I've got a little Campbell sandblaster that's fine for small jobs, but I'd recommend you rent a commercial sandblaster if you are going to do several gates. And set up an area to do the job so the sand doesn't go everywhere. If you can contain the sand it serves two purposes. One, you don't get sand where you don't want it, and two, you can reuse the sand. Sand isn't cheap enough that I wouldn't reuse it at least a couple of times. Something as light weight as a tarp can provide a barrier so the sand will stay where you want it, but outside and not close to a building opening would be better. You need a solid floor for the sand in some kind of corner so you can scoop up the sand to be reused as it accumulates.
Many of them are damaged or have the bottom bar rusted off. The top half is still in reasonably good condition -- so I'm planning on cutting off the good parts, cleaning them up, and welding two halves together.
Do not sand-bast. Find a nice hot day, bang 'em straight.....wire brush them by hand- quick brushing, just get off the loose surface rust...do not rinse, just brush off with dry cloth....leave the surface rust..even with rust dust on them, let them bake in the hot sun...and repaint them with rustoleum while they're crispy hot to the touch. If you LEAVE the surface rust on them...it's a protective barrier...and rustoleum acts like you're painting rust on them...so they won't rust anymore...until the paint wears off in 25 to 35 years. I'd stick with the older heavier-gauge fencing gates. Save your money...repurpose gates...cut 'em to size and weld them.
Follow up with a coat of Rust oleum.
I am no expert but I had three gates that where my helper grabs them to open, his sweaty hands caused them to rust out bad with holes thru the metal. The rest of the gates were in good shape, so I bought a very fine hard type buffing wheel for a 4" grinder ( Harbor Freight) and buffed over the rust. Then I took some rust stop I bought at Ace Hardware and brushed it over the rusty places. It hardens the rust and bonds it to the metal plus it stops the rusting out. When it dried I painted over it with some implement paint and let it dry. Then I took a piece of thin wall PVC about 18" long and split it down the length on one side only. Then I worked it over the rusted area all the way down until it snapped around the pipe. Took my silicone chalk and seal in both ends of the PVC. Leave split side on underside of gate tubing so water can't collect in it. Siliconed that area also and when it dried, I painted over the PVC to match the color of my gate. This was 5 years ago this July coming and if you don't look for it you don't notice it. Plus it stopped the rusting out for sweaty hands with the pvc covering the tubing.
Dude, you sure that "helper" isn't some kind of super hero or something? Sweaty hands corroding gates until they have holes in them has to be some kind of super power...
Used to work with a guy that every truck he owned would have the door rotted out where he laid his sweaty arm out of the window. . Even the company truck he drove wouldn't have paint left on the door after a few weeks of him driving it, could have just been because they were Chevys though. That and everything south of the driver's window had tobacco spit on it. Come to think of it, it didn't rust where he spit, maybe the OP could try spitting some Levy Garrett juice on the gates before painting them.
Don't know about super power but destructive power yes. Never saw anyone sweat like he did. But after about 4 years of handling the gates, the 3 he went thru everyday morning and evening had to be reworked. The other 25 gates that he never hardly went thru has never had a problem.
This is what I used on my gates before I painted them. Also used it on the bottom of an older hay ring that was rusting out where it sits on the ground. It works, it hardens the rust and bonds it to the metal and stops the rust. I keep it on hand for quick fixes.
I just built new pens out of freestanding panels that aren't painted. I'd like to paint them this spring, can you really just spray this treatment and paint over it and have it look acceptable and last?
