Building the Massive Steel Sliding Gate for My Dream Workshop

[00:00:00]Hi everybody, my name is Max Maker and this week I'm building a massive gate to secure my new workshop because in the last months there were some breakins in the neighborhood and I want to close this off so you can't drive on here at night. I already have the fence but now I need a sliding gate and this is the design that I came up with and I ordered all of the steel and the steel supplier was so nice to already cut it to length and to also cut the miters at the top so I have pointy ends so nobody can climb over this. And first up, I had to clean off all the steel, the mill scale. And for that, I'm using these purple discs.

[00:00:34]And these are amazing. With them, it's so quick. This is a real time, by the way. It just takes a few minutes to get rid of all of the mill scale. And it's a good investment because if you don't do that, you can have issues like something that looks like fireworks while you're welding. So, there's sparkling and you have porocity and lots of smoke and the metal just doesn't bond properly. So, it's a good investment to clean up your welds before you weld them. So, next up, I marked all of the positions where the vertical fence posts are going to end up. And I also cleaned them where I'm going to weld them. There were 60 of those in total, and I'm so glad that they came pre-cut, and especially with that miter at the end, because cutting a miter is really not fun. And I had to add exactly the same angle and length, otherwise it would be very obvious once they're lined up at the top of the fence. So, I put everything on my brand new welding table that I got for Christmas. Well, I didn't get it for free, but it was made in Poland, and the price was very reasonable, and I'm really happy with it. It's super sturdy.

[00:01:29]16 mm is the thickness of the top, so it's one of the bigger size welding tables. And I know you can get some for like 8 grand, and I really don't see the reason. I mean, if I was a professional welder, then maybe I would have invested in a really, really heavy duty one. But this one has been doing absolutely fine.

[00:01:46]I didn't notice any inaccuracies or any distortions or any warping. At least for the projects that I'm doing, it seems to be perfectly in good working order. But if you have a different opinion, let me know in the comments what you think.

[00:01:59]Anyway, now that I had the horizontal beams clamped down and aligned, I could add all of the vertical beams. And for that, I 3D printed these two jigs. I could just slide them up to the marks that I made earlier. And then I could butt up the tubes against those jigs, clamp down the tubes, and then remove the jigs. The two main tubes were sticking out far beyond the edge of the table and I couldn't clamp them to anything. So I installed some vertical post there straight away so they were fixed in place. That process was relatively easy and then I could start welding. I always wanted the MIC welder but I didn't have a lot of space in my old workshop and it was also in the basement so there was no ventilation.

[00:02:36]And this is so much faster than using a tick welder. It's amazing. Also, your face doesn't have to go so close to the weld because it doesn't matter if you see it or not. You just press the trigger and the welds come out pretty much perfect. The only downside is that you have to have the gate open and you have need some air flow. And I also got one of these filters that inhales all of the smoke and cleans it and only the fresh air is coming out again. And we also have one of those welding helmets that blows fresh air into your face. And that's a really nice feature to have.

[00:03:05]When it comes to safety in this workshop, everybody here tries to do their very best. We do more than the government wants from us for safety because it's our health. It's really important to take care of it. And wearing some some eye protection, it doesn't cost you any money. And hearing protection especially, it's I like it much more. I enjoy much more when I don't have these very noisy machines going into my ears. I I cannot stand the noise. Anyway, back to work. This was a fast process. It only took me about 2 hours to add all of these fence posts on. And I had a new worker that helps me in the workshop a little bit. and he never did any welding before and he said he wants to do it. So, we just grabbed the welder and started welding. And with every single post that he welded, he got much better. At the end, we had a little bit of a banana situation going on. That wasn't his fault or anybody's fault.

[00:03:53]That's just what happens when you weld steel. It distorts. Uh it curls towards the side that was heated. Uh so, we have to get rid of that. And at first I thought we could do some flame bending, but I don't have anything that produces flames, especially not anything that's strong enough. And then my neighbor said, "Why don't you just put some weights on it?" And that's what we tried. Uh, so we put three pellets on here, each weighing about 1,000 kg. Uh, and that got rid of the bend, but we overdid it a little bit. And then suddenly we had the banana at the other side. So the next day I had to come back, flip it over, and apply some force on the other side. And to do that, I used these two forklifts and I created a pivot in the middle so I could just flip it over.

