I wanted a fence stretcher

[Raul-02]

I bought two rolls of 60" fixed knot fencing. I want to stretch it for my garden. but fence stretchers seemed as rare as hen's teeth on he used market.
Don't want to pay retail cos I may never use it again. The wedge boards are too short - at least the ones I've seen.

So I was thinking about building my own version of the kind that unspool the fencing and clamp for stretching off a 3-point.
FULL STOP
I have 2 ten foot pieces of 3/8" thick angle iron that I can use to gri the fence wires. I have a grapple.
I stuck a 2x4 in the tines of the grapple and fiddled with it. I may not even need a come along if I use the hydraulics to pull the fence evenly.
Job done, no purchase needed.
I could use hooks on the bucket too. with chain and a come-along for the upper.

 

[Wyobuckaroo]

Adapt, persevier, overcome....

Outstanding..

 

[Topzide]

All good ideas! Think outside the box to get task done. Use that gray matter between your ears to problem solve! They need to start teaching that in schools again! I work on things all the time that call for special tools, would go broke if I had to buy them. Use what I have or use welder and cheaper tools to cut and weld together what I need. I always look at yard sales for hand tools. Have made some crazy wrench combos to carry on tractors. 6mm box with 14 mm open. That way I can carry what I might need without carrying the whole shop! JM2C.

 

[Egon]

A couple of 2x6 and a come along work nicely!

 

[Birdhunter1]

The last fence job I did where I had to put up woven wire I used two 2x4's and 4 1/2" carriage bolts 6" long. The oven wire gets sandwiched between the boards that are bolted together, a winch pulling on it at the top and bottom and it will pull the wire nice and tight. I don't do enough woven wire to have a desire to buy the stretcher bar for woven wire.

 

[flyerdan]

I was making some adjustable saw stands a while ago and since I had everything set up I whipped up a set of fingers for stretching woven wire fencing. With a chunk of rebar or some heavy bar stock it should work just as well on welded wire.

 

[Birdhunter1]

I was making some adjustable saw stands a while ago and since I had everything set up I whipped up a set of fingers for stretching woven wire fencing. With a chunk of rebar or some heavy bar stock it should work just as well on welded wire.

View attachment 734110

That is a good build for this purpose.

 

[grsthegreat]

i made my own from scrap about 25 years ago. just some old angle iron and rebar, with 3 x 1/2" bolts with wing nuts. has always worked great.

 

[Raul-02]

two 2x4's and 4 1/2" carriage bolts

I've seen that. I don't think it'll hold up to a real good stretch. I intend to pull on it real hard.

 

[Raul-02]

st some old angle iron and rebar, with 3 x 1/2" bolts with wing nuts.

Yup I'm doin' sumpin like that.
I'm going to use the angle to help facilitate the locking I'll nest them together with the fence in between bending the fence in the angle.

You have square posts looks like you set it in concrete. Tell me when you set your H braces up did you run the wire around the square posts? Or did you drill the posts and go through them. I'm of two minds about that.

 

[grsthegreat]

I went around the post with the x brace wire.

 

[ruffdog]

The last fence job I did where I had to put up woven wire I used two 2x4's and 4 1/2" carriage bolts 6" long. The oven wire gets sandwiched between the boards that are bolted together, a winch pulling on it at the top and bottom and it will pull the wire nice and tight. I don't do enough woven wire to have a desire to buy the stretcher bar for woven wire.

That is the same type stretcher I have and I pulled for everything my RTV900 had in her. My dad used his come-a-long with it too.

 

[jyoutz]

The last fence job I did where I had to put up woven wire I used two 2x4's and 4 1/2" carriage bolts 6" long. The oven wire gets sandwiched between the boards that are bolted together, a winch pulling on it at the top and bottom and it will pull the wire nice and tight. I don't do enough woven wire to have a desire to buy the stretcher bar for woven wire.

I do it the same way.

 

[Birdhunter1]

With a rope wrapped around the 2x4 setup at the top and the bottom end you would break the wire (unless it is high tensile woven wire) before you would break the 2x4.

 

[SPaulsen]

I am getting ready to install about 2000 ft of fencing...I fabricated this to assist in unrolling and stretching the fencing material.

 

[Raul-02]

about 2000 ft of fencing..

for that much fencing the effort and cost to build that makes perfect sense.
And odds are you will use it more than a few times going forward.

Nice Build BTW

Keep a good eye on that weld at the bottom. I don't see a tab connecting that upright to the top link. If that weld on the bottom is the only thing holding it to the triangle you might end up needing more. even a bit of chain or steel cable would likely do.

 

[SPaulsen]

for that much fencing the effort and cost to build that makes perfect sense.
And odds are you will use it more than a few times going forward.

Nice Build BTW

Keep a good eye on that weld at the bottom. I don't see a tab connecting that upright to the top link. If that weld on the bottom is the only thing holding it to the triangle you might end up needing more. even a bit of chain or steel cable would likely do.

Thanks much for the catch on that...I actually used some all-threads and bars to mechanically attached to the 3pt. On the bottom weld, I used trailer receiver extended channel and welded a 14" trailer hitch raw bar to give more strength.

 

[Raul-02]

unless it is high tensile woven wire)

mine is high tensile. https://images.kencove.us/prod/product/assets/WDN10-6BB.pdf

 

[ruffdog]

High-tensile woven fence.....interesting.

 

[Birdhunter1]

I've seen that. I don't think it'll hold up to a real good stretch. I intend to pull on it real hard.

mine is high tensile. https://images.kencove.us/prod/product/assets/WDN10-6BB.pdf

The only reason that I had said that is I've never messed with high tensile woven wire but what I've read on it and watched on Youtube they've always used a very stout stretching bar. That being said it has always been from a person that does alot of it.

A year ago when my 12 year son and I were tearing out about 700' of it on my farm I told him if you ever see me putting this stuff up you can be assured I'm getting paid well for it, 2 months later I had a job come up that the person wanted about 300' of it (non high tensile). I don't like putting it up, maintaining it, tearing it out or looking at it. All that is left standing on my farm is between a neighbor and I for about 1/4 mile along my driveway that will come out at some point, its massively overgrown and no livestock is against either side so no hurry or desire on getting it out anytime soon.

As for me I do alot of high tensile wire and am very well versed in how tough it is, I can only imagine HT woven wire is some stout stuff.