Thanks for that feedback. Valuable, if forthright.
To some extent this is a temporary solution: we are having a new septic tank in a couple of months and the intention is to use some of the spoil to level out the camber where these gates are, but in the meantime, we need to keep an unruly dog in, so the additional bolted on part at the bottom of the old gate, and the new gate being made longer than it will eventually need to be (which explains why the bottom hinge is so offensive to the eye).
It’s not really practical to build a bigger post into that wall: it is very old and is retaining a part of the garden which is much higher. If would be a major undertaking to start dismantling it. And we wanted to keep a narrow opening pedestrian gate for ease of access. I had hoped that sweeping the top rail down would distract from the post but clearly not. In the fulness of time, the post will become covered with ivy so will be less jarring. Perhaps.
Where I think you are right is the thickness of the stock. I wanted to get this done and keep the dog in, so used what I had to hand, mostly 6mm and 8mm flat, and thought I might get away with it, but again, clearly I haven’t. What I think I will do is get in some thicker flats when I next buy some and when I cut the length down after landscaping weld in some fillets on the edges to get them to match the thickness of the old gate, and roll another fillet to thicken out the top radius and weld that in, too.
To some extent this is a temporary solution: we are having a new septic tank in a couple of months and the intention is to use some of the spoil to level out the camber where these gates are, but in the meantime, we need to keep an unruly dog in, so the additional bolted on part at the bottom of the old gate, and the new gate being made longer than it will eventually need to be (which explains why the bottom hinge is so offensive to the eye).
It’s not really practical to build a bigger post into that wall: it is very old and is retaining a part of the garden which is much higher. If would be a major undertaking to start dismantling it. And we wanted to keep a narrow opening pedestrian gate for ease of access. I had hoped that sweeping the top rail down would distract from the post but clearly not. In the fulness of time, the post will become covered with ivy so will be less jarring. Perhaps.
Where I think you are right is the thickness of the stock. I wanted to get this done and keep the dog in, so used what I had to hand, mostly 6mm and 8mm flat, and thought I might get away with it, but again, clearly I haven’t. What I think I will do is get in some thicker flats when I next buy some and when I cut the length down after landscaping weld in some fillets on the edges to get them to match the thickness of the old gate, and roll another fillet to thicken out the top radius and weld that in, too.