TimothyJD

Thanks Mark, this gives me some ideas to try.

Thank you everyone for the comments. StrongBack, these questions are really good and I will try to answer them. If my budget was aloud to go 10%-20% more I would have liked to do more work on the top of the arch. I originally was planning on doing the top a little different but I ran into a couple problems that keep me from doing that, (mainly time) Secondly I would have liked to play with the bottom bars of the gate, changing them a little. I also would have liked to have a different type of latch system, then what I finished with. I don’t think that I would have done any major design changes. However, in hindsight I would have charged a little more so I could have made money on it Doug C, If I had an extra month to work on I probley would have done some of the things mentioned above. Element, I agree with you the top is not very exciting and not very much detail. I really like Mark’s idea of adding to more bars along the top. However, in a couple years there should be some kind of plant, growing over the whole thing so that’s why I didn’t spend a lot of time on the top of the arch. But if I would have had more time I would have done the top differently. I have a question, I got to thinking about what Mark, and Doug C said, about texture. I have textured little things before but not something so big. I find when I break the corners it causes the bar to curve, or bend. If I was to texture each bar of the gate it would be a really big thing to straighten out every bar after texturing them. So what I’m wondering is, is there a way to texture bars and not have them bend or curve on you? So that you don’t have to straighten them out after. Again thank you everyone. Tim

Mark, I would have liked to make the bottom Heel bar with an upset and use a heel tendon, but my skill level is not good enough to do that. I was originally planning on making just a plain square corner bend on the bottom bars, but that did not work well. So I had to go to plan B, which was to just bend them, and leave the radius. I hope that makes sense. The pictures should show what I did. I attached each side of the bars with two 1/2" rivets. As far as sag goes there is none, or very little, right now. But I will see what happens in the long run. I'm not quite sure I understand your "whippy" term, could you explain what that is to me? I forgot to ad some dimensions so you know what size this thing is. Each leaf of the gate is around 2-1/2'. Making the over all gap around 5'. It is 2' deep, and stands about 10' tall. Thank you for the comments so far.

First off, let me say that I have enjoyed reading and watching how Mark Aspery and Gerald Boggs have developed this format for constructive criticism. So much that I

Great. Thanks Glenn

Hi Glenn. Not sure if it's to late but I sent you a PM.

Hello All Been lurking for a long time now and this thread has driven me out. I am 17 years old and starting blacksmithing around 13 years of age. I do as much forging as school and other things allow. You can ad one more to the total of teen smiths. Tim