Let’s see shop driveway gates

Machinist_max · Oct 11, 2020

Had a little issue that is now requiring I gate my driveway.
Looking for some design inspiration.
Currently thinking stainless and plasma cut aluminum sheet with some manufacturing related design in it.

What do you have???

DDoug · Oct 12, 2020

Stainless ?

Scrappers/Meth Heads will pull them out with a truck and drag them down the road.....

Steel, hot rolled, painted black.

Nothing shiny other than the stick on numbers.

akajun · Oct 12, 2020

are you wanting the illusion of security, keeping pedestrians out, keeping cars out, or keeping cars from crashing through the gate? That will dictate what you need and I would stick to painted steel or aluminum.
You could go all the way from chain link, decorative iron/aluminum, "wrought" iron, to schedule 40 pipe.

DouglasJRizzo · Oct 12, 2020

Generally, standard chain link with some barbed wire should do the trick. This issue isn't the gate - it's who's going to open and close it every day.

When my dad had his place, we had a real hard time with the meth-head scrappers stealing things. Not just material, but chips, dumpsters, and anything else they could carry off. Numerous attempted break ins where even the meanest steel doors had NASTY scars on them and locks mangled from drilling attempts.

We had a driveway alarm system but it gave off so many false alarms we disconnected it. So finally - Dad put up the gates with a padlock.

The real fun started as the alcoholic foreman didn't want to open and close the gate every day, so he would get one of the guys to do it - if he was sober enough to remember. Occasionally they wouldn't and then the trucks and deliveries would bottle up.

snowman · Oct 12, 2020

digger doug said:
Stainless ?

Scrappers/Meth Heads will pull them out with a truck and drag them down the road.....

Steel, hot rolled, painted black.

Nothing shiny other than the stick on numbers.

You really ought to move to someplace with less crime.

Serious.

It's amazing how much it calms your soul.

You are right on the gate design though.

2" schedule 40, piece of 1/2" chain at the end. Chain has a piece of flat welded to it, 3/8 x 1 1/2" with a 3/4" hole punched in it. At the chain, it also has a 3" diameter round disk, with a slot for the flat. Then on the connecting post you use a piece of 4" schedule 40, capped, with a matching slot. You just drop the piece of flat through the slot, then put the lock inside the 4" schedule 40.

It takes an industrious thief to cut the chain, and they can't get to the lock to cut it. If you have good enough soil, you can just make it solid, with no chain. And then it gets even harder to cut open.

The nicest thing is that it keeps the lock from freezing up. The worst part, always tap the pipe and watch to make sure wasps don't fly out before sticking your hand up there.

Guest · Oct 12, 2020

snowman said:
You really ought to move to someplace with less crime.

Serious.

It's amazing how much it calms your soul.

You would be surprised. I bought a house across the street from a friend as a fixer upper, the owner drowned and the house was also underwater, so the bank had a closed bid auction. It sat vacant for almost two years. My friend watched as people were in and out taking whatever they could. They took the cupboard doors and faucets, shower heads and other stuff I could not see having any value. My friend said someone in a station wagon took the old wood garage door. After I moved in the only thing taken was an old car battery that was in a pile of stuff I was going to haul away. Anything of even the slightest value not under look and key would disappear in that neighborhood.

Where I live now I leave the keys in the ignition and my wallet in the vehicle.

Guest · Oct 12, 2020

digger doug said:
Stainless ?

Scrappers/Meth Heads will pull them out with a truck and drag them down the road.....

Steel, hot rolled, painted black.

Nothing shiny other than the stick on numbers.

Around here they would call a gate "dirty stainless" and give you 7 cents a pound for it, solid drops bring 25 cents, and that is only if it is non magnetic 300 series, magnetic stainless even clean is 3 cents.

Garwood · Oct 12, 2020

Gates do keep county and tax assessor folks somewhat out though. However, last property tax assessment letter I got had a nice big picture taken from about 100 feet above my back field in the envelope. Gates don't keep drones out I spose.

I'm with Snowman though. Welding bottle caps make a great lock cover.

Also, the absolute best trick I've ever seen to keeping the people of the night out of a building was to install a FAKE door. This place was deep in the woods, old barn with high value stuff inside. 15' deep concrete pad was poured on one side and what looked like a man door was in the middle of that wall. That entire concrete pad was covered with truck axleshafts stood on end. Hundreds of them. Couple of padlocks on the door. The door didn't open, just a thick steel plate if someone ripped the door out.

The real door was one of the corners of the building was on hinges with a hidden padlock in a welding bottle cap. Nobody ever got in that place, but many tried.

