This, that, and the other

[Ridgewalker]

You guys have some really cool old school skills there. Great work and thanks for sharing!

 

[EddieWalker]

This morning we noticed we have a fan. No. Not the air moving kind of fan, a fan fan, you know like this.

Harvey,

You have been spending too much time with Don!!!!!

Eddie

 

[TBDonnelly]

You guys are having way to much fun!

I'll suggest some wood sides for the wagon.......with a logo branded into the wood.

Don

 

[txdon]

These past eight days have flown by. Today was bye day. But before Harvey left he started to put the icing on the cake. Remember the leaves I traced out on metal and Harvey cut out and Bobby and I welded stems to and the Harvey forged curves and texture to last week, (breath), well this morning before Harvey packed up, he attached a section to the entrance fence to see how it would look, IT LOOKS SO GOOD!

below are a couple of pictures with the vines, leaves and a flower, I'll post again when we have the remaining 14 sections all up and painted.

The entrance turned out perfect. We only had a rough idea going into this project but the entrance now captures the wildscapes and wildlife and like nature you have to look to see it. The added touch of the grandparent's old metal just makes it that more personal, and now there is a story to be told about the gate.

Thank you so much Harvey, Glenda, Bobby and Mike!

 

[GaryBDavis]

TxDon,

Nice looking gate you got there.

You got any paint secrets you want to share? I've got a big corral project coming up next year that will be too big to sandblast, so I'm looking for ospho or something like that to use.

 

[txdon]

GaryBDavis, I got Harvey's secrets so don't tell anyone. The galvanized hog panels were primed with Kiltz exterior oil base paint and the rusty wagon wheels were primed with ospho. No special primer was put on the other metal. Then everything gets a coat of a 50/50 mixture of Rustoleum brown rusty metal primer and Rustoleum glossy leather brown paint.

After that I might put a Rustoleum hammered bronze or copper. I pre-painted the leaves Rustoleum hunter green and the flowers will be a two tone mustard yellow. That is about as far in the future as I can see now.

Northern tool has their metal bender on sale for $79 and I have ordered one to see if it preforms as good as Harvey's. I still have some metal vines to bend on the fence.

 

[3RRL]

Hey Don,
Any idea how long the gate will keep looking good when treated like that? (looks great BTW)
Is it something that will have to be re-applied on an ongoing basis to prevent rusting?

 

[txdon]

Hey Don,
Any idea how long the gate will keep looking good when treated like that?

No I do not. The bridge in the back still looks good after 4 years. You would have to ask wroughtn_harv, he has been using the mixture longer.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Funny thing, rust. Some clients want it. They don't call it rust of course, it's patina, thank you.

As far as I'm concerned it's all about preparation. But even when you prepare the best you can it can still happen. Some people believe powdercoating is the cure. The problem powdercoating has it's applied with an electrostatic process. Electrostatic paint or powdercoating can have issues with sharp edges and inside corners, repelling instead of attracting.

I've found the fifty fifty, Rustoleum rusty metal primer/Leather brown combination a durable finish. The brown seems to give the UV protection and the primer provides the adhesion.

If Gary's rust problem is severe then I believe he will continue to have rust issues no matter what kind of process he chooses to use against it. I've had one client that went after his drill stem pipe fence (all I provided was the labor on that job, his pipe) with some very expensive stuff they use on off shore rigs. The last time we talked about it he told he had wished he had listened to me and paid the extra bucks for galvanized pipe in the first place because he still had rust issues everytime he turned around it seemed.

Oh, one other thing an old painter once told me about painting metal, "it don't rust under a run".

 

[EddieWalker]

I read that one of the founders of Rustoleum was curious why fishing boats don't have any rust on their decks. He learned that the fish oil prevents metal from rusting.

Hammerite is a paint that I used on the dump truck. The bed is pretty much covered in rust and pitted really bad. I washed off the dirt, let it dry, and painted on the Hammerite paint. It's designed to adhere to rust!!! As a bonus, it's very smooth and slipery, which means dirt will slide out of my dumptruck again.

There are two versions of Hammerite. One is smooth, the other has a hammered finish. It's miserable stuff to apply, but the results are amazing.

