Heavy gate strategy | Page 2 | Problem Solving | Forum

I couldn't have wished for more or better input. Even some great photographs. When I said "skeleton", I was referring to a kind of "armature", meaning extra, structural help, like a footing or grade beam, made of rebar and concrete. I have made my living as a union carpenter. I believe what Grant describes is common practice for many commercial installers of heavy gates these days. It may be a question of six of one, half a dozen of the other compared to a deep hole with plenty of concrete for the vertical posts. The digging is the only difference I see.
My strategy has to be the grade beam for obvious reasons e.g. two 3,000 pound boulders already in place.

I considered all of the great input. Taking it slowly. A bunch of other projects, but I did find some block hinges on Ebay for $25. They are 1 inch square x 4 inches. Bigger would be better maybe esthetically as well as stronger.
I should have called the post, "Heavy gate for me". It's not so heavy after all, but all of the discussion obviously applies.
Here are a couple of photos of block hinges and design. For mounting the upper hinge to the rock, I'm leaning toward all-thread through a weld plate, nuts for adjustment, capped for a little security and decoration. For the bottom hinge, a welded nelson stud type anchor. I'll try to document the progress, slow though it may be.

Hi, thanks, I know it can look that way, but I am attaching to a rock surface that is not plumb (a 5 ft. high by 3.5 ft. diameter) piece of granite, so I will hang it plumb by anchoring the bottom hinge in the appropriate position, in relation to the upper hinge, in concrete. The actual situation is that the upper place of attachment on both pieces of granite, overhangs by about 6 in. the lower granite surface. That's an interesting image though, the gate swinging apart and up when it opens, like a pair of steel wings. Maybe we'll find that to be the action of the pearly gates. Another incentive to try to get there.

Well, now I see what you mean. I guess that's the bottom line value of enlisting others' comments. You might be able to pull it back a ways and fling something across the street, but you'd have a heck of a time getting the car through. OK, there's a big hurdle. Thanks.

It's a year and a day since I started this crazy gate. Busy, under-skilled and lazy to boot. Well, here's half, that is to say, one leaf…….except for the rail and the reinforcing part of the frame.
I made some small design changes as happens with about everything I ever made.
The blades of the organic part were hot cut out of 1/4 x 1 1/2 stock but I found it too much work to draw and spread to a good silhouette without thinning it down to flimsy, so I changed to the more mechanical riveted version. Then there were the pulled out ears of the negative spaces in the grill that just didn't look all that good. Start over and figure out how to make some triskelions and the four spiral version whatever that's called. The "s" parts were 1 1/2 x 1/4 stock at first but after they were fullered, that seemed too flimsy too, so redo them with 3/8 stock.
There's a bit of funkiness that I tell myself is because of my taste, but if my skills were better a lot of that would disappear and I'd be happier with it.

The supporting structure was discussed earlier in the thread.
Grant put his two cents in and now he's missed his chance to tell me what's left out.
I started with the two hunks of granite in place and no inclination to move them, so I dug a trench for a grade beam from rock to rock, steel epoxyed into both, several rings binding the horizontals in the beam. I left extra bar stubbed out to tie to the footing steel around the rocks, dug a trench around both, tied footing to grade beam and blocked out the center of the grade beam so I could locate a hole for a locking bar later.
Almost forgot the weld plates on the surface of the beam next to each rock to weld the bottom hinges, making sure they are in the same plane with the top hinges to facilitate gate functioning as gate, not fence.
Think I'll make some of the other, smaller things I've drawn before I do the other leaf.