Good Morning
December of 2017 I found out the company was going to fix the parking lot. The job would start during the xmas break. During the tear out I heard Roger say Steve (owner) wanted to put a gate in. Where the gate would go the driveway had a 12” slope. So I had to get that FIXED !
This picture is the best one I have.
So it was decided we would come back & cut the curb out when the driveway was ready to pour. Roger had access too a 24” auger bit. He told me he could go 8’ deep, turned out it was 6’. So the post are 4” x 4” x 1/4” Steel. I wonder to this day how much cement went into those 2 post ! the boss complained. But I wasn’t going to have them lean ! I put two ¾ pieces of pvc from post to post for 120 volt electric & low voltage wiring. There is also two 2” pieces for whatever in the future!
That picture is dated 1-12-18. I started getting material in to get the project going. The gate would be Aluminum, Post steel. I wanted radius corner aluminum. That took about 6 weeks to get. So when the first batch showed up it was almost March. Still to cold outside for me ! Then I order the material for the post & it was finally decided how it would look. Steve wanted everything powder coated. So I figured out & built & cut the post & got them to the powder coater.
While the post are at the powder coaters I built the gates.
I can’t tig weld, Dale welded all the Aluminum. So I told him the easiest way for him to do this was to get in the square & I would work on the out side & line everything up.
this took 2 days to do. the whole time Dale is saying this is a lot of welding ! LOL
about 12 hours a gate !
when the gate company that was putting in the openers came there the salesman asked me if I could sneak in a wire to work the electric magnet to lock the gate. Sure I said. So it was the second gate I would do that to. I made this piece so the wire would get cut & it would pull easy.
Every Weld is perfect ! Dale did a great job
The gates were tested before painting
I used a post hole digger to do the holes because almost every hole was near something a machine could not dig. The first hole I dug was next to the gas line. I found the gas line & was figuring how I would move the hole over & covered the line. Then I processed to puncture the gas line & all hell broke loose. The building had to be evacuated ! Fire department called, gas company arrived ! LOL
The 3rd post from left was the gas line post. The post are about 30” deep. 6 to 8 bags a post. To get the post level I welded a 1/4” plate on the bottom of the post then I drilled them & taped them. Then I took a piece of tubing & welded a plate on it. I drove that in the ground. then I could adjust the height ! Worked very good IMO.
so the post are all set And I get the side walks done.
you can see the electric in this picture.
Now I’m waiting for Steve to get the 2 post painted. That took a few weeks for some reason. Some where along this process I was bored & couldn’t find some thing to do. So I made the post caps, this was 3-21-18 that I did this.
that is the bottom.
they took about 45 minutes a piece to make & grind.
so now it’s time to build the gate panels.
they were tested & drilled.
you can see the post for the gate still isn’t painted in this picture. The gates are inside waiting to be installed, but those 2 post needed painted ! ! ! hehehe
here is a gate being built, Notice my saw horses ! I built those things 10 years ago. heavy duty ! hehehe
Testing the gates!
I got the panels to the powder coater !
Finally got the gates in place !
installed the end caps !
here is a picture of the hinges, Pro Fab did those. so they are one of a kind. 2” x 2” aluminum blocks. Neil the machinist bored them & fitted a brass bushing in them. 3/4” stainless rod was threaded then formed. The a 1 1/2” Stainless bung was machined & a 1/4’ brass thrush washer made. there are holes & grease fittings too!
Steve wanted to build a retaining wall to control the water. so that footer was poured, I couldn’t build that panel till that was made. When it rained hard the water, dirt, & gravel would flow across the driveway. So while I was waiting for this to be done, I figured another way to control the water.
The gutters for that building had 6” pipe put in by the guys that did the driveway, Pro Fab paid for it. Steve tried to buy that building but couldn’t out bid a rich guy.
Steve finally talked to the new owner of the building & asked if he could put the fence over to his building building.
So material was order & I went & picked it up & took it to the powder coater so it would get coated with the Fence panels the next day!
when I dug that center post I knew the electric was to the left & water to the right.
I found the water about 15” down on the right side. then about 25” down I found the electric on the left side. I got it done without a problem !
testing a panel. I put ever panel in place before I got them painted !
the 2 panels here were tricky to do. It took me a few days to decide how to do it. I finally decided I could mark each corner of the 2 rails with a center punch. then I measured them in an x pattern, and straight up & down. then I put them on my saw horses & got them within about 1/16th of an inch. It worked !
I got the 3 panels to the powder coaters on Friday the 9-7-18. He said he would do them next week.
I forgot to take a picture of the hole that got dug in the left corner of the above picture. it got dug about 48” deep & 30” wide. I then put a 55 gallon plastic drum that the top was cut out of upside down in the hole.
then we got 1 ½ inch rock delivered .
I did all the electric here is the way the mag lock wire went
That piece of greenfield is Stainless ! I was surprised when I got it !
that block object in the picture is a 3/8 nut tied to a piece of welding wire that I put in the tubing as I assembled the gate so I could pull the wire after it was painted & hung for the last time ! It worked out perfectly ! you can also see the grease fittings in the hinge block in that picture. Every piece of hardware is stainless! Those washers on the hinge were made at pro fab ! I couldn’t find anything online to buy. They are ¼ thick ! Heavy Duty !
This post has a plate on the end that wouldn’t work for that reader. It also wasn’t long enough IMO. So I cut 4 pieces of strap and made it ! 😎
Electric pictures
The walls to the office are styrofoam coated with plaster. I was able to get plastic flex from the box on the right up into the overhead in the office. I was worried about being able to pull the wire into that flex, it worked much easier than I thought it would. the box on the right is low voltage.
here is the supply to one of the openers. I pulled everything so there is no splices if at all possible. the Mag lock had to be spliced.
So I was able to finish the project !
Thursday Sept 20th was my last day at Pro Fab.