gate 101?

I never found any ... only the school of hard knocks. For some reason the prints I do always call for hinges that are light weight and fail after a few months. Over build your hinges. I used 1.5 inch pins in one drive way gate I built... I never regretted it. Heavy wall pipe bushed with UHMW plastic and solid heavy pins makes for a quiet assembly that never squeaks. Also much depends on the end posts and their rigidity. People tend to go light on the concrete footings etc for drive way gates. Randy

It might sound stupid, but: Have a bike ride and stop at every gate you see. Have a look at them, and soon you'll understand what is good design and what not.

The elder, the better. First, because they didn't design cheapish crap, second because they survived for so long.

I prefer weld-on hinges. Cheap, flexible and rock solid. They survive decades in the outside.

HTH, Nick

I agree with Nick: Heavy hinges and weld-on hinges.

One of my gates:

The rig I use: I drive an 86 Toyota pickup at the moment. The poor truck takes off really slow because it has been modified to include a flatbed, dually setup, and includes an extra 1100 pounds of welding equipment. But, it still pulls in about 24 MPG and it still goes!

Having made many and hung more than that, let me just say that recognizing what you're hanging a gate on is one of the more important factors. There's hard concrete, wood, block, grouted block, posts in the ground, etc, etc, etc. Each is different. The mounting will dictate the design and the hinges to be used. The part that fails most is the mounting, mostly from incorrect mounting, or excess forces such as kids hanging on them. A lot are just plain not put on right to start with.

It is difficult to know the exact status and condition of what you are mounting to. You might think it's a solid grouted cell, and all that is grouted is the top course. It might appear a solid wood column, but only be in soft dirt one foot below the dirt line. It could be ungrouted block.

There is no book I know of that tells one all the different mountings. It comes with experience, and mostly experience of fixing mountings that have failed.

Learn all about anchors. I liked sleeve anchors because they stick good in grouted masonry. Not much will hold good to bricks. Redheads and expansion anchors are good for concrete. In some cases, you need to add a post on each side, sometimes by putting it in concrete, or if you can get enough fasteners into it, by attaching it to the face of the opening.

Knowing about framing and other forms of construction is helpful, too, so that you know what's really under the surface you are attaching to. In radical cases, I have made an entire rectangle that spreads out the side rails, and a flat bar bottom as a threshold so that the gate hangs on that frame rather than the fence or wall that's there. At time, a banjo string up to the top of the side poles and a turnbuckle will help take some of the leverage off of the wall. And I have made saddles that saddle the block wall so you can drill in from the sides.

Learn to anchor in mid block and avoid drilling into grout lines. Learn where the strong points are, even if you have to create them. i.e. a plate mounted to the ground, or a hole to concrete in the support pole or a top spreader bar, which you can decorate to hide its real function.

There's lots to be learned, most of it by doing, and some of it by failing. The size and weight of the gate has a lot to do with it, too, as that will determine how much lateral leverage is created when the gate is 90 degrees open. With the size gates you're doing, that shouldn't be much of a problem.

Just study it. You'll figure it out. One thing don't work on all gates.

HTH

Steve

Obvious point: If appearance allows it include a diagonal from near the upper hinge to the lower opposite corner. An "X" brace is even better.

Over here in Britain, use something known as "Chemfix" - non-proprietary name in architect's drawings is "resin anchor". Reckoned to be much stronger in brick than expanding fittings - which tend to rupture the brick. (mast installer guy said his standing instruction was don't use an expanding fitting within 12 courses of the top of a brick wall).

I've only used "resin anchor" into tarmac, but believe application is the same. Cut a piece of studding (screwed rod) as long as you like - usually much longer than an expanding fitting. Drill a hole to take it - clearance size about a millimetre or two larger than the stud dia

- length so that the required length to put the fastened object and nut to clamp it is sticking out of the surface. Inject "Chemfix" into the hole, using the "gun" and pack of resins - injected down a tube with a labarinthine insert which causes mixing of the resin as it goes to the nozzle. Push (push and twist) the stud into the hole, displacing resin up into the screw threads and ideally ejecting a little resin out of the hole to ensure complete fill (and purge out dirt?).

What you really do if you have several to do: You get your studs cut, drill the holes, clean the holes, lay the studs next to the holes - then stand there and survey whether all is ready. Then you get out the resin anchor pack, put on a nozzle and go along putting resin into each hole and pushing its stud home. Because the resin sets quickly and the nozzle will be irrevocably blocked if you have to fiddle with any of the fixings (you have spare nozzles, but only so many!)

For brick, should have a "puffer" - a little bellows - to blow dust out of the drilled hole.

Rich S.

In this case, the hinges should be in the frame's corner (or much nearer). The vertical tube already starts to bend.

Nick

I've found it helpful to try looking at projects in terms of the forces they will encounter in use and then build to survive a meteorite hit. Mostly, forces can be described as tension (pulling) and compression (pushing). By starting there and worrying about twisting forces later (I just guess at everything) my projects work out...oh yeah, and think of the leverage of your gate on its mounting. One other thing that has more than paid for itself is dropping a half case of Ezra Brooks off at the local steel supplier just before Christmas Brian