Eddie

 

[GaryBDavis]

Preparation is one of the more important steps and often the key. Once you get good clean metal and a quality paint on it, you can recoat every 8 to 10 years with minimal preparation (no sandblasting). Spray it to keep the thickness down and you can get several recoats and at 8 to 10 years between, that's a pretty good amount of time.

For my corral project, I think I want to try ospho and an aluminum based paint as it blends with the galvanized cattle panels.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Preparation is one of the more important steps and often the key. Once you get good clean metal and a quality paint on it, you can recoat every 8 to 10 years with minimal preparation (no sandblasting). Spray it to keep the thickness down and you can get several recoats and at 8 to 10 years between, that's a pretty good amount of time.

For my corral project, I think I want to try ospho and an aluminum based paint as it blends with the galvanized cattle panels.

Gary, I've had very poor luck with aluminum based paint. It either rusts right through very quickly or it chips off easily.

Many years ago a client brushed and cleaned a pipe fence. Then they primed it with aluminum based paint. They then painted it white after the aluminum had weathered a bit. Less than a year later the aluminum was coming off in sheets taking the white with it.

You can buy cold galvanized paint by the gallon. It's expensive, probably two hundred plus per gallon by now. You have to use xylene for thinning and the first time you pick up a gallon you will think it's nailed to the floor. It's that heavy.

 

[GaryBDavis]

I've used the cold galvanized spary cans for touching up welds on galvanized gates, etc. But, I've never bought it in gallons and sprayed a large project with it. What brand do you recommend and where do you get it?

My only outdoor projects that I've sprayed with aliminum paint are about 2 years old, so I don't have much time to tell how they will hold up. But so far, so good. Maybe it's the excellent prep job I did?

 

[rox]

Harv & Don,
I can't express how much I have enjoyed reading about your project. Unfortunately, for the third time since Sept 07 i had to send my laptop back to the states so I have been MIA a while. Your thread is one of the first ones I went to to catch up. Right now I know I should be out there pulling weeds, however I am playing hooky and catching up on my TBN threads. Fantastic job the 2 of you. I could not figure out what that large file was going to be watching the development photos and was surprised and gave a chuckle when I saw it turned into a snake. How creative! Your French fans are impressed!!!!

 

[weldingisfun]

Harv, that was great! What's next? Keep 'em coming. Really enjoy your photos and your narratives.

 

[Bob Warner]

Awesome project guys. I like the snake and the leaves. Good forging there. When you get done you can send that anvil up to my shop.

I do not envy the forging, done a bit myself and all those leaves can wear you out.

Good job.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I was talking to Bob today and he brought up wanting to learn how to use his bender like Patrick and a couple of others have mentioned.

Folks the master of the hand bender is a member of TBN His handle is "craftbender" and he made the two benders I used at Don's.

I'll have to go look for sure but I believe I still have one of his videos on how to do some really trick projects with a hand bender. If he isn't still selling them and if he approves I'll talk to Bobby and see if we can't get it uploaded to youtube.

If you're serious about playing with a handbender like they carry at HF or Northern give Riley a pm.

He's the best. (person and bender operator)

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Harv, that was great! What's next? Keep 'em coming. Really enjoy your photos and your narratives.

We're looking at some fun stuff. One is an outdoor kitchen including a pizza oven. Then there's an arena and a round pen. Plus we're talking about a too kewel cutting horse gate entryway. That's one potential client.

This week I've looked at making a base for a big rock sign, some bridge fencing over a creek by a school, a custom wood fence in a backyard, and doing some security stuff for a landscaper with four inclosed trailers that keep getting broken into. And we're hoping to start sealing the big wood entryway tomorrow. So we've got a pretty full plate without that DNA fence thing crashing in on us early next month.

 

[jinman]

If you're serious about playing with a handbender like they carry at HF or Northern give Riley a pm.

He's the best. (person and bender operator)

Harvey, isn't that a bit like going into McDonald's and ordering a Whopper?

 

[patrick_g]

Harv, (Imagine this in a Jack Nicholson accent, ala "Easy Rider" "Well, I got me a bender." ...but no clue from the instruction manual how to set it up.

Any assistance is appreciated. I'll be waiting for the video.

Pat