Linear Welding & Fabrication Nationwide | Gatewood Fence & Gate

Linear Welding & Fabrication: The Arlington Owner’s Guide

We weld and fabricate Linear gate parts on site in Arlington, with most repairs running $180 to $420 installed and same-day service when the part is on our truck. If your Linear opener’s bracket cracked, the arm tore loose from the gate, or the mounting plate sheared off the post, that’s what this page fixes. You’ll usually find the failure when the gate stops closing square, starts shuddering at the halfway point, or the opener runs but the gate barely moves.

Call (817) 241-4067

Here’s the honest picture: Linear builds solid opener arms and brackets, but the welding at the factory was never designed for how Arlington’s clay soil shifts gate posts over five or ten years. We see the same three failures over and over – cracked operator arms, wallowed-out post brackets, and torn gate-side mounting tabs. All three are weldable, and all three cost a fraction of replacing the opener.

We’re an independent gate company, not affiliated with Linear. We just happen to know their equipment well enough to fix it right the first time.

Key takeaways:

• Most Linear welding failures can be repaired on site for $180 to $420 installed
• Same-day service is common when we diagnose it over the phone first
• We stock Linear-compatible arms, brackets, and mounting plates on the truck
• Every weld job carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing
• Price is quoted and agreed before work starts – never a surprise at the door

Which Linear Models This Applies To

Linear’s swing gate openers – the LEO series, the older APeX, and the current OSCO/LINEAR models – all use a welded or bolted arm assembly that takes the brunt of the load. The LEO is the most common opener we fabricate parts for in Arlington. The mounting plate on the LEO bolts to the post, but the arm itself is welded at the pivot knuckle, and that’s where the fatigue crack usually starts. The APeX line has a similar arm design, but the steel gauge is slightly thinner, so we fabricate reinforced versions for people who want to avoid the same failure twice.

If you’re not sure which model you have, open the plastic cover on the opener body. The model number is printed on a silver sticker on the control board or the inside of the housing. Write that down before you call. Also measure your gate leaf – from hinge to the arm attachment point. A LEO on a 12-foot gate works a lot harder than one on an 8-foot gate, and we’ll want to know that when we decide between repairing the factory arm or fabricating a heavier one. The LEO factory arm is usually 3/16-inch mild steel. For gates over 14 feet or 300 pounds, we often fabricate the replacement in 1/4-inch steel instead. That’s a real spec difference, not a guess.

On the OEM-versus-aftermarket question for Linear parts specifically: Linear OEM arms are fine for a new install, but the same-grade steel, welded the same way, fails the same way. Good aftermarket is actually an upgrade, because we can weld in gussets and reinforcement at the stress point. Cheap aftermarket – the stamped brackets you’ll find online for $30 – will tear through the bolt holes within a year. We won’t install those, and if you bought one, we’ll tell you honestly before we touch it.

Signs Your Linear Welding & Fabrication Is Failing

• Gate shudders or jerks mid-travel. A crack in the operator arm or a loose pivot knuckle lets the arm flex under load. It starts as a visible stutter, then worsens until the opener stalls and the motor overheats. Catch it at the stutter stage and it’s usually a simple re-weld.
• Opener runs but gate moves late or barely. The arm has pulled free from the gate-side mounting tab. The bolt holes are likely wallowed out, which means the attachment is loose enough that the opener’s motion gets lost in slop before it reaches the gate. We weld the holes closed and re-drill them, or fabricate a new tab.
• You can see a dark crack line at a weld. This is the one you don’t ignore. A visible crack in a welded joint, especially at the pivot knuckle or where the arm meets the mounting plate, will fail completely under load, and the gate can swing free or slam. A gate swinging uncontrolled in an Arlington driveway is dangerous. Call before it reaches that point.
• Gate sags or drags at the latch end. The hinge post is shifting or the hinge welds are cracking. The opener arm is feeling all of that extra drag. Fix the post, re-weld the hinges, and the opener stops working double duty. We’ve pulled broken arms off gates that were fine mechanically – the hinge post was the actual culprit the whole time.
• Mounting plate loosens against the post repeatedly. Tightening the bolts works for about a week, then it’s loose again. That wallowed-out motion is rounding out the holes and work-hardening the steel around them. Eventually the bolts tear through. We weld the plate solid or fabricate a through-bolted plate so it stays put.

Replacement Cost & What’s Included

In Arlington, you should expect to pay $180 to $420 for Linear welding and fabrication work, installed. The low end covers a straight re-weld of a cracked arm or a loose setting bolt hole, with the opener already off the gate. The upper end covers fabricating a reinforced arm from 1/4-inch steel, cutting out and re-welding a broken mounting tab, or building a new post bracket for a gate that’s out of square.

What drives the range: material thickness, whether we’re repairing or replacing, and how much clean-up is required around the existing damage. Rusted steel needs more prep. A gate that’s been welded by three previous people needs more correction. We quote this honestly.

Every job includes the weld, grinding and smoothing the repair, rust prep, and a coat of paint or primer matched to the surrounding finish. The price is quoted and agreed before any work starts. No trip charge inside the county. Every weld carries our 90-Day Done Right Promise in writing. And if you’re over 60 or a veteran, the standing 10% discount applies.

We don’t hand you a phone quote and then change it at the door. The number we give you is the number on the invoice. Hal Gatewood’s name is on it.

DIY or Call Us?

You can safely check a few things before you pick up the phone. Look for an obvious crack at a weld, loose bolts at the mounting plate, and a gate that binds when you push it by hand with the opener disconnected. If the gate drags or catches without the opener attached, the problem is mechanical, not the opener, and you’ll save a service call by addressing that first.

What you should not do: weld a gate opener arm with a hardware-store buzz box and no experience with thin-gauge steel welding. We’ve re-done plenty of DIY welds that looked like bubble gum and failed inside a month. We’ve also seen people wire an opener arm on with fence wire and call it fixed. It wasn’t fixed. The tension on a gate opener arm is real, and a failed repair means a gate that can swing into a car, a kid, or a fence line. If you’re unsure, don’t guess. Just give me a call – I’ll pick up.

Our number is (817) 241-4067. Tell us the model, how the gate is behaving, and we’ll tell you straight whether it’s a $200 re-weld or a different problem entirely.

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