If you make a gate out of square, drop it on the long corner a few times... hard
I often use grey rose, they were bought out by a fab company recently, i think they use imported italian stuff (as they use the same codes & art no.... as Brundles) they are expensive though, on some items twice as much as brundles or DC iron, but handy for me as we are both in Tipton!!
Anyway, after 23 years as sheetmetal worker/Fabricator with the last ten spent as works manager (before redundancy!) i decided to rent me a little unit, put a sign outside, and start making and selling gates and railings.Wow, what a learning curve - My first job was set of Bi-Fold gates , sold the job much too cheap sold as normal gate price, used 30 x 8 on the frame (after all gates were only 900mm high!) they bent! use min 30 x 30 box section now, tried to be clever and painted them with two top coats of spray gloss, no primer needed said another local gatemaker (whos crap btw) rusted in a week, used wrong hinges on bi-fold, pattern looked crap, railheads not very staright, etc... etc...customer thought they were great!!, forget the exact geometry when making gates if it looks right then it is right!! You have so much scope for adjustment thanks to the threaded hinge now commonly used that even lack of squareness can be overcome!!
Ive made top notch fabrications for British Nuclear fuels, Petro- Chemical industries, Enviromental Companies, MOD etc....But christ, i never dealt with the General Public Before!, they want it cheap, they want it now, they want something that cannot be made (an indian guy came in today and asked for metal gates to look like wood!!??), they do not know what they want and you have to sort of guess it ! even showing pictures and drawings doesnt seem to help! however, with a deposit up front and cash on delivery, cash flow is very good! I went to measure a drive gate for an old couple today, they were flabergasted at my 400.00 fitted charge, thought it would cost arond 30.00, the last one they bought was only 10.00 in 1971!! anyway, didnt get the order but felt sorry for them and cut their hedge - they had no family and are not very mobile. Swear i saw them laughing at me when i drove off!
ANyway, been going a month or so, great response took 8k in orders in first month - bought the sign back indoors till i catch up!!
I know have a 'helper', whos very useful albeit a bit young at 18, cant drive etc..
So for anyone whos interested in this this type of work, go for it!, low start up costs, plenty of work around, the more people that make them the more popular they become!! My advice would be make yourself a set of railings or a gate and see if looks saleable and profitable!!! as we are not all on here in direct competition ( not locally anyway) i'm sure the members would give good advice.
Rough ****
Paul, if someone asks me to look at making gates for them etc, i normal as the size of the opening, get an idea of what they want. then give a real rough quote over the phone or if they turned up to the workshop, they get a rough idea there and then, otherwise you just end up looking at loads pricing and them say thought it would only be £50, saves lots of time. Normally if they moan about the price i just say i refuse to comparmise only quality, go some where else that will and then you will get it cheaper
Great information from you all many thanks,Tools i have are as the pictures so the scroll work twisted bar bending and baskets etc can be done by myself and not bought in the only prob i have is prime then paint or spray or powder coat but that bangs the ££ up, the name of the game is keep the price cheap but good quality make a profit to carry on, no one wants to do it for love unless you have to much money in the first place if you have i send you my paypal email .
I have found that if i measure up the job then draw it up on Autocad i can to near as dam it of metal i need to get with just a bit of wastage just in case i cock up some scroll work or the customer wants to change the design or add bits on saves playing around with welded up parts later, then enter the sizes onto the excel spreed sheet to work out raw cost profit and so on.
So am working the right way so far.