The owners of garages and private houses have long appreciated the convenience of using swing type entrance gates. This is quite natural, especially when you consider that the manufacture of swing gates has been carried out for many years and even centuries. It is easy to explain such popularity. Ease of operation and highest reliability are two factors that have always been highly valued. And now the owners of cottages and summer residents are constantly working to improve their design. That is why it is worth making swing gates with your own hands. If earlier these were blind structures made of wood, now they are something new, sometimes even with installed automation and other modern technological innovations.
Types and types of swing gates
Depending on the material, it is customary to distinguish between wooden and metal gates. Structurallyit can be double-leaf and single-leaf gate. Quite often, especially in the design of the gates of hangars, garages and warehouses, a combined type is used - double-leaf gates with a wicket. This saves materials and space for organizing a separate entrance. However, in most cases these will be blind elements, and only sometimes you can find lattice or tubular gates with an entrance directly into them. Another type of gate is a swing metal gate with two leaves, on which decoration or cladding with a painted profiled sheet is used. In this case, the halves have a lightweight look, and the gate is organized next to them. This option is the most suitable for private houses. Swing gates made of corrugated board can last for more than one decade, and they practically do not need repairs, which is how they compare favorably with analogues made of wood. The design can be equipped with additional automation, which increases their functionality even more.
Device
You can consider a typical drawing of swing gates from corrugated board. The whole structure is based on a frame made of a square profile or an ordinary pipe with a diameter of 20-40 mm. Each sash can have one or two horizontal veins, which make it possible to increase the rigidity of the entire structure. Sometimes other options are used, for example, one horizontal and two diagonal. This arrangement allows you to quite clearly keep the geometry of the gate.
Any owner can make swing gates with his own hands if he has mastered the skills of assembling metal structures. Would needpossession of skills in using a welding machine, grinder, drill, measuring instruments and a screwdriver. It is possible that paint work will be required at the end.
Workflow
To make swing gates with your own hands, you need to follow certain stages of the work. Each leaf will be screwed with self-tapping screws or welded on hinges to the posts. A pair is enough for one half. Hinges for swing gates should be 20-30 mm in diameter. For poles, it is appropriate to use metal pipes with a diameter of 70-76 mm, or a profiled pipe with a cross section of 20 x 40 mm. Iron pipes can serve as supports for the gate, however, the design of the fence will dictate their installation method. To do this, it is required to provide a couple of embedded parts in the brickwork, and hinged posts for the gate will then be welded to them. For crossbars and diagonals, it is recommended to use a profile of 20 x 40 or 20 x 20 mm.
Gate parameters
Practice shows that 3 meters can be considered the most suitable gate width for private use. If you want to save money, you should not reduce the dimensions by more than 20 cm. In most cases, the height of the gate is two meters, while lifting above the ground is not taken into account. The locking mechanism traditionally consists of a pin in the shape of the letter "G", which serves as a stopper. It is located at the bottom of each sash. At the base of the earth, where the locking point will be located, holes are provided from pipes, which, in diameter, are5-10 mm more than the thickness of the stoppers. There are no strict restrictions for the length, but it should not be more than half a meter. An addition to the stoppers can be considered a horizontal shutter located on the line of the crossbars.
Swing gates made of corrugated board are recognized as the most practical option. This material fits quite organically into the overall design, especially if the entire fence is made in this style. The profiled sheet on the gate is usually attached at a distance of 50-70 mm from the base.
Automation
Since we are considering how to make swing gates with our own hands, we also need to talk about how to equip them with automation. This is a convenient solution so that you do not have to open them manually, or for cases when you want to do at least some kind of upgrade. In this case, there is an automation for swing gates. This system includes two linear electric drives, as well as control units, an antenna, an electromagnetic lock and signal lamps. Swing gates with an electric drive are powered by a traditional household power supply. Even the unusual design of the gate will not be spoiled by such a set, since all elements look almost imperceptible.
Even before the swing gate automation is installed, it is required to provide load-bearing poles. It is best if they are made of brick or concrete. Swing gates with electric drive can be installed in several versions depending on the direction in which the leaf opens: outward, inward or with the completion of the supporting pillars. Installation of automation in each case is carried out in a certain sequence. The swing gate kit can be installed depending on the selected location. The control unit of the system can be right or left, while the significant point is the correct selection of the wire section. The drive has one feature that concerns installation, it is necessary to provide for the distance from the supporting column.
Assembly and installation
Do-it-yourself swing gates need to be made in stationary conditions on a leveled surface of the earth. The size of the gate must exactly match the parameters indicated in the drawing. All blanks must be sawn off with a grinder with a tolerance of 1 mm. After that, you need to check the right angles, weld the details of the future perimeter of the halves of the gate, and then proceed to the crossbars and diagonals.
Marking for hinges for swing gates is done at a distance of 30-40 cm from the edge of the frame, no less, and after that they can already be welded into place. Hinges are either purchased at the store or ordered from a turning shop. Next, you can bring a hinged pole and do all these steps using tack welding. When everything is precisely defined with dimensions, you can completely scald the loop. The welding machine may not be used, however, it will be necessary to screw each canopy through thick sheets of steel through and through. When the metal is painted, you can start screwing the profiled sheet with screws with a press washer.
Final steps
Do-it-yourself swing gates are almost done. They are installed after the marking of the support pillars, while the center of the main axis of the gate must be observed. The base of the post assumes that an iron pipe with a diameter of 100 mm will be built into it. It should be dug in at 130-150 mm. This is best done with a drill of the appropriate diameter, while leaving room for pouring concrete about 10 cm around the entire circumference.
When setting the base of a brick pillar, you need to use a level and check the vertical in two planes. Between the wings there should be a gap of 20 mm, which is sometimes covered from the outside with a slat, its width is 50 mm. This tolerance is required for those cases when the metal expands during heat, because of this, the sash can simply jam. If you decide to make swing gates with your own hands, then they will be no worse than factory ones, if you approach the assembly process wisely.
Gate frame lining
These jobs require you to take profiled sheets and lay them on top of your frame made earlier. For their fastening, self-tapping screws or rivets are used. Their fixation is required to be carried out in places of recesses. For each square meter, 10 self-tapping screws are required. Further, on the already made loops, you can hang the sashes.
Advantages of using automation
You will appreciate the positive aspects of using such a system in winter, when you do notyou will need to manually open the gate, in contact with cold metal. You will not need to leave the warm interior of your car, if you need to open the gate, just press the button on the remote control to open it.
Conclusions
It is not so difficult to make swing gates from corrugated board with your own hands, it is only important to have the knowledge and skills necessary for this. There are quite a few design options for such structures, and it is simply impossible to describe them all on the scale of one article. Each of them is individual, and therefore the whole process of work can be called creative. Here, each owner has the opportunity to implement their own developments or use existing ones. The use of various decorative elements in the form of wood trim or forging is not prohibited. This will make your gate truly unique and noticeable among many others. Indeed, during operation, not only technical characteristics are important, but also appearance.
