Panel and Gate Jig

[cerkac]

I'm new to this forum but I'm hoping you all can help. I need to build a bunch of livestock panels and a few gates. Panels will range from 8 to 12 foot and the gates will range from 10 to 14 foot. Since I have a bunch of them to weld up I was hoping to build a jig to make it easier and faster. Does anyone have a jig that they could share photos of or have plans for building one ? I'd like the jig to be adjustable to allow for the various lengths of panels/gates but also to allow for different rail spacing and heights as needed. Thanks

Kevin

 

[charlz]

By jig do you mean a full-scale layout jig/table or little jigs that help you keep the corners square, cross pieces perpendicular etc?

 

[cerkac]

Sorry. A full-size layout jig/table. Thanks.

 

[weldermike]

Maybe 7ft channel turned upward so gate can lay in groove, with pipe legs drilled and tapped for a set screw. Put smaller pipe with plate legs inside bigger pipe with set screw, adjust height and lock set screws. Pipe inside of pipe will make up for uneven ground

 

[weldermike]

Very rough scetch, busy workin and pen wouldnt write, hope it helps bud!

 

[rhett]

Hurm,

Fabricating, the Gates and Panels will most likely be Rectangles and most all pieces will join at 90 degree angles, that is why the jig is wanted to help with alignment (keep things squared).

Might I suggest using wood, easy to get, cut, assemble and re-purpose later.

1 or 2 pieces of plywood for the work surface.
2x4's or any handy lumber to attach to the plywood bottom keeping the work surface flat
some decking or drywall wood screws
2x2's to make the jig framing (these can easily be unscrewed and moved as needed)

The Base Jig Frame should not need to be moved once squared. Other aligning strips can be easily measured and adjusted from them keeping things square.

Base Jig Frame attached to the top of plywood (L-shaped and squared):

|
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| ------------------------- (moveable 2x2's for stringers)
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|_________________________________ (one side and bottom stationary and squared)

Keep a Water Spritzer (spray bottle) handy if wood catches fire when welding. Maybe even keep the wood damp helping keep burning to a minimum.

Good Luck

 

[weldermike]

Sorry, thought you had fence already. If you have a flat and big enough garage floor I would lay out, square up frame,tack weld a couple stiffeners to keep em square, flip it over, finsh all your sructual center pieces, then flip back over break off stiffeners, and grind the tacks smooth. A big square and some long pieces of cheap stock for the stiffeners, should do you good. If floor is not that even could always use some different size welding rods for shims. Good luck bud!

 

[Shield Arc]

What about buying a couple sheets of 12-GA, lay them on the floor, and use angle iron clips tack welded to the 12-GA for your jig. I do this all the time on my 4x8 welding table.

 

[charlz]

Or carefully build the first one and then tack small pieces of metal to it that provide alignment for the pieces of subsequent ones. Then when you are done knock off and grind down where the tabs were. This would save you from having to figure out what to do with a full-size jig when you are all done.

 

[cerkac]

Shield Arc and charlz, thanks for the ideas. I would like jig to be quickly adjustable for different length panels/gates and also adjustable for different spacing between rails. Any thougths on adjustability?

Ideally I think I will want the jig to stand up (or maybe a slight tilt backwards) instead of laying flat on the floor or table. I even thought about putting casters on it so I could roll it out of way when not using it.

Kevin

 

[Shield Arc]

Only thing I can think of is maybe build a grid out of unistrut. And use hold down toggles, and unistrut pipe clamps where you can.
Problem with jigs, is generally they're time consuming to build, so you have to have enough product to build to justify the labor, and materials.
My next thought is an Acorn table.

McMaster-Carr

McMaster-Carr

Acorn Welding Table

 

[charlz]

As Sheild Arc notes they are pretty time consuming to build so how much is a 'bunch' of panels/gates? Not to mention expense of material, clamps etc that you may never use again.

Something else to think about is do you have the equipment to quickly cut a bunch of 20' sticks of tubing into the right lengths, cope them (assuming you are using round tubing) then clean and paint?

Sometimes it is just worth the extra money to drag the trailer down to the local farm and ranch supply place, load up some finished product and be done with it

 

[flyerdan]

Or carefully build the first one and then tack small pieces of metal to it that provide alignment for the pieces of subsequent ones. Then when you are done knock off and grind down where the tabs were. This would save you from having to figure out what to do with a full-size jig when you are all done.

That's exactly what I'd do when I had to do multiples of the same item, had a coffee can of 2" angle iron pieces for stops. Another thing that I built that was quite handy was a 30-60-90 triangle out of 1.5" square tube, sent it out with a powder coat run so the weld spatter wouldn't stick. Since most gates were square (although we did a fair number of bias gates as well), clamping my square in one corner would pretty much true them up, except for the really long ones.

 

[cerkac]

The unistrut is a great idea. Maybe I could build a frame out of square tubing and then use your idea of making a grid out of the unistrut. Not sure the cost of the unistrut but its giving me some ideas.

I now wonder if I could build a frame out of square tubing and then attach some angle to create something similar to the unistrut grid. I could use carriage bolts to slide up and down the grid and tighten small pieces of angle as the tabs to layout/clamp the gates and panels.

I've got about 25-30 panels and 10 bow gates or so to build for now. And I could see building more down the road, seems like you never have enough portable panels. Gates and panels at the local farm supply just don't hold up to much abuse. I've got some downtime before calving starts in Feb. to build the jig, but some of the panels I need to get built are for calving pens so I do need to get started.

Thanks for all the ideas.

 

[Shield Arc]

Shop around, I always found McMaster-Carr to be awfully high priced, but they seem to have everything. Check out your local industrial electrical supply house for unistrut. You can also buy spring backed nuts for the unistrut.

McMaster-Carr

 

[cerkac]

I found this jig this morning when I was searching around the internet. The picture is from a place that fabricates gates. Probably overly built for my needs but looks very functional. I'm going to call a few local electrical supply company's as suggested to see what I can get some unistrut for. Thanks again.

Kevin