Cast Iron McKay Sunshine Gates and Simpson Gates ... the modern alternative

The old Sunshine heritage gates of the turn of the century are fetching very high prices at clearing sales and auctions. It's amazing to see some appear on Ebay in really bad shape, only to go for ridiculous prices. Could this be due to the fact that they're becoming harder to find? I recall seeing a pair of 2.4m (8' in the old imperial measurement) gates going for in excess of $2500, some being irreparable and others needing some serious restoration work. These prices were for gates that were pick up only, which would have restricted the interest and lowered prices.

Many of the original old gates typically require a significant amount of restoration to fix badly bent and rusted out bars. I'm not sure what makes these gates so appealing, they were extremely heavy old things, made from solid steel bars and joined with cast iron joints. I suppose the castings on some of the fancier ones were quite pretty but the ones with a steel frame and twisted wire (instead of bars) may not have been the safest of gates around stock.

Left: Farmweld's New Cast Jointed Gate

We've had many enquiries about cast jointed gates over the years and have finally succumbed to the pressure!  A Victorian insurance company approached us recently to make up a set for a customer of theirs and we agreed to take on the job. The castings cost an absolute fortune, so they're not a cheap gate to replicate, however what we came up with looks just like the original.

The gate differs in that we've used modern techniques. The cast joints are from iron, and the bars are steel pipe, so not quite as heavy as the originals. Don't get me wrong, the gates are still very heavy. The only down side is that the castings, like the originals are cast and limited to specific sized gates.  We'll be adding these to our range of gates, and will soon advise as to what sizes will be available.

 

Contemporary Farm Gate

Farmers and property owners are no longer happy to limit themselves to plain old mesh farm gates and are joining their city counterparts in looking for new and innovative designs to grace the entrances of their homes.

We had one such customer contact us for a brochure and in doing the usual follow up I happened to get hold of his wife instead. She had very specific ideas about what she wanted, but no one around made anything like it. The gates in our brochure were not what she had in mind. Not to leave it there, I informed her that we custom make gates to customers designs so if she could give me a photo, drawing or even a 'doodle' (as had another customer of ours a while back), we could put together some concept sketches and a quote.  She was rapt.  A picture was faxed through and after some modifications to make it fit, their dairy is soon to take delivery of this gate:

There are five solid cast steel balls set into the intersections which really set the design off. The gate is going to NSW and ironically the Pura Milk company which is local to South Australia uses this colour in all its branding.

Custom wrought iron design, coffee table legs

A while ago I posted a photo of a custom  designed wrought iron door panel which we made for a lovely customer who was building a house at Nairne, SA. This customer was so happy with what we created for her, she asked if we could possibly design something to support a table top that she and her husband had, and wanted to make into a coffee table. Here's what we came up with:

The design brief was that it should not only structurally support a very thick and heavy slab of timber which I believe is about 6cm thick, but that it should also complement the piece of timber. I think the design of the legs will work quite well with the heavy look of the table top. Another one I can't wait to see finished.

I have suggested that a matching chandelier might be worth looking at ... nothing like value adding.