Any idea what this might be?

[billdeserthills]

I have welded several lock boxes into gates, when my clients wanted a way to lock the gate with a deadbolt, or even made
their gates self-latching and self closing and I did them all with my super junky Harbor freight 110vt ac arc welder and some
5/64" welding rods. Of course the quality was not great, but a bit of sanding and some patch work with a bit of body filler,
a little wet sanding and a coat of black primer made them all look well worth the money I was paid.

Now if I were to be called upon to do another I would use my Hobart wire feed welder and would do a better job. Though as far
as I know all the gates I have welded on are still in use.

I just don't want people to think welding a gate box into a gate is rocket science-- measure twice & cut once and take your time
to do it right the first try

[cledry]

Welding Aluminium is close to a black art in my opinion. I've taught myself to MIG thin section Aluminium(Al wire and high flow argon) but would not trust my welds for anything substantial. It ain't pretty!

Sometimes it really is better to just subcontract out work. It's pretty cool to watch a skilled welder work too.

The guy we use is an artist, he uses a TIG for aluminum and he does everything except the initial placement of the box and strike. I am good at welding steel, my welds are good enough to pass NHRA inspections for roll cages, but I am not good with aluminum. I had a spool gun for my Hobart welder and tried a few times but it wasn't pretty. Plus that welder is too big to haul to a job. I would say about 80% of gates we do are aluminum.

[shutterstuff]

Cledry, on your Alarm Lock gate, it looks to me like it would not take much force to move the pole to open the gate?

I like seeing these installs as I have not yet had to do one but I have had to repair a couple gates.

[Tyler J. Thomas]

Cledry, on your Alarm Lock gate, it looks to me like it would not take much force to move the pole to open the gate?

Clearance between the lock and strike look pretty standard to me?

[shutterstuff]

Clearance between the lock and strike look pretty standard to me?

The fence post on the left is just standard chain link fencing. Those poles are somewhat flexible and my concern would be someone flexing the pole enough to open the gate. As a teenager many years ago, I have opened gates this way...