My Front Gate Project

[EddieWalker]

My mom turned 80 years old yesterday, so I wanted to clean up the entrance a little before everyone arrived for her party.

I learned when I made some concrete counters that the stains don't work very well at getting the color I wanted, but that Black Permanent Ink rubbed on after the concrete was cured works great!!! I bought this from Amazon and used about half of it on the caps of my columns.

Amazon.com: Speedball Super Black India Ink, 1 Quart - 424917: Industrial & Scientific

About 5 years ago I bought gallon of Cabots solid stain in the darkest color that they had. I wasn't happy with the results and only used a little bit of the stain before going to something else. For my treated wood, I added some of the permanent ink to the stain and mixed it up, then brushed it on pretty heavy. The wood will need another couple of months to dry out, so I'm expecting it to need another coat in the Spring, but for now, I'm happy with the results.

Friday, my wife got it in her head that we needed to thin a patch of trees that are right in front of where my truck is parked in the picture. There are three really nice oaks in thee, but also dozens of other trees and saplings. What started out as some trimming of the low hanging branches became an all day job of cutting, digging and hauling to the burn pile. The change was worth it!!!!

 

[EddieWalker]

View attachment 678193

My mom turned 80 years old yesterday, so I wanted to clean up the entrance a little before everyone arrived for her party.

I learned when I made some concrete counters that the stains don't work very well at getting the color I wanted, but that Black Permanent Ink rubbed on after the concrete was cured works great!!! I bought this from Amazon and used about half of it on the caps of my columns.

Amazon.com: Speedball Super Black India Ink, 1 Quart - 424917: Industrial & Scientific

About 5 years ago I bought gallon of Cabots solid stain in the darkest color that they had. I wasn't happy with the results and only used a little bit of the stain before going to something else. For my treated wood, I added some of the permanent ink to the stain and mixed it up, then brushed it on pretty heavy. The wood will need another couple of months to dry out, so I'm expecting it to need another coat in the Spring, but for now, I'm happy with the results.

Friday, my wife got it in her head that we needed to thin a patch of trees that are right in front of where my truck is parked in the picture. There are three really nice oaks in thee, but also dozens of other trees and saplings. What started out as some trimming of the low hanging branches became an all day job of cutting, digging and hauling to the burn pile. The change was worth it!!!!

 

[fried1765]

View attachment 678193

My mom turned 80 years old yesterday, so I wanted to clean up the entrance a little before everyone arrived for her party.

I learned when I made some concrete counters that the stains don't work very well at getting the color I wanted, but that Black Permanent Ink rubbed on after the concrete was cured works great!!! I bought this from Amazon and used about half of it on the caps of my columns.

Amazon.com: Speedball Super Black India Ink, 1 Quart - 424917: Industrial & Scientific

About 5 years ago I bought gallon of Cabots solid stain in the darkest color that they had. I wasn't happy with the results and only used a little bit of the stain before going to something else. For my treated wood, I added some of the permanent ink to the stain and mixed it up, then brushed it on pretty heavy. The wood will need another couple of months to dry out, so I'm expecting it to need another coat in the Spring, but for now, I'm happy with the results.

Friday, my wife got it in her head that we needed to thin a patch of trees that are right in front of where my truck is parked in the picture. There are three really nice oaks in thee, but also dozens of other trees and saplings. What started out as some trimming of the low hanging branches became an all day job of cutting, digging and hauling to the burn pile. The change was worth it!!!!

Your gated entrance looks really GREAT!
Congratulations to your mom on her 80th birthday.
I will be 80 tomorrow!

 

[pmsmechanic]

I like your stop sign....

Nice gate too.

 

[two_bit_score]

The walk thru gate was a good idea. I haven't seen that very often. Very nice entrance!

.

 

[bindian]

I like it a lot. Really pops than before the ink and such.
hugs, Brandi

 

[Doug62]

It's been a few weeks since I installed the opener. The instructions hurt my brain. I bought the basic unit, and then added featurs to it like the opener on the inside that you drive past and it opens the gate when you are leaving, and the button to push to open the gate from the outside, along with the remote controls to open the gate from our vehicles. The little screws that you tighten down for each wire are tricky. If you don't get it just right, the don't work. That was very frustrating to me. A week after having it all working, it stopped working and I found out that one of my power lines wasn't done right and it had worked itself out. My fault, but I really thought I had checked each wire real good before moving on to the next.

To attach the opener to the gate, they provided a stainless steel bracket and bolts. The bolts where fine thread. I used my impact driver to get them tight, which bent to bottom tube of the gate. I thought that was pretty tight, but it came loose that first week of using it. The threads where all stripped from me over tightening them, and I replaced them with some Grade 5 bolts and lock nuts. I also noticed that the gate is bending there, so I'm going to add a length of angle iron to the pipe to strengthen it.

Overall, we are very pleased with how it works.

View attachment 677598

I went with a GTO gate opener, which was a bit heavier duty than the Mighty Mule. I also went with solar panels and batteries and have been using it 20 months so far. This is the kit I used before adding solar panels, extra battery, keypad and the exit wand that opens it automatically as you exit.

