapped it in place and then raised it on a trolley jack until I could get a paintbrush underneath - The whole lot should be rustproof now. The welders are coming back tommorow for a few last minute tweaks, and then it's on with the woodwork for me. Since I'm about to start on the woodworking I figured it was probably about time to post some picks on ukw.
More pics will follow as the wood goes on. - Thanks for looking.
Instead of apologising, I'm going to start this post with a gloat. Look at this pile of lovely Ipe. It's a bit weathered, but nothing that won't clean up with a little sanding. Having cleaned some of it up today, I feel really reather guilty that most of that pile of timber is destined to become part of my garden gate.
You may recall that back in January, my garden wall blew over..
Well.. eventually the insurance company paid out, but only for the brick built portion. I got a local firm to rebuild the pillars with some rebar down the centres, and I think they did a great job. Since the insurance didn't cover it, I did all the timber parts myself to save on the costs (and it was a serious saving.) - Prooving that I've learned a thing or two from this forum, I made a couple of jigs for fencing - The first jig I made was for positioning the brackets on the brick pillars and the second was for making sure I got the nails from my nailgun at the right height to hit the centre of the Arris rail.
Ever since I first saw our current house, I was of the opinion that it needed a big sliding gate next to the workshop to hide away from the road. I applied for planning permission in May 2006 and got a round of quotes for getting other people to do the work. None of the quotes I got were in the realm of affordable. Whilst I had the builders fixing the wall, I got them to quote for concreting in two gate posts and a girder to act as the gate rail. The price they came up with sounded reasonable, so I got them to go ahead and order the steel.
The steelwork arrived on March 27th - The photos fail to do it justice. When you look at these photos, remember that each of those fence panels is 6ftx6ft.
The base plate on the support post (the big one) is 10mm thick.
April 4th and the posts are in the ground. The big post is set 3ft down in concrete.
Since I had some spare conduit knocking around, I was smart enough to get the builders to drop it in the trench before they poured the concrete. The yellow tube is for electricals, the white is for compressed air.
The idea is that the gate will slide down past the side of the shed.
May 5th - Found myself a welder. Welder came to visit and welded down the 20mm round bar upon which the gate will run. Painted all the metal work with a layer of red oxide followed by a layer of black hammer finish. Added some extra conduit for power and data to/from the gate motor unit. Managed to dig away through the concrete so that I could run a piece of conduit underneath the rail for the photocells.
Ultimately, all the electricals end up in the shed.
June 15th - After a rather long delay with the welders (chap went to Peru for a month) The steel support frame for the gate finally arrived along with the welding guys to sort out all the detailed work. Hooray.
Here's a test fitting to see if it fits - It does
Wheels being installed into the underneath of the gate.
June 16th - Gate posts cut to height - Rollers added to the top of support post - Four wheels on underside of gate - Toothed Rail bolted to gate and motor mounted by pillar.. and you can't see any of that detail on the photo, but here's the photo anyway.
June 19th - Welders pretty much finished now - Painted everything with red oxide and then hammer finish.
June 22nd - Got all the electricals installed.
This grey box is the gate motor. It has a cog which drives against the toothed rack bolted to the gate. A magent at each end of the rack tells the motor unit when it's reached the open and closed positions.
You need a really big hammer to get the nails on those cable clips through the steel post without bending them.
June 26th - Here's how things are looking today - I painted the underneath of the gate today. I chocked it away from the support post, strapped it in place and then raised it on a trolley jack until I could get a paintbrush underneath - The whole lot should be rustproof now. The welders are coming back tommorow for a few last minute tweaks, and then it's on with the woodwork for me. Since I'm about to start on the woodworking I figured it was probably about time to post some picks on ukw.
More pics will follow as the wood goes on. - Thanks for looking.
