Metal · Cutting · Steel gate
Steel gate cut list and bar cutting layout
What it does and how it is worked out
Type the cuts of your steel gate and the page lays them out on the fewest bars, with what is left of each one. Free, in the browser and on a phone. The list below is an example, the frame of a double gate in square tube, 144 × 72 in: 10 pieces on 4 bars of 240 in, 99 % of the bar used. Clear it and put in your own cuts.
- bars
- —
- used
- —%
- waste
- —%
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The example of this page, worked out
The list the page opens with is an example, not anybody's order: the frame of a double gate in square tube, 144 × 72 in. Every length comes from the outside sizes of the job, and the figures are the optimiser's own, worked out by the same code as the tool above, on bars of 240 in with a 0.125 in cut and 0.5 in trimmed off each end.
| What the optimiser answers | Figure |
|---|---|
| Bars to buy | 4 |
| Pieces | 10 |
| Bar used | 99.5 % |
| Waste: blade, trim and short ends | 0.5 % |
| Offcuts worth keeping, 12 in or more | 4 · 21.6 ft |
StileRail
The cutting list of the example
| Piece | Qty | Length, in |
|---|---|---|
| Stile | 4 | 72 |
| Rail | 6 | 68 |
The same list on the main optimiser, with other bar lengths and your own offcuts: open it there.
What to watch: steel gate
- One section at a time. The frame is square tube and the pickets are bar: two different bars, two lists. This page opens on the frame; the pickets of the same gate are one of its templates.
- The rails go between the stiles. A leaf is as wide as its two stiles and the rail between them: the rail is the leaf less two tubes. If you mitre the corners instead, every side is measured on its long point and the rail is the whole width.
- Your bar, your blade, your trim. The example is on bars of 240 in with a 0.125 in cut and 0.5 in trimmed off each end. Set the bar your supplier sells and the width of your blade: the plan is worked out again as you type, and so is what is worth keeping (12 in or more here).
Templates: steel gate
Example sizes, not a standard: load one into the list above, then change each length to yours. Loading one replaces the list; nothing is sent and no email is asked for.
| Template | Pieces | Bars | Used | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| A single-leaf gate, 36 in wide | 5 | 2 | 99.5 % | Load |
| A double gate, 16 ft wide | 10 | 5 | 99.1 % | Load |
| The pickets of the example, another bar | 30 | 10 | 99.4 % | Load |
Bars and bar used on bars of 240 in, as the optimiser works them out. To size the job and its material first: the gate calculator. What the bars weigh: metal weight calculator.
Questions people ask
- How many bars does a steel gate take?
- The example on this page, the frame of a double gate in square tube, 144 × 72 in, is 10 pieces and takes 4 bars of 240 in with a 0.125 in cut and 0.5 in trimmed off each end: 99.5 % of the bar is used and 4 offcuts are worth keeping. Put in your own cuts and the page works out yours.
- How many pickets does a gate take?
- As many as keep the clear gap under the one you want. The example asks for 4 in at most between 0.5 in bars: that makes 15 pickets a leaf, with 3.78 in between them. Check the gap your local code asks for.