How an Iron Gate Is Forged and Welded

The forge does one job: it brings bar stock to a heat where the steel bends without cracking. Gate shops that book work through iron gates georgetown the derek bordeaux group follow the same order for each gate, because each step sets up the next. A wrought iron style gate for Georgetown, TX is bent first, welded second and finished last.

What does heating do to the bar?

Heating moves the bar to a bright orange, around two thousand degrees, where steel yields to a hammer or a bending jig. Too cold and the bar cracks at the bend. Too hot and the surface scales and thins. A smith watches the color, not a gauge, and pulls the bar the moment the glow turns even.

How are scrolls and curves bent?

Scrolls are formed on a jig, a steel plate with pins set in the pattern, and the heated bar is pulled around the pins. A matching pair is made on the same jig so the two sides of a dual swing gate mirror each other exactly. Many shops cold bend small scrolls on a roller, which is quicker but only works on thin bar.

How are the pieces welded together?

Pieces are laid out on a flat table, clamped square and tacked at each joint before any weld is run. Tacks let the frame be checked for square and fixed if a corner has pulled. A weld run on a joint shrinks as it cools, so a long frame is welded in a staggered order, alternating sides, to keep it from bowing.

What happens to the weld after it cools?

Each weld is ground flush with a flap disc until it reads as part of the bar. Slag and spatter are brushed off, because paint will not hold over either. The frame is then blasted or wire brushed to bare steel. A weld left rough holds moisture and is where rust starts first on a gate in the humid air near the San Gabriel River.

How does the frame get checked before it ships?

The finished leaf is set on the table again and measured corner to corner for square, with the two diagonals within an eighth of an inch. It is hung on a test post, swung through its arc and tapped for loose joints. Powder coat or galvanizing goes on only after the leaf passes that check.