Mechanic's Gate

Buying the bike meant taking my narrow wooden gate down and replacing it with a wider, steel one....making it myself by welding two small ones together to make a tall one and designing fittings which would mean that when open it would not take up any space at all in the aperture (pictures later). The gate is now standing and the locking mechanism is in production.

But I wanted the gate to have a cute finishing touch:- scroll work and a house number made out of spanners, pincers, sprockets and motorcycle drive chain. I have just come up from the workshop (1.30 am) having finished welding them together. I will weld them onto the gate tomorrow, if the weather permits.

The pictures here show the parts mounted vertically. I don't know whether I shall hammerite the non-bronzed bits black to give a strong contrast to the silver gate or whether to let them rust naturally. It is very satisfying knowing that these parts are all recycled. The spanners were rescued from a skip last week and the chain and sprockets came off John's bike. The whole gate cost me £10.

Incidentally, I don't know if it looks like it from that sun and pincer motif, but I am not a Freemason ;)

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