GTO / Linear Pro SW32XLS Dual Gate Opener w/ Free Extra Remote (PRO-SW32XLS)

We've been very pleased with this. A buddy has the Mighty Mule and his is much slower. I also used farm gates similar to yours. Eventually we'll do some nicer columns I suppose but we wanted it to look like it goes back into the woods to keep sight seeing tourists out. It's a mile from the front beach so people would just drive on back to the property looking around. We were able to put a stop to that .before we began any building

 

[mred2]

Doug62, that is the reason that I used two 8 foot farm gates.

 

[mred2]

A problem with my Mighty Mule gate at the road. The one by the barn is fine. On morning that it is below freezing, the gate opens about a foot and then closes most of the way. After awhile it tries it again. Acts like it is hitting something. Batteries are fine. Could there be ice inside the opener? Or something in the control that is affected by the cold. In the afternoon, it always works fine. Only on mornings after it drops below freezing.

 

[Xfaxman]

There is a force adjustment that should solve the problem.

 

[EddieWalker]

View attachment 679485
I went with a GTO gate opener, which was a bit heavier duty than the Mighty Mule. I also went with solar panels and batteries and have been using it 20 months so far. This is the kit I used before adding solar panels, extra battery, keypad and the exit wand that opens it automatically as you exit.

GTO / Linear Pro SW32XLS Dual Gate Opener w/ Free Extra Remote (PRO-SW32XLS)

We've been very pleased with this. A buddy has the Mighty Mule and his is much slower. I also used farm gates similar to yours. Eventually we'll do some nicer columns I suppose but we wanted it to look like it goes back into the woods to keep sight seeing tourists out. It's a mile from the front beach so people would just drive on back to the property looking around. We were able to put a stop to that .before we began any building

Before deciding on which opener to buy, I did a bunch of online searches to read as many reviews as I could, and watched more Youtube videos then I can remember. What's funny is that I never heard of the GTO opener. It never came up in any of my searches.

 

[mred2]

I will try setting the force adjustment up. Interesting that this only happens after going below 30 at night, Only in the morning, and has never happened before. And it got a lot colder last year.

 

[Xfaxman]

Before deciding on which opener to buy, I did a bunch of online searches to read as many reviews as I could, and watched more Youtube videos then I can remember. What's funny is that I never heard of the GTO opener. It never came up in any of my searches.

GTO (Gates That Open) makes Mighty Mule openers and others: Company Information - Linear Pro Access

 

[mred2]

Xfaxman, did not know that is interesting. I wish I was young enough to have a new idea. But I have new ideas everyday. The problem is they are the same ones I had yesterday, but forgot. Maybe I will have some more new ones tomorrow.

 

[EddieWalker]

GTO (Gates That Open) makes Mighty Mule openers and others: Company Information - Linear Pro Access

Thanks for the link. For me, I decided that I did not want a hydraulic cylinder type of opener. Once I learned about the screw type openers, I felt that was a much better design for the long term. Only time will tell if I made the right choice.

 

[AlbertC]

Thanks for the link. For me, I decided that I did not want a hydraulic cylinder type of opener. Once I learned about the screw type openers, I felt that was a much better design for the long term. Only time will tell if I made the right choice.

Eddie

Are you going to wrap the concrete block columns with stone?

 

[EddieWalker]

Yes, but probably not until the Spring. We bought a male goat that has me under a timeline to build a goat barn for my girls to have babies. We converted the area in the barn that they used last time into another chicken coop, so now I want to build a dedicated Goat addition to my barn and incorporate a handling system, and areas to hold individual goats that is easy to get to for feeding. Once that is done, and probably another couple of projects that need to get done, I'll order the fake rock for the columns to match the other columns.

The next thing that I need to do on the gate is dig my trench and bury the cable for the sensor when leaving my place. It's currently just laying on top of the leaves, and when mowing season starts up again, I really need that cable to be in the ground.

 

[fried1765]

Yes, but probably not until the Spring. We bought a male goat that has me under a timeline to build a goat barn for my girls to have babies. We converted the area in the barn that they used last time into another chicken coop, so now I want to build a dedicated Goat addition to my barn and incorporate a handling system, and areas to hold individual goats that is easy to get to for feeding. Once that is done, and probably another couple of projects that need to get done, I'll order the fake rock for the columns to match the other columns.

The next thing that I need to do on the gate is dig my trench and bury the cable for the sensor when leaving my place. It's currently just laying on top of the leaves, and when mowing season starts up again, I really need that cable to be in the ground.

Hum..mmm....to bury that cable....rent a trencher, or buy a backhoe?:laughing:
Actually, you could buy a subsoiler, with a pipe puller attachment from Agri Supply for cheap money.
I have one,....it is a nice tool

 

[EddieWalker]

I have a riding trencher and a backhoe, but in this case, I think it will be easier to just dig the dirt with a shovel. With the trencher, or the backhoe, getting the ground to look nice afterwards is more work then I'll have to do if I just do it the old fashioned way.

 

[mred2]

Eddie, I purchased the sensor but never installed it. My gate is close to the hay barn and I am thinking that it would pick up the tractor. I one that I purchased picks up the metal coming by it.