paint suggestions

[Shane Warnick]

I have been commisioned to make a couple of walkthrough gates, 3' x 6'. 2" square frame with a 14g smooth steel sheet on them, then a 10g sheet on top of that as an overlay with a pattern cut out. Customer wants them painted flat black. I am perplexed as to how to attach the top panel over the smooth panel. I thought about bolting it on after paint but customer wants it all welded. Ok fine but even if I paint them on both sides then weld on, there will be areas where the paint burns off and then rust will run down the sheets first time they get wet. Only other thought I had was some thick powder coat maybe would seal the two together. Thoughts or suggestions??

Thanks for looking
Shane

[cbassjr]

What I do a lot of on stand offs is I use 1/8" round steel rods and weld everything together gives a nice 3d kind of look. I build a lot of gates and customers generally like the effect plus you can get multiple colors for greater effect. In your case you can paint the base panel do some spot grinding weld the next panel on and just spot paint over the spot welds. Hope this helps.

[tnbndr]

I think what I would do is powder coat the face of the flat panel, the side the overlay is going on. Then on the overlay I would drill holes in appropriate spots, lay the overlay on the flat panel and plug weld to the flat panel, weld fast and cool as possible. Grind down the plug welds. Then have the entire piece re-powder coated. If you are going for different colors this method won't work but I would still try something similar with paint.

[Shane Warnick]

Thanks for the suggestions. Cbassjr when you are using the 1/8" rod for a standoff are you still using a thicker material for the front panel or are you using thinner stuff for both pieces and using the gap to give it depth? I think it would still look nice but be more economical for the customer if I used 16g for both pieces but would still like the depth, or the illusion of, but wonder if I use the rods for a standoff and use 10g for the cutout that will go on the front, if it won't make it look too deep, if that makes sense.

Thanks again for the replies.

Shane