[00:04:38]Throughout the whole project, it was always a struggle to hang up the skate uh from some ropes from the forklift because the center of gravity is so low and the only way to attach a rope to this is at the very bottom. So, it always wanted to hang upside down. Uh that was a real challenge. Uh later on, I I fixed that and and you will see later. Uh, so now we added some weights on the other side and suddenly it was straight and it had to be straight to weld on the upper rail that keeps the whole gate from falling over. And I added that rail on the back side and very low. So from the front there's nothing to grab onto and nothing to step onto as well because these vertical staffs are too narrow to get your foot in between. So that way it's very difficult to climb over. And around the same time I came across this monster of a gate. I was going for a walk at the seaside with my family and behind this that's some kind of government building that does the marine traffic on the Baltic Sea. But just check out how big this sliding gate is. This is a canty lever gate. Um, and it's very secure, but I'm pretty sure that you can climb underneath it because it's so far up the ground. And I think that's why they added the bumper underneath. I have to say that fabricating the gate was pretty easy, but coming up with the perfect shape, that is very hard. And I think that's where the big risk is if you do this professionally, which I definitely don't do. Uh because this has to live somewhere on a driveway. And those driveways, they're never straight.

[00:06:00]They're always crooked. They always have some kind of slope so the water can drain. Um so I think if you did this professionally, it would be wise to get some kind of 3D scanning software to double check your designs before you build them. So these tubes are kept off now. And now I could add the wheels at the bottom. And at first I thought I could get away with just drilling some holes in there, tapping them, and then screwing a screw in there. Uh, but while I was tapping it, I already noticed that the metal is quite thin. So, I didn't like that idea. So, I took it back off and I thought I could do it better. So, I enlarged these holes and then I went to my lathe. And there's a video about me restoring a lathe, by the way. And I cut off these cylinders from mild steel.

[00:06:41]And I didn't cut all the way through so they stay together. And then I cut them all the way on the bandsaw. And after that, I threaded them. and then I could weld them into place. So now the force is distributed over a bigger area in the tube and also the threads they have like 20 mm of length instead of just 3 mm.

[00:06:58]And with that the gate was pretty much done and I could start working on the sliding rail. So for a sliding gate you always need a ground rail or you do a cany lever system where the gate is floating in the air. That's a little bit nicer especially in winter when you have a lot of snow. So there's nothing that can get stuck in the wheels, but you need a special kind of C channel which had a high shipping cost and you need a specialty hardware for that as well. And I already did one of those before and I kind of wanted to do something new. So I thought I try out the ground rail and see how that goes. So I ordered two 6 m lengths of solid 20 mm stainless steel and I welded on these hooks that will be the anchors and the concrete later because when a big truck is driving over this, I don't want this to ever come loose. So, I wanted to be really solid and really well bonded to the ground.

[00:07:45]But overall, this wasn't my best idea. I mean, the idea is okay, but uh the execution it was very, very hard because this bar flexed like a noodle and just to align everything and to battle the distortion that was really really hard because the stainless steel loves to distort and also aligning this later on inside of the concrete. Uh that was very difficult. So, it's better I think to just screw it down with screws. But I'm sure screwing down this long bar would also cause a challenge. So that's why probably everybody uses these canty lever systems because there you just have two pivot points and you just have to screw them down to a very big foundation and then you can adjust them with adjusting screws and that way you get uh the gate to be level at the end.

[00:08:26]Anyway, I did that before and I thought I want to do something different. So that's why I did it this way. It's more interesting that way even though it was harder. Definitely much much harder. We removed all of the asphalt because you can't do much with it. It's pretty much just hard chewing gum. You can't screw anything to it. Uh and then underneath we dug out a trench that's about 80 cm deep and we filled everything with rebar and then with concrete. At least that was the plan. And we also had to dig around the foundations that were there from when we set up the fence last year.

[00:08:57]So this is the rebar. I had this left over from when I poured the foundation for the big workshop. And this pipe goes to our rainwater infiltration system.

[00:09:06]So, this entire rail is made from stainless steel. And I also have the bigger lower rail that acts as rebar inside of the concrete because the steel wants to expand and contract with the sun shining on it and I don't want the concrete to crack. So, we added a lot of rebar and we also prepositioned the concrete anchors.

[00:09:26]And then we got delivered 3 cubic m of concrete and they added an additive to make it flow like water. And we wanted it that way so it can flow into all of the nooks and crannies and we don't have to vibrate it as much. So that way the rail that we positioned so carefully stays in place. I ordered salt resistant concrete because otherwise the salt from the winter would have destroyed the top surface in a matter of years. When we aligned the rail, we ran into an issue.

[00:09:51]The driveway has a slope going towards the grass area. So if the rail was straight, it would have ended up 10 cm below the grass and then it would always fill up with dirt. So, we made the second half rise up higher than it should be and hope that it would work out. Well, it didn't, and now we had a real issue to work with, but more about that later. Anyway, the foundation is done, and now I could work on the vertical support columns. There's one on either side of the driveway. One gets some rollers to guide the gate while it's moving, and one is just there as an end stop when the gate is fully closed.

[00:10:24]I pre-drilled the holes on my small drill press and then I moved over to the big machine with much more torque to drill the 20 mm holes for the M16 bolts.