Guest · Oct 12, 2020

Garwood said:
Gates do keep county and tax assessor folks somewhat out though. However, last property tax assessment letter I got had a nice big picture taken from about 100 feet above my back field in the envelope. Gates don't keep drones out I spose.

I'm with Snowman though. Welding bottle caps make a great lock cover.

Also, the absolute best trick I've ever seen to keeping the people of the night out of a building was to install a FAKE door. This place was deep in the woods, old barn with high value stuff inside. 15' deep concrete pad was poured on one side and what looked like a man door was in the middle of that wall. That entire concrete pad was covered with truck axleshafts stood on end. Hundreds of them. Couple of padlocks on the door. The door didn't open, just a thick steel plate if someone ripped the door out.

The real door was one of the corners of the building was on hinges with a hidden padlock in a welding bottle cap. Nobody ever got in that place, but many tried.

I would think a place deep in the woods would be pretty safe, I guess it depends. I live in the woods, my closest neighbor 1/4 mile+ away is a retired mailman, those types seem to know everybody, along with the people working the local country markets who are great for local news. Obvious by appearance there are quite a few current or former meth heads milling about, but break ins and grab and go thefts are very rare in my area. Maybe due to the obvious high gun ownership, masses of hunters are commonly seen and rarely does a day go by without hearing gunfire from target shooters.

snowman · Oct 12, 2020

Dualkit said:
You would be surprised. I bought a house across the street from a friend as a fixer upper, the owner drowned and the house was also underwater, so the bank had a closed bid auction. It sat vacant for almost two years. My friend watched as people were in and out taking whatever they could. They took the cupboard doors and faucets, shower heads and other stuff I could not see having any value. My friend said someone in a station wagon took the old wood garage door. After I moved in the only thing taken was an old car battery that was in a pile of stuff I was going to haul away. Anything of even the slightest value not under look and key would disappear in that neighborhood.

Where I live now I leave the keys in the ignition and my wallet in the vehicle.

No...I used to live in that neighborhood...it wouldn't surprise me one bit.

I'm just suggesting HE move.

Because I did...and now I live in the same as yours, and it's quiet, and peaceful. Most noise we deal with is planting, harvest and harley. I didn't lock my doors for almost four years.

Garwood · Oct 12, 2020

Dualkit said:
I would think a place deep in the woods would be pretty safe, I guess it depends.

That's what the owner thought too. Property was in his family for generations. Then neighbor sold out and a prison was built. Barn was filled with unusual/rare high value auto parts.

wheelieking71 · Oct 12, 2020

Dualkit said:
I would think a place deep in the woods would be pretty safe, I guess it depends. I live in the woods, my closest neighbor 1/4 mile+ away is a retired mailman, those types seem to know everybody, along with the people working the local country markets who are great for local news. Obvious by appearance there are quite a few current or former meth heads milling about, but break ins and grab and go thefts are very rare in my area. Maybe due to the obvious high gun ownership, masses of hunters are commonly seen and rarely does a day go by without hearing gunfire from target shooters.

That is where I come from as well. Unfortunately, we also had a high tweaker count in our population. And, just general dirt-bags.
Theft was a problem. Dirt-bikes, 4-wheelers had better been locked up tight! Break-ins weren't super common, homes or out-buildings.
But, if it was outside, un-chained? Or behind un-locked doors? Kiss it bye-bye eventually. Bar-parking-lots were the worst. There was a pretty big group of us that played in the mud.
Chains/straps, and spare tires were prime targets in bar parking-lots. You never really had to worry about your whole truck going missing, as everybody knew everybody.
Even pre-internet, it would be spotted in hours. But easy grab & go shit was constantly lost.
My personal strategy was a home-built tool-box in the bed you couldn't get in, in less than an hour if you had to. And, doors un-locked, windows down!
Leave nothing in the cab! I had a hat I would leave on the front seat up-side-down, with a pile of change and one dollar bill in. That money came up missing constantly!
I would find my empty glove box open, and even one door open and the dome-light on all the time. And, an empty hat.

kustomizer · Oct 12, 2020

The only pics of our gates are here in the MLS listing, the 4th pic shows the gates the 2 rusty ones slide open like big pocket doors 20' wide, the right one is electric the left to the shop is manual and we opened it in the morning and closed it in the evening. The black ines in the middle are hinge gates, a 12 footer on the left with a 1" dom tube with a 1/2 inch stainless pin in the ground with a padlock on it the one on the right is a 5 footer with a deadbolt to the other gate. the big ones are about 2k each, they all need painted but the new owner can take care of that.

