Railheads

[spoiltbrat]

hi i,m in the middle of making my first set of gates does anyone have any tricks on how to get the railheads welded onto the round bar perfectly straight ? and any ideas on how to drill the holes through the shaped box section perfectly straight any help or ideas would be appreciated

 

[aametalmaster]

Use a fixture to hold everything until you get it tacked. Build it on the side laying flat and shim up the round bar where you want it. I used to build my big parts on 2 sections of extension ladder laying on a big sawhorse side by side. Then you can clamp parts to it then weld...Bob

 

[Nivag]

For your rail heads, I normally tack then fully weld the ones on each end of the gate or railing being very fussy to get them upright and on the centre of the bar. Then for those in between I either clamp a straight bar to the two rail heads to rest the others against or just stretch a bit of mig wire between them, tack the rail heads in between and then "adjust" to make them "eyeable" with a hammer.
Nivag.
p.s. as I often use the same size rail heads (from Rourkes), I have made up a jig from offcuts which straddles the gate/railing top bar and positions the rail head accurately.

 

[spoiltbrat]

thanks everyone