When installing fences, gates or gates, you want to highlight the outer posts by decorating them with a knob. This can be done in different ways. We offer a technology for creating a top on the edge of a pillar from a 100 mm profile pipe by bending it.
Required tools:
- angle grinder;
- clamping pliers – 2 pcs.;
- square;
- hammer;
- welding inverter.
Top making process
To make a knob, you need to very accurately outline the pipe. To do this, draw a template on a sheet of paper in full size, as in the photo.
It is designed for a profile pipe 100x100 mm. Using a square, the dimensions are transferred to the pipe.
Very carefully, with a grinder you need to cut out the petals on the pipe without touching the excess.
Then, using a drill or a screwdriver with a cutting disc, you need to get inside the pipe and make notches on the petals along the second marks. This is necessary to bend them outward.
After bending, it becomes possible to make notches along the remaining marks using a grinder. An angle grinder leaves a wide cut, so bending metal after it is easier than after using a thin cutting disc on a drill.
Now, using a pair of clamping pliers, you need to bend the petals, as in the example. Please note that at first the bends at marks 2, 4 and 5 are made outward. This can be clearly seen from the drawing.
At the first mark, the petals are filed on the outside. Then you can begin to bend them into a knob, tapping them with a hammer. You need to bend step by step, welding each transition.
After bending and welding, the weld seams are cleaned.
In hard-to-reach places they can be corrected with a file. As a result, you get a neat top on the column, from which you cannot tell that it was made by hand.
This method can be used to make knobs not only on fence posts, but also on railing balusters and bed frames.
