The Aim of these pages.

The aim here is very simple, by teaching design this allows you to design your own. In doing so we are sharing some of the work load. This means I don’t have to factor into the price, time required for design work. As you are doing the design work with the help of this website. This means i can offer the railings at a cheaper price than would otherwise be possible.

Gates, Railings and Juliet balconies

Most wrought iron work is kind of the same. It contains upright bars or spindles. A Juliet balcony or patio railing really are the same thing in terms of design. But they only differ from a garden wall railing by being shorter and not having a decorative top, like railing heads. And gates only differ because they are a fully enclosed frame, having a hanging and closing stile. So they have a lot in common but there are some subtle differences. The difference is usually the frame. The differences are enough to earn each its own specific page. But for now, lets stick to the basics of design

As something get longer, or wider in the case of a gate, it will contain more upright bars. More upright bars give more opportunity to create designs as it is those upright bars we turn from being a plain round or square bar into a decorative bar. The taller those upright bars are the more decoration can be placed on or in them. As all decorations occupy a given amount of those upright bars or vertical space available.

But let us start with the pre made parts that can be used to create a decorative bar or design. understanding what is available and how they can be used, really is the next step on your way to designing your own

Parts

A lot of the design work is based on using parts or components to help create decorative bars. Some parts are designed to be fitted into the upright bar, effectively become part of the bar. Cut out a section of the bar and welded in. So that they interrupt what would be an otherwise plain bar. Other parts are design to fit in to the gap between upright bars. Some parts can perform both tasks.

Its the placing of these parts within or on a bar this gives you a bar design. It is then the placing of those decorative bars within the wrought iron panel that gives you the design. By doing that you can create you own individual personal design.

By knowing the cost of the replacement decorative bar, it then becomes very easy to work out the price of your decorative wrought iron design.

Just to explain many of these parts that fit into the gap between bars, are 100mm wide. So all upright bars need to be spaced at 100mm gaps for this to work. It is effective because it gives access to a lot of cheap mass produced parts. Impossible to make by hand at the price these can be bought for. So it becomes a cost effective way to add detail, whilst keeping the cost down. But this does mean all upright bars must be spaced 100mm apart.

I am not here to hide anything all these parts are bought from a company called FHBrundle .I have included that as a link, so that you can see for yourself.

These are mass produced parts,. Their disadvantage is they come in limited sizes. Their advantage is price, it would be impossible to make the parts for the price you can buy them for.

Just to say there are other companies out there that do similar things. This is just the one i use most for parts. (if you are using this info page thinking on making your own, they also sell steel)

This is a list of common used pre-made parts, the majority are design to fit a 100mm gap. Some are designed to fit as part of a bar. Don’t worry i have a lot of examples how to best use the parts

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Scrolls

Just for reference I refer to the larger part of the scroll as the head and the smaller part as the tail.
Three S scrolls with large head and smaller tail. Two double headed scrolls.

Notice the scrolls are all 100mm wide, so fit in a gap of 100mm. But more important they have a height. Whilst i am stating the obvious here. The scroll at 300mm tall wont fit into a height gap of less that 300mm. It could be used on a 400mm tall bar. leaving 50mm of bar clear at the top and bottom. But you have the option as the bar is longer than the scroll of “sliding” it up or down the bar and welding where you want.

Collars and baskets

These are designed to be position on an individual bar, adding detail to an otherwise plain bar. They can be positioned almost any where on a bar and multiple units can be used on one bar.

Collars

Designed for passing over 12mm square bar and welding in position, Hence why the square hole, these differ slightly for those designed for round bar.

Designed for passing over 12mm round bar.

Baskets

These are suitable for square bar only. welded into a bar, can be welded almost any position in a bar and multiple units can be welded into the same bar.

Rings and infill

Rings and infill are designed to fit between 2 upright bars, the most common being the plain circle, but there are other options beyond the plain circle.

Although designed to fill gaps, some of these parts can be used as an interrupt in a bar, in a similar way a basket is used. This can make for some interesting designs. The over and under 100mm circles, can be used a bar interrupts to make an interesting design. It is possible to make a design using different size circles on different bars.

Whilst is easy to price an item, it is a little more difficult to price it welded within a gate or railing. A circle welded to bring the gap between 2 bars is quick and relatively easy to do. But a circle welded as an interrupt in a bar is a much slower process. Eventually i am sure we will get a price list for all the options.

There are lots of other parts available but these are perhaps the common ones used.

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