The new place has no gates other than the ones that let the cows in and out of their pastures, people here seem to know which stuff is theres and which stuff belongs to someone else.

Reporting

Machinist_max · Oct 13, 2020

I’m not to worried in the future.
Bought the building February, and been working in/about that industrial park for years.
Currently renovating the building and they really wanted in the enclosed trailer. Only did the building door to find the trailer key.
I lost a cordless drill and portaband, didn’t care one bit about metalworking tools.

It was a 40 year old white guy driving a 2 door sports car, come on man....
There’s a few new buildings going up near me and I have some hunches it’s one of the not local guys working there.

I was hoping to use the gate as my sign.... but maybe I’ll go a different route then.

Had to call the cops more often where the cabin is in rural Wisconsin recently, than in Milwaukee. First ever for me where I’m at.

Steven-Canada · Oct 13, 2020

Garwood said:
Gates do keep county and tax assessor folks somewhat out though. However, last property tax assessment letter I got had a nice big picture taken from about 100 feet above my back field in the envelope. Gates don't keep drones out I spose.

I'm with Snowman though. Welding bottle caps make a great lock cover.

Also, the absolute best trick I've ever seen to keeping the people of the night out of a building was to install a FAKE door. This place was deep in the woods, old barn with high value stuff inside. 15' deep concrete pad was poured on one side and what looked like a man door was in the middle of that wall. That entire concrete pad was covered with truck axleshafts stood on end. Hundreds of them. Couple of padlocks on the door. The door didn't open, just a thick steel plate if someone ripped the door out.

The real door was one of the corners of the building was on hinges with a hidden padlock in a welding bottle cap. Nobody ever got in that place, but many tried.

The concrete was fifteen inches deep, or feet ?

The axels were set into the concrete like bollards ?

Guest · Oct 13, 2020

wheelieking71 said:
Leave nothing in the cab! I had a hat I would leave on the front seat up-side-down, with a pile of change and one dollar bill in. That money came up missing constantly!
I would find my empty glove box open, and even one door open and the dome-light on all the time. And, an empty hat.

Probably the highest area for theft I was ever constantly in was working for a motor control wholesale house in East LA that was on the edge of skidrow in between machining jobs in the early 80's. I had someone pry open the quarter glass window of my work truck to steal an alarm clock sitting on the front seat. All employees parked in a back alley. I always wondered why a homeless wino needed an alarm clock. Homeless were thick as flies at the dump there and would steal anything that wasn't tied down, whether it had any value or not. The smell in that area was nasty, we got a double whammy, human waste all over the place and we had a fish cannery across the alley.

Garwood · Oct 13, 2020

Steven-Canada said:
The concrete was fifteen inches deep, or feet ?

The axels were set into the concrete like bollards ?

15' = fifteen feet. The edge of the slab to the wall was 15 feet.

The axleshafts were just set there, flange down. The wind won't blow an axleshaft over, but it's real easy to knock over if you bump it and it makes a ton of noise when many of them fall over on concrete.

The general idea was for the axleshafts to give any would be crook the impression that somebody might be within earshot to actually hear the axleshafts and also to really drive it home that the door was being protected because it was the way into the building.

Arclight · Nov 27, 2020

The best thing you can do now is to have cameras that can alert your phone. If you have Internet available, a Wyze cam is about $25 and sends very reliable alerts right to your phone. It also has 2-way intercom capability, so you can yell at the people breaking into your stuff. If you have no Internet or power, get a Spypoint game camera with cellular. They come with basic (limited number of pics per month) service and start around $150, lifetime service.

For a gate, I have found the most likely scenario is that they cut your lock or chain with boltcutters. Make the hasp out of 3/8" or better flat stock instead of using a chain. Get hockey puck locks or an armored lock you can't get boltcutters around. Running a few beads of Manganese hardfacing over the steel will defeat a Sawzall and slow down an angle grinder.

At the end of the day, you can't really stop someone with a cordless angle grinder and a few discs, so monitoring is critical, especially if the property is unoccupied for long periods. There is a big difference between someone getting run off after 30 minutes vs. spending ten days smoking meth and tearing the pipes out of your walls.

Also, go on eBay and buy some ADT signs/stickers. Don't get generic "Security System" signs - get one from a brand people in your area will recognize. Some criminals will just pass over a place with an obvious security system because they can't stay very long.

Let’s see shop driveway gates

Aluminum

Diamond

Stainless

Titanium

Diamond

Guest

Guest

Guest

Guest

Diamond

Guest

Guest

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Diamond

Aluminum

Hot Rolled

Guest

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Diamond

Aluminum

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