iron fence help

[jman]

I am building an iron fence for the first time and hope someone can help with a couple of questions I have. The fence is to go around a pool. First question is the iron I bought is covered in a black oily substance and i was wondering what the best way to clean it before painting is and if I should clean it before or after I put it up. the second question is if anyone has any good ideas for hinges and latches for the gates. The code is to have self closing and latching gates. I am building the fence out of 1.5 X 1.5 upper and lower rails with .75 in risers and 2 X 2 posts. all steel is .120 thick. I have attatched some pictures of what I have done so far. the table I made out of some aluminum wire rails that I got for free. thanks for any input you have. By the way I am using a mm210.

[MAC702]

I'll respond to this one; you can go back and edit, then delete the other duplicate post.

Paint thinner works extremely well to remove the oily film. Gasoline works also, but not as well.

You're making it out of some stout stuff. Should come out nice. Make sure there are no gaps greater than 4" on your pickets.

[MAC702]

Put your location in your profile. It helps to locate suppliers in your area, among other things.

Hinges and gate springs and latches are common items at my steel supplier, but they are also available online at places like Kings Architectural:

http://www.kingmetals.com/

[fun4now]

i gotta agree with them on the hinge and stuff, get it dont try to make it. and like mack said 4" max between anything. be shour to get them pic's up for us.

[fun4now]

The pics didn't make it through...
The best thing to do is to clean all the material before fabrication. It helps out during welding, and is a lot easier to do before fab as opposed to cleaning after it's all together. Many different cleaners can be used, petrollium distalates or alchohol based cleaners work well for packing greases use as an anti-corrosion coating. Look locally on-line for hardware suppliers. Hinges and weld-on parts are readilly available through most industrial suppliers.

Sometimes building your own hardware is less cost effective than buying it, only re-invent the wheel for your one-off projects, or, if you have the time, do it for the fun of it.
__________________
Jonny

Dynasty 300DX

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Last edited by JonnyTIG : Today at 06:27 AM.


i brought a coppy of Jonny's post over here so you could deleat the other one and only have one post. it will help keep every thing in one spot.
did you intend to put one post in the ask andy side ?? or just dubble post due to dial up problems, boy have i done that, i hate dial up.

[HMW]

Mac

Thats a good website for hardware Got all kinds of stuff