Earth to Don (centex) are you out there?

[Bird]

Harv, with much weight and leverage, you oughta be able to just push the posts into the ground and forget about drilling holes. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif And that gate is a beauty, but you oughta tell'em to tighten up the barbed wire on top.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Morning Bird,

Driven posts don't work well in norte tejas. When it dries up the clay shrinks away from the pipe and it's like a BB in a boxcar. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

As for the barbwire, well, blame me. Tight barbwire looks better. But not so tight barbwire is harder to get a handhold on when climbing over a gate. /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif So when I do a fence in barbwire for livestock I make that puppy like piano strings. And on top of a gate I usually leave a little slack so it's not so accomodating to the over the gate climbers.

 

[Bird]

Good morning, Harv. I'll have to admit I've never even thought of leaving barbed wