With my gate almost complete I just had to add the final part which was the chain hook on top. This hook wasn't necessary or part of the design, it was an idea I had when we were nearing the end of the project. By building the gate so large and by using metal pipes, it made my project very heavy and hard to move. This made me start to think about how I was going to transport it from place to place without causing a problem or having to do back breaking lifting. Eventually the idea popped into my head about welding a chain hook to the top so that with just a chain and a loader tractor it could be lifted easily. Within five minutes Duane and I had a little sketch drawn up about what the mount for the hook needed to look like. We cut out a trapezoid piece of metal and drilled a hole in it for the hook to link into. Then I get on a ladder and welded the metal piece on. When we had given it enough time to cool I crawled back up and connected my bright blue metal hook.
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We finally had the main gate finished and it was just time to add the finishing details which included stoppers on the top. These stoppers were rubber mats that Duane had laying around which were old baler belts. These mats were very thick and heavy duty so they were the perfect thing that we needed. We cut them to a 10 inch length because that's what we talked about and decided what would work. After we cut them, I crawled up the ladder and screwed them into the top metal bar so that they dangled down and would hit the gate when it swings back up. I tacked them on by using three self tappers in each side of the mat. Self tappers (self tapping screws) are screws that have a special end so they can go directly into metal without having to drill through first and make a pilot whole. We added these stoppers so that after the gate strikes them a few times it eventually stops swinging. If I didn't add these mats the gate would swing forever after you drive over it because there would be nothing to stop it from swinging. After I had the mats screwed on I pushed the gate down and let it swing a few times and it swings roughly 4-5 extra times which is perfect.
Now that we had the one spring welded on we measured the distance between the top and bottom hooks and welded the two hooks on the other side the same distance apart. Then we attached the spring in the bottom hook once my welds had cooled and we did the same process where I stretched the spring out with the chain and Duane hooked them together once they got close enough. After we got them both attached, we unwired our gate and held our breathe to see if we had enough tension. Once we took the wires off it swung a little bit, but we were both very excited when it stopped swinging and was standing upright! I grabbed the gate and started swinging it down making sure there wasn't too much pressure, and there wasn't. It swung down very nicely and swung right back up when I let go. This marked the end of the main gate building and moved us onto adding the final details. We were one step closer to the end and I am getting very excited.
Since we had the gate done and attached to the frame the next step was to add a spring to each side. These are what swings the gate back up when you drive over it and keeps the gate upright at all times when it is not being used. These were going to be hard to get right because if you don't have enough tension in the springs, the gate will lay flat and won't stay upright. On the other hand, if there is too much tension you won't be able to push into the gate and swing it down with the four-wheeler. This is why we had to find the perfect balance to where there was enough tension to hold the gate up and loose enough to easily be able to push into it and have the gate fold down. We started on the one side where I welded on the hook where the bottom of the spring would attach. Once my welds had cooled we attached the bottom of the spring and began to stretch it to the top with a chain. We kind of played with where we were going to attach the top hook and we both eventually agreed on a spot where it looked good and I welded on the second hook up top. Then it took a lot of team work where I pulled on the chain to stretch out the spring and Duane connected the spring to the the hook up top when I got it close enough together.
Now that I had the frame of the gate attached to the hinges it was time to move on to adding in the cross bars to the gate. These were for support and also for when you drive over the gate the four-wheeler would be putting weight onto the gate so it wouldn't swing back up when you were driving over top. We needed five bars to be evenly spaced throughout the gate so there was support the whole way down. We already had the bars cut to length and had it drawn up that they were going to be 8 inches apart from one another. Before we put them on we crimped the ends of each pipe so they were more flat instead of round, this way they would be much easier to weld without such big gaps to fill. We measured the distances and made marks so we knew exactly where each bar had to go. Once this was done I tacked each bar on just enough to hold, and once they were all attached I went back and welded them solid so they wouldn't be going anywhere. We also had gussets cut out which are triangle shaped pieces of iron which you add to the frame to support it. Once I was done with the gate I welded on the four, 8x8 gussets to each each side of the frame.
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AuthorThis is my journey throughout my Senior Project 2020-2021 Archives
April 2021
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