Designs for metal side gates.. This is a design guide for wrought iron side gates. All designs below are drawn at 3ft wide and 6ft tall. Wider gates would require more upright bars. Hence the pattern may need to change, depending on the width of the gate.. The first part deals with the frame shape, and top decoration. The second part deals with the internal design, that is the design or pattern of the upright bars.. With a combination of the two this opens up literally thousands of designs. Although some imagination is required.
Frame and top decoration design
Before we get in to the internal pattern of the gate. There are a number of possibilities to choose from in terms of frame design and top decoration,
Simple railing head design for the top with a plain frame. Railing heads as a top design will suit all but the arched top frame design.
Just a pair of scrolls with with extended hanging and closing stiles to provide support for the scroll. Usual on a tall gate to have a centre bar to provide support
What can be said about this except is the classic arch top gate found every where on the internet. Drawn into a plain frame but can be put on top of the frame with a double mid bar, or frames with double top bottom bar
A shouldered arch, in that the arch isnt the full width of the gate. Same as the full arch can be place in double bar frames. So 3 possibilities from this frame tupe
A rise up frame with shoulders, simple a gentle curve going up. the rise usually starts just after the first upright bar from the edge. Can be double centre bar. can be just double top bar..
A dip down frame with shoulders. This is the same as the rise up just welded on up side down so to speak. This and the rise up are best suited to either no top decoration or railing heads. can be double bar frame
Complex S scroll pattern for the top decoration, but the frame here has a double bottom and top bar. Allowing for individual decoration in the gap they create
Simple Scroll top pattern for the top, but with a double centre bar gapped to allow for decoration. Just a large pair of S scrolls here but could be any of the examples drawn into the gaps.
Scroll and circle pattern for the top, with a triple double bar. Scroll and circle will go on any flat top gate. Triple double bar will suit any frame.
There are a few possibilities un drawn here. As almost all frames and top decorations are inter changable. with the exception of the scroll tops which dont really fit a curved top frame. I make the count of possibilities on the frame design.. I make the count of 36 possibilities. That’s not including what you put in terms of decoration between the gap of the double bars. So taking that into consideration in just a plain gate with no internal thrills, it looks like i can create 100 different designs.. At least for the frames and i havent even started on the internal patterns of the bars.
I know i have over 30 infill patterns on file, so can i claim over 3000 designs, the largest on the internet blah blah blah. And should i so wish to draw them all out. That’s probably over 3 months full time work, drawing. But i think most people have enough imagination to swap bits around and know what its going to be like. Obviously if you need a specific drawing it can be provided.
Internal patterns
Some examples of possible internal patterns. This is to give ideas, but you should soon work out that parts are interchangeable. taking a design and swapping out a twist for a cage etc. Of course the top half of the gate doesn’t have to be the same as the bottom half.. creating even more designs
A plain gate but using square bar, the centre one is twisted. Small detail to a plain gate.
Using a combination of single twists and double twists to create a design pattern. Could just as easy be a double twist in the centre bar and a single twist on the outer bars
Centre pair of S scrolls, with the out bar being a cage bar, Scrolls could easily be flipped so instead of being head to head they are tail to tail.
As previous bit just using a ring bar as the out bar, instead of the cage
Using the centre Scroll and then a twist bar. but this time the twist has been placed one bar in from the edge. Could just as easy been on the outer edge.
As previous Design but adding a double ring bar to the outer edge
Hopefully by now. you should be seeing how the designs work, and how easy it is to replace one bar for another design. This is how most of these gate designs were done. Using CAD allows me to draw out a bar design once. Then effectively copy and paste into a gate frame design. In terms of actually making the gate its not that dis similar i just need to make the bar and weld it into the desired position.
more internal patterns to add but thats for another evening.;