Welding decorative panel onto gates

[marlinspike]

Our house is on a busy main road and the drive gates don't give much privacy. Our main bit of garden is to the side of the house it is easily viewed from the gates. Initially we had thought of eventually replacing the metal gates with wooden ones. However, I was wondering if a cheaper solution would be to weld decorative steel panels onto the current gates. I can't find any pictures of the web that show the kind of thing I mean though. Has anyone done this? Is it easy to do? Our welder will be up to the job, though our skills may not be if it's tricky. These are our gates:

 

[marlinspike]

And these are the kinds of panels I was thinking of:

http://www.fhbrundle.co.uk/groups/03PMD__Decorative_Hole

I did wonder if it would maybe look too industrial and oppressive, and that's why more people don't do it. It will be a long way off anyway as we have a lot more car welding to do yet.

 

[Luke]

What about drawing something and having it laser cut, if you don't want a repeated pattern.

 

[DrNik]

you would really need to have the panels fitted so light passes straight through to look nice,the bars would impede on the holed mesh, a better look would be to put timber tongue and groove behind it to compliment and show off your already ornate gates, and to give more privacy

 

[brokenbiker]

i drew up a few things like a woodsman with an axe chopping wood, a tractor and a few chickens for a local farmer, had them cut out by my mate with his plasma then tacked them onto his existing gate, looked similar to yours but different in parts if you know what i mean. came out quite well although the chickens look way too big now that they are on the gate.

 

[marlinspike]

I did wonder about a design being plasma or laser cut but reckoned it would be quite expensive. The gates have some ornate twists on them so welding flat panels on may be a bit harder than I first thought. Thanks for the comments so far.

 

[brokenbiker]

just a suggestion, but instead of panels, could you not have some strips of sheet cut into wavy patterns and sort of lattice them on the gate, avoiding the twists.

that way, you still get a fairly good coverage, still get light coming through to look good, and still see the twists

 

[brokenbiker]

could cut the wavy patterns with a 4.5" grinder too

 

[marlinspike]

I did wonder about that BB. Wavy panels could look quite effective and not as 'heavy' as having full panels. Not sure that I could cut them neatly enough though, but maybe it wouldn't matter if I went for various sizes rather than symetrical panels. Thanks for the comments guys. More research needed by me, I think.

 

[Dan_Trials]

Your hinges need adjusting I fit loads of these as part of my job, our company makes them but it's just the boss that actually makes them as there's no money in it (apparently).

How about something that's basically a thin box with lots of vertical strips about 30/40mm wide and about the same distance apart, arranged on end so they are all facing the same way. Kind of like this if viewed from above: l l l l l l l l That way you get light passing through and when viewed square on you can see right through but at an angle you can't see through it. Hopefully that makes sense, I'll try find a pic!

 

[KemppiFrog]

What is very common around here is covering the back with sheet. The top is usually cut into semicircles between each vertical. So you get to see all the design (from the outside) but keep your privacy and some noise out. Usually not welded, but popped onto tubes or screwed into tapped holes in the solid bars. You would need spacers, because of the ornate features, bits of tube?
KF