Board Fence Installation

[tsh3]

wroughtn_harv
Nice fences. I really like the powered rolling gates.
Could you post some info about the mechanism you use on the gates?

Thanks

 

[wroughtn_harv]

It wasn't until I was in bed last night that I recalled my latest and most unusual rail fence.

It was a little over a year ago when I got the call from a major fence company. They call me on the weird and unusual stuff.

They were doing a big project at the Ft Worth Zoo. He had to call me and rag on the architect who had come up with the idea for the longhorn pen. The whole office was up in stitches over some architect coming up with the idea of a fence with wood posts and pipe rails and it was to be done so it would look antique. It was so hilarious they wanted to share it with me.

I told him it wasn't nothing but a thing. Sounded down right fun to me. So I walked him through how I thought it had to be done step by step.

He called back a couple days later wanting to know how much I'd have to have to do it. I told him that I'd have to figure on it and I'd tentatively schedule him in for July. He said it had to be done by the tenth of May.

It was the end of April when he mentioned a number that escalated him and the project to the very front of my to do list.

So if you go to the Ft Worth Zoo and you ride the train to the Texas Wild Exhibit. When you hit the train station there you will see a big old longhorn in a pen. I did it.

We started off with eight inch eight foot split cedar posts. We drilled two and a half inch holes in the post for four rails. Each post had to be drilled as it was required because the fence is not straight. So all the holes were drilled halfway in and then a guessitimator aligned where the angle of the wrangle was going on the other side and that side was drilled.

I sat the first post. Then I measured center to center from there to the next hole and cut four two inch (2 3/8" O.D.) schedule forty pieces of pipe that length. I then drilled the next post.

Here's the good part. There's this product you can buy at wood working stores. It's called Gorilla Glue. It's meaner than an unemployed overweight mother in law at the wrong time of the month. It costs about thirty two dollars a quart and worth twice that.

Moisture activates the Gorilla Glue. So then we'd wet the holes in the posts with a spray bottle. The Gorilla Glue looks and handles about like honey. So we'd squirt a little glue on the ends of the pipes. Then we'd hammer the new post in until we had it plumb and the pipes home at both ends. Concrete in the recently set post and then start the process all over again.

The glue starts foaming up like insulation foam you get in that can in about ten minutes or so. It'd foam out of the holes. That worked really great. We came back and trimmed it off with five in one tools and other kinds of scrapers as required. Then they antiqued it and you couldn't see the hole because the foam filled in around the rail so it looked like the pipe had been nailed in.

There's three different sections of this kind of fence back there around the train station. I only did two of them. The other one was done by another crew as it was added after the Zoo saw what we were doing. That crew worked a little too fast and not up to the standards we used on my sections. I did the area inside the train turn around and the one behind the stalls. I also built the gates for the pens.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

You said, "<font color=red>Im not trying to make a fashion statement, I just want to keep the kids and their 4 wheelers out, and some small animals (goats, etc) in.</font color=red>"

You might not be wanting to make a fashion statement but you will be. The first impression folks are gonna have of you is your fence. If it needs annual maintenance and you're tardy or miss it they won't.

A rail fence isn't gonna keep in goats. I've got two buds who have six foot chainlink around their pastures. One has completely given up on keeping goats. And the other has a couple of nannys that think my Bill hung the moon. He's like the Tom Jones of the goat world in my neighborhood I guess. I can't see his allure but they show up when they develop the need.

You'd think the problem with keeping goats would be them jumping over the fence. That isn't it. They go under and through.

I've got three goats and twenty two chickens at the shop. I've found three methods of keeping goats in. The most common is a hot wire. Hot wires work when they work. Let it go off and the goats instantly know it and they're off too.

But you can't drive my goats through an open gate out of the place. And they're wilder'n March hares, can't get near them.

I found out two things worked together are the best for goats.

Sweet feed and a good cussin'. I give them a scoop of sweet feed in the morning and evening when I feed the chickens. And if they look over the fence or out the gate they get a cussin'. I'm better than the average cusser as you can guess.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

I use All o matics and AGES operators.

I go through all kinds of trouble trying my damnedest to install them where kids won't get hurt on them.

Just the thought of a kid getting killed or crippled on something I've built will make me sick for a week.

So I use a barrier beam device on them and I set the limit switches so that any pressure over normal closing needs causes them to reverse and open up.

I also make the gates a pocket to go in and out of if it is a privacy fence.

It's a lot of extra work and materials and some folks balk at the price. That's okay with me. If they can't afford to have it done right then they can't afford it to begin with and don't need it that bad. If they're too cheap to do it right then they're not my kind of customer anyway and the price was a great filter to keep us from mixing.

The problem with powered gates is they work with a simple command. They have no sense and all they do is run until they're told to shut off. If a kid gets in the mechanism the device has no conscience.

So I try to do everything to not allow innocent kids getting into the mechanism.

The other thing about powered gates is they have to have good frames and correctly installed tracks etc.

I do mine completely different from everyone else, character flaw, first to admit it.

But that twenty eight foot opening with the double gates? I've been there once in three years for a call on a problem. That problem was an operator problem, the homeowner was cleaning around the operator and accidently disconnected a wire in his enthusiasm.

I build a steel frame. I put wood on both sides of the frame if it's a privacy fence. Folks love the look inside and outside. But the logic behind the double side is kids can't climb on the gate from either side.

I build the steel frame with tabs to accept screws holding the wood frame work inside the steel frame. So if you looked at the gate from the end you'd see a full cut 2 X 4. Under it would be a 2X2 fourteen gauge piece of steel tubing. This is repeated down to the bottom of the frame. On an eight foot high gate like those in the pictures I have four horizontal rails.

Most folks use self tapping screws. It's so much easier with the nail gun. And my way you can continue nailing in your pickets as you're doing the fence. This gives it a continuity you can't have with changing over to screws just at the gate.

When you go get your rollers for the slide gate to roll on you will have the option between ten dollar Chinese and forty dollar sealed American. Buy American. There is a difference. The former is like kissing a rattlesnake. Chances are you're gonna regret it.

If up there it's like it is down here you can drive around and see disconnected powered gates all the time. It's sorta like driving by a scrap heap and you see all these cheap mowers that were thrown away and yet you never ever see a Honda in the pile. Funny how that works, quality.

 

[Soundguy]

Anyone use cresote posts anymore?

Soundguy

 

[tdenny]

Soundguy,

People around here still use railroad ties for their fences. I believe these still contain creosote. You can find them used many times in somewhat good condition and therefore are getting a very large post for a good price.