[00:10:33]All of this is getting galvanized and then powder coated. So all the edges need to be rounded over otherwise the powder coating can chip off easily. When I ordered the electrical components like the drive and the light curtains, I also found the safety lights which is 10x 10 cm. That's the exact same size as the support columns that I had already ordered. So, I thought I could add it at the top. It's not required by code, but I thought it would look really cool. And then I welded everything together. And at first, I just did some texts and I checked and double checked and triple checked to make sure that everything is straight and where it's supposed to be.

[00:11:06]And then I fully welded it. The MIC welder is absolutely fantastic for something like this. Uh, with TIG, this would take forever and I would have to set the machine to 200 amps, which always blows the fuses after a few minutes. So, a MC welder is really the tool that you need if you want to work with thicker materials. These are the anchor bolts that we cast in stone and I cleaned them off a little bit. And then it was time for the first test run with the support columns and with the gate in place. And there you can see how beautiful the foundation turned out. We trimmed off the edges of the rough concrete with an angle grinder. And that way we got these nice sharp edges. So the entire gate weighs 400 kg and it rolls very smoothly once you get it going. You just need a little bit of force to get it going because of all of the mess. And my plan was to use these support rollers on both sides of this rail to keep the gate from falling over and to guide it. But then we encountered a real problem and that was that the stainless steel rail that we put into the ground was not perfectly level. It was rising towards the back end and that was a problem because the whole gate was rising and it was rising out of these support rollers. So, I had to come up with some kind of mechanism that makes these rollers rise up and down together with the gate. So, I used some stainless steel to build a slider. And with that slider, I can make these rollers slide up and down. At least that was the plan.

[00:12:26]And I use stainless steel instead of normal steel because I don't want to powder coat this or galvanize it because it will change the tolerances and I still want this to slide smoothly. So, with stainless steel, I can work on this and I knew that these dimensions wouldn't change later on. And of course, it doesn't rust either. So, I only kept the wheels from the previous mechanism, and I added this to this piece of stainless steel, which is also much thicker, which I think is more appropriate for the size of the gate.

[00:12:51]And then I welded everything together.

[00:12:53]So, we have a bunch of wheels that hold the sliding rail in position from all directions, but still let it slide through. So, this is the finished slider, and it worked beautifully right out of the gate. It had all this blue rubbing compound on there, and that is there so I could see where it was binding inside of the slider. And I drilled most of the parts inside of the slider instead of uh just welding them because that way I could avoid all of the distortion. It just had a little bit of slack and I measured that to be 2 mm so I could add some welds on that later on. And to get all of this blue stuff off and also to clean up some of the welds, I put it into my tumbler. There's a video about how I made this. And after 2 hours, I could take it out again. And then it looked very nice. All the corners were rounded off and the surface was very homogeneous.

[00:13:40]And to get rid of the slack, I added these little dots of weld. And I could machine them down a little bit with an angle grinder. And that way I had the perfect amount of slack, which is not too much, but also not too little. So this will never bind up. And over the years, I'm sure some dirt will accumulate in here. So I also added this grease nipple. So you can use the grease to flush out any of the contaminants that will end up inside of the slide.

[00:14:03]And then I assembled everything. And I used Loctite to make sure that the wheels stay where they are because if they fall off, there's no danger of the gate from falling over because there's the fence and the support column still, but it would rub against some steel and that wouldn't be good. So, this is the closed end of the gate. And here, I also wanted some kind of bracket that clings onto the gate. So, if somebody's pushing on it, uh, it is supported. And I also noticed that this fence post is a little bit wobbly because it's only bolted down. It's not set in concrete. So, I wanted to have some kind of connection between the fence post and the support column. Uh, so I grabbed some leftover pieces of steel, welded them together, and then I had a nice solution for that.

[00:14:42]And everything is integrated. I'm glad that I had the opportunity to test fit all of this because uh if I had to design this, build it, galvanize it, powder coat it, and then send it out to a customer, um, that wouldn't be good.

[00:14:54]It's much better to do a test fit. And while the gate was up here, I noticed that these are a little bit wobbly. And I think if somebody really tried, he could destroy this. You know, vandalism here is the key word. So I added this piece. This is very narrow, so you cannot step on this. And also the distances between the posts are too narrow to get your foot in between. Uh but this makes everything much more solid. And now I finally have a convenient way to hang this up from the forklift because now I can hang it up from the top so it will stand up straight. And with that, the metal working part was finally over and the gate was sitting in front of the workshop and waiting for the powder coating people to pick it up and to return it three weeks later. So now the entire gate is covered in zinc. So on the inside and the outside that protects it from rusting. And it's also powder coated to match the color of the rest of the fence. And with that kind of protection, this gate will look very nice even in 20 years time. And after that, I could powder coat it again or even zinc coat it again. So then I could do the final assembly. And for all of the screw connections, I used copper paste. And this stops it from corroding.

