Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

I am looking to build my own "wrought iron" fence. I have a welder
friend that will help me assemble.

The design I was thinking was a basic flat top rail with square holes
so that the pickets come through the top rail 4 inches.

The pickets would be 5/8 inch squares and the top rail should be 1/2"
thick. So I need to be able to make a 5/8" x 5/8" square hole in 1/2
in inch steel.

What is the best way to do that, considering I need to make about 100
holes in 25 feet of steel.

I was going to hire the fence building work out but I am getting prices
in the $75 a linar foot range for this fence and figure I could it for
a lot cheaper.

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

wrote in message
oups.com...
I am looking to build my own "wrought iron" fence. I have a welder
friend that will help me assemble.

The design I was thinking was a basic flat top rail with square holes
so that the pickets come through the top rail 4 inches.

The pickets would be 5/8 inch squares and the top rail should be 1/2"
thick. So I need to be able to make a 5/8" x 5/8" square hole in 1/2
in inch steel.

What is the best way to do that, considering I need to make about 100
holes in 25 feet of steel.



If your friend has a wire welder, I would make a round hole that clears the
corners of your picket, and weld it in solid.

The other option is a square broach. You would have to drill the hole first,
then run a broach through the hole in an arbor press. When you're done,
you'll have arms that look like Popeye. ;)

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

Why not have the pickets stop at the top railing, and then have a 4"
piece of picket welded to the top of the top rail?

Anyway, that's what I did with one fence and the alignment looked fine.

It would certainly seem quicker to make an extra 100 welds than to
punch 100 square holes.

-Aaron

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

hmm.. If I used 1/4" channel rail how big of an arbor press do you
think I might need to push/pull the broach through the hole?

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

I was thinking that too..but was worrying about the alignment.. You
are right as long as I could get the alignment right this could be
easier.

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

I made a simple jig that clamped onto the bottom picket and held the
top one in the correct alignment before tacking it in place.

I'm not sure how you are planning on cutting the pickets, but I've been
using a Morse Metal Devil blade in my table saw. (Besides Morse, Tenryu
and others make metal cutting circular saw blades).

-Aaron

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

You could use an oxyacetylene outfit to heat the metal to yellow heat
and use a blacksmith's hot punch and a large sledge to punch the hole
in the soft metal.

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

My metal supplier, (Westbrook Metals in Austin, TX), sells these rails with
the holes already punched. I'm sure many others do as well, so try shopping
around. By the way, these rails are actually channels, so the sides are
1/2" but the actual thickness of the steel is more like 1/8"

On the other hand, the last gate I made required larger rails than the ones
they sell, so I ended up doing what was already suggested, welding the
pickets as three pieces, top, middle, and bottom; 4 welds per picket. I
made a jig from some scrap to keep the three pieces lined up. Easy as pie,
once we built a large enough table to hold the thing...

As an aside, I recently got outbid on an 18' 2-piece gate where the other
guy bid $50 a linear foot, hung. This is less than I wanted to do it for,
as hanging these gates is still a challenge for me...

wrote in message
oups.com...
I am looking to build my own "wrought iron" fence. I have a welder
friend that will help me assemble.

The design I was thinking was a basic flat top rail with square holes
so that the pickets come through the top rail 4 inches.

The pickets would be 5/8 inch squares and the top rail should be 1/2"
thick. So I need to be able to make a 5/8" x 5/8" square hole in 1/2
in inch steel.

What is the best way to do that, considering I need to make about 100
holes in 25 feet of steel.

I was going to hire the fence building work out but I am getting prices
in the $75 a linar foot range for this fence and figure I could it for
a lot cheaper.

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

On 26 Oct 2005 13:01:15 -0700, wrote:

I am looking to build my own "wrought iron" fence. I have a welder
friend that will help me assemble.

The design I was thinking was a basic flat top rail with square holes
so that the pickets come through the top rail 4 inches.

The pickets would be 5/8 inch squares and the top rail should be 1/2"
thick. So I need to be able to make a 5/8" x 5/8" square hole in 1/2
in inch steel.

What is the best way to do that, considering I need to make about 100
holes in 25 feet of steel.

I was going to hire the fence building work out but I am getting prices
in the $75 a linar foot range for this fence and figure I could it for
a lot cheaper.


Hey td,

You can buy the "fancy" picket tops separately. Then just drill holes
on spacing in the top rail (WOW!! 1/2" is pretty thick, but hey....),
turn the end of the shaft to the hole size for a length to suit, and
set the "top" pieces on and spot. Gives you good alignment, and no
special tools needed. Wow!! 1/2"... No wonder the prices are $75
per foot.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

king architectural is a nation wide distributor level supplier that takes
small orders

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

I interpreted this as not 1/2" wide but 1/2" thick, by say 1" or 1
1/2"wide...

Am I missing something here or are you just Trolling: it doesn't seem
possible, to me, to put a 5/8" [0.625"] hole (of any shape) in a 4/8"
[0.500"] wide piece of metal - the hole would extend 1/16" [0.0625"]
outside the metal on each side.

Either use a wider rail - 3/4" [0.0750"] - or a thinner picket - 3/8"
[0.375"} - or simply cut the rail into pieces (whose length is defined by
the picket spacing) and weld them between the pickets.

Making Square holes for pickets in top rail of fence
 

This would be 1/2" thick steel. my concern was punching through steel
that thick.. but based on some comments by someone aboveI found
pre-punched rails which will save me some trouble