Electric gates

[Jeremy Harris]

3 hours ago, Onoff said:

This thieved off the mig welding forum. Done by welderpaul there:

 

"Didnt bother making the rising hinges as a cranked set - they were too unweildy and would have hit the fence on the left hand side of the gates which was close to the post.
Instead: two tubes which slide inside each other. One welded to the gate on two 80 x 15 plates. Other has a normal adjustable hinge pin welded to the end and a large washer welded on on site as a stop. Wheel attached to the bottom of each gate. as the gate opens and rises up, the tubes slide out and the bottom of the gate rises still staying upright. Hinge 'eye' drilled over large so it doesnt bind on the hinge pin.
Works a treat.
These gates were painted rather than powdercoated - still a decent finish on them!
The gates rose 450mm over a 2000mm length"

 

 

 

 

I like that idea a lot, as the wheeel on the end would easily roll over the pavers.  The slope is pretty steep (we had a dispensation from the planning officer for it, because we had two conflicting planning conditions) so the opener would need to be a heavy duty one but I think that being able to keep the gate vertical whilst it sings back and up would look a lot nicer.

 

I went out and measured up this afternoon, and a 4m wide gate, perhaps with a personnel gate tacked on to the end, would fit neatly between two posts set back about 1.2m from the lane and the existing gate posts.  Luckily I ran a cable duct down to the gate area, with a length of SWA in it and a draw cord, so I can get power and a control cable down there easily enough.  I can get some beefy wooden gate posts from the local sawmill, and knocking up a hinge with a sliding lower bar looks easy enough.  I've got some 20mm stainless bar stock, a length of 25mm x 6mm flat stock and some 63mm diameter acetal, so I reckon I could make up some acetal sliding bearings, held in place with some stainless straps to the gate, with the stainless bar threaded to fit a female gate eye, or maybe a nice stainless rod end.

 

The gate may have to be a custom job, as the easiest configuration would be a 3m gate with an additional self-closing 1m gate fitted to the end, if that's possible to make work.  If not, then I don't really ahve a problem with a button down at the gate end to open it, that can be disabled when we're away, as the gate is more for a bit of privacy than as a security measure.  I'd want a timber 5 bar gate, ideally, to be in keeping with the timber post and rail fencing.

[PeterW]

@JSHarris could the personnel gate not go in the side where the 1.2m return is ..??

[Jeremy Harris]

Just now, PeterW said:

@JSHarris could the personnel gate not go in the side where the 1.2m return is ..??

 

 

Not that easily, as it will have to hinge from the left, looking from the lane, and right where the return will be there's an area built to take the wheelie bins on collection day, as this photo shows:

 

 

The bit of 2x1 banged in the ground is about where I think the extra post could go on that side.

[Onoff]

I think some sort of bearing in the "telescopic" lower hinge as said above is a must to ensure it doesn't squeak for a start.

 

There is I reckon a neat "cheat" method whereby the gate maintains a nominal gap to the ground when closed but a lower leaf section lifts up out of the way of the slope as it opens, either pivoting up into the main gate or hinging like a wing flap.....or you could just stick a wheel on it but where's the fun in that? With a pseudo "solid" wood gate you could plank it diagonally to disguise that there is the lower leaf. I like the idea of it sliding up inside!

 

 

How to raise the lower leafs? Another couple of actuators set vertically?

Edited June 22, 2017 by Onoff

[PeterW]

To stop the bottom hinge binding you could use a rose joint on that bottom pin 

[Jeremy Harris]

11 hours ago, PeterW said:

To stop the bottom hinge binding you could use a rose joint on that bottom pin 

 

 

Yes, I had that thought, it's why I mentioned fitting a rod end as a bit of an afterthought above.  I have three or four 10mm stainless rod ends, with bronze bushes (they are KA 10, from this range: http://www.dometrics.com/files/askubal/KA_Male_Standard_Data_Sheet.pdf ), and I'm wondering if they would be man enough for a 4m wide gate.  Their rated static load  of 25 kN suggests they would be, with a big enough margin (I'm guessing that the max load from the gate wouldn't be more than about 20% of this, if that, even without the wheel taking most of the gate load).  It'd be easy to drill and tap the end of the length of 20mm stainless bar to take one of these rod ends.  Fabricating a fixed pin for the top, with another rod end as a hinge bearing would be easy enough, and the 13 deg maximum tilt angle of these rod ends would be fine, as I'm sure the drive angle is less than that (I'll go out and check later).