[00:15:59]So you can always remove these screws even in a few years time without any issues. And I installed the signal light. And for that, I used tape around the cable entry point to waterproof it.

[00:16:10]This stuff is amazing. It's pretty much like chewing gum, and it will stay soft for many, many years. Uh, and you can just apply to any kind of application where you don't want water to get in.

[00:16:21]But be aware, it doesn't work with oil.

[00:16:23]The oil destroys the butil, so only use it with water. For the screws at the bottom, I used Loctite, of course, because they are vibrating and I don't want them to come loose. And then I could finally hang this gate up. And now I could hang it from the top. And that was so nice.

[00:16:39]Here I'm installing these posts, and they just slide over the bolts that we previously installed. And everything looked really promising. So, this gate is very sturdy, but I could have probably gotten away with just using half as much steel, and it would still hold up just fine. I mean, it's not like there's anybody going to drive his car through this. That only happens in movies. The main purpose of this gate is just to keep the public out. Good fences make good neighbors because if you don't have a fence and if you don't have a gate, people will regard this as a public area. Some cars will do donuts on your parking lots. Some people will just have a look around and be curious and just a tiny fraction of those might decide to come back at night and break in. At the end of the day, if somebody wants to get over this fence, they can, but it reduces the probability. But I also have a second layer of defense, and that's a whole bunch of cameras spread all over the property, indoor and outdoor. Some are battery powered, some are wired, and most of them store the data internally, so there's not even a central place um that would have to be stolen. So, the data is gone. And I get an alert to my phone straight away. And my family also has these alerts. And the cameras start beeping and flashing. And they also turn on all the lights in the workshop. So the thief would definitely know that he's been spotted. And I don't know how calm that person would remain if he knows that possibly uh there's the police on the way. This is video footage for an attempted breakin from the back door of my neighbor's workshop. And the thieves already broken into two other workshops. And as he came closer, the camera started beeping and they just ran away.

[00:18:15]So this camera definitely saved my neighbor from a break-in. And after that, all the neighbors in the area also installed their own cameras. The movement of the gate is very smooth because the motor has smooth acceleration and de acceleration. And for safety, it also has force sensing.

[00:18:31]So, if there's somebody standing in the way or a car or a person or a child, uh, the motor will just push a little bit and then stop and reverse and go the other way. I tested it force and it doesn't even hurt. So, it's very, very soft. Here at the top, to prevent scratching, I had to install something that's not powder coated, but it also doesn't rust. So, I just use this piece of aluminum. At this point, I just went to the hardware store and got these 2 m lengths and cut them at the miter, so they're overlapping a little bit. Uh because getting a 6 m piece of stainless steel is just the shipping would have been €100 for this tiny amount of material. That's not worth it. And I just mounted these with double-sided tape because there's not a lot of force acting on this. And the VHB tape from 3M is amazingly strong. That's the same stuff you use to mount GoPros to helmets. So, we all know how well this stuff holds up. And the other thing is what's the alternative? I would have to use tiny tiny screws if I wanted to counter sync them. and then I would have to drill so many of them. It does make any sense. The other good thing is that with this there's no galvanic corrosion going on between the steel and the aluminium uh because they're not touching. And the last thing that was left to do for safety was to install some light barrier. And they came with these brackets, but they weren't the right shape. So, I made them longer by spot welding them to a longer piece of stainless steel. The cool thing is by using stainless steel, I can spot weld them cuz spot welding is so easy and so fast and it holds up surprisingly well.

[00:19:56]It's just a shame that they only work with steel and not with galvanized steel and also not with aluminium.

[00:20:02]So, here are the two light barriers and they're very close to the gate, which I liked. And I used the ones that have these reflectors on the other side. So, that way you don't have to pull a cable all the way across to the other side.

[00:20:13]And they function just like a switch. If there's something in the way, they open up their circuit. And that way, the motor has to stop. And the motor here even reverses for safety.

[00:20:23]After all the cutting, welding, measuring, and fixing the things that didn't go to plan, the gate is finally finished. It's 6 m long, weighs around 400 kg, and now it moves with the push of a button. Of course, I tied it into my Shelly Smartome system. There are definitely a few things I would do differently next time. But that's also the point of projects like this. You start with an idea, solve one problem after another, and eventually you end up with something that actually works.

[00:20:50]That's what I've always been doing and I did many mistakes along the way, but I kept learning from them and ultimately I managed to build this beautiful workshop. With the gate, it feels much more complete. And honestly, watching half a ton of steel glide open this smoothly makes all the frustration worth it. Thanks for watching everybody and also for all your support and your comments. My name is Max Maker and I make all kinds of stuff.