Some everyday railings (and other cool stuff)

[MetalMan23]

I really like your work, looks great

Having that roller twist the piece would drive a man to drinking

Thanks Dave , yes it does drive me crazy I have to shim the dies just perfect in order to minimize the twist/warpage

MetalMan, your work looks awesome!

Thanks! I appreciate the compliments

Nice work man. Most of what I do is handrails also. I like your ideas and creativeness. I have one of the HF rollers also and got the mod kit from SWAG Offroad to turn it into a power roller. Works pretty good.

Thank you, I enjoy a challenge, coming up with jigs and ways to fabricate things.

I'm going to buy the swag "hulk" roller, for only $699 it's a good investment, and would've saved me some headache on this job.

[MetalMan23]

Ahhhhhhhh, I messed up a measurement, one stretch of railings is 20" too long. And it's already been powder coated.

[MetalMan23]

Here's some of the railings installed



And the house.....



And here's some pool fencing I did earlier this year on the same property

[Vulcanel]

Do you stay cost competitive with the box stores for the pool railing? Where I'm at, it's almost impossible to get pool fencing because the big stores are soooo cheap


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[William McCormick]

Really nice work, looks like your solid work has netted you some nice customers. Do you use a diamond core on the stone?

Sincerely,

William McCormick

[MetalMan23]

Do you stay cost competitive with the box stores for the pool railing? Where I'm at, it's almost impossible to get pool fencing because the big stores are soooo cheap


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

No way, the guy I do business with does a lot of the prefab aluminum fencing, but for the wrought iron (as they like to call it) I'm way more expensive. But they get what they pay for, my radius fencing as seen in the last couple pictures goes for a lot more per ft for fabrication and paint, not including install. I've been getting him to do the installs lately, and it's pretty great, I can keep fabricating and not have to drill/dig holes.

Really nice work, looks like your solid work has netted you some nice customers. Do you use a diamond core on the stone?

Sincerely,

William McCormick

Thanks William, most people are happy with my work, although I am now learning to take criticism without getting pissed off.

Yes, I use a diamond tipped core bit for drilling into concrete, blue stone, and granite. I use the Hilti wet core drills

[MetalMan23]

Do you stay cost competitive with the box stores for the pool railing? Where I'm at, it's almost impossible to get pool fencing because the big stores are soooo cheap


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You have to target the clientele who can afford the expensive stuff. I usually don't get much work from medium income types of people because it's too expensive. I've lost quite a few nice jobs in my area due to that.

[Vulcanel]

You have to target the clientele who can afford the expensive stuff. I usually don't get much work from medium income types of people because it's too expensive. I've lost quite a few nice jobs in my area due to that.

Yea that's my experience as well. I usually end up with industrial or commercial railing and not much residential


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[69sa200]

How deep do you run the footings for the post when going over grass. My frost line is 42" in Michigan. How deep do you bury the support post when anchoring trough concrete. It looks like you used a core drill and cemented the spindles into the concrete. I just skimmed the entire thread so I may have missed that if you mentioned it already. Nice workmanship on the fencing.

[MetalMan23]

How deep do you run the footings for the post when going over grass. My frost line is 42" in Michigan. How deep do you bury the support post when anchoring trough concrete. It looks like you used a core drill and cemented the spindles into the concrete. I just skimmed the entire thread so I may have missed that if you mentioned it already. Nice workmanship on the fencing.

Thanks

Our frost line here in CT is 16" if I'm not mistaken. I've had to dig through 11" before....... More like chipping than digging

I go down 24-30" with my posts into the ground, at least 30" when it's a gate post.

And into stone/concrete I go 4-6" deep and use hydraulic cement aka anchoring cement, locks it in real nice.

[davec]

Wow! Talk about the 1%-ers! Even the pool house is solid brick! (and probably bigger than my house...) That is some nice stuff you did. Just looking at that last railing that appears to be on a patio-to-be and the number of core drills you need to do for that. Looks like a week or two of drilling all by itself.

[jcwelder]

Excellent work! looks like you have been busy! Nice to see someone be so upfront about pricing and details, thank you!

[MetalMan23]

Wow! Talk about the 1%-ers! Even the pool house is solid brick! (and probably bigger than my house...) That is some nice stuff you did. Just looking at that last railing that appears to be on a patio-to-be and the number of core drills you need to do for that. Looks like a week or two of drilling all by itself.

Yes, they got money, I have them a couple cheaper options and the replied with an even more expensive design. And the guys installing it have their work cut out for them, although when I'm done fabricating, I'll probably help them finish the install

Excellent work! looks like you have been busy! Nice to see someone be so upfront about pricing and details, thank you!

Thanks! I have been very busy, and no problem, although I know pricing is a regional thing, it doesn't bother me to much to discuss pricing with guys who aren't my direct competition

FYI, for radius stuff I typically charge 3x more than the straight stuff.

[gxbxc]

Years ago I picked up a tool like this fro doing radius ,It saved my brain from smoking.

http://www.baileigh.com/outside-radi...FZBMDQodZhAMKg

[MetalMan23]

Years ago I picked up a tool like this fro doing radius ,It saved my brain from smoking.

http://www.baileigh.com/outside-radi...FZBMDQodZhAMKg

Ah I need to get one of those, might prove useful doing radius stuff.


Here I'm grinding down the welds

A very tedious and time consuming process.....


And here I'm resizing the panels that I miscalculated (face palm, five minute face wipe)

Grinding down the powder coating, I have about 10 ft of this railing that needs to be re-powder-coated

[MetalMan23]

So I'm finishing up the last of the radius stuff today,

And this is that twisting I was talking about cause by the Harbor Freight roller, nothing that can't be straightened with a few clamps but it's a pain to deal with

[tapwelder]

Bending that heavy cap is going to make all small roller cry. You have gotten a lot out of hf roller. Pretty impressive, actually. Is it stock?

[MetalMan23]

Bending that heavy cap is going to make all small roller cry. You have gotten a lot out of hf roller. Pretty impressive, actually. Is it stock?

I added extensions to spread out the lower dies, it makes it a lot easier to roll. I'll take a pic later on

[leightrepairs]

That is some nice looking work!

Mike

[MetalMan23]

That is some nice looking work!

Mike

Thanks Mike, look for some pics of the finished product installed, it'll be next week sometime

[OPUS FERRO]

MetalMan23

Who designs your rails?


Opus

[MetalMan23]

MetalMan23

Who designs your rails?


Opus

This job was designed by the builder or architect (or landscape architect?? There's a lot of people on these big jobs). It's usually included with the blue prints, they'll give me a railing layout and details for the design.



Some jobs I design myself, some jobs I have to match existing rails, or match a picture that a customer likes.

[Bonzoo]

I love doing that kind of work and wish I could get more of it.
EDIT. Nice shop man

[MetalMan23]

I love doing that kind of work and wish I could get more of it.
EDIT. Nice shop man

I'm very fortunate in that I get a lot of work without having to go out and look for it, and I thank God for that.

Thanks I love my shop, I moved in early this year, wayyy better than the last place I was at which was a glorified storage unit.

[jay gill]

Incredible, impressive work.

Here I'm grinding down the welds
A very tedious and time consuming process.....

Mind if I ask what your using to grind that small of a radius?
Radial flap disc? Die grinder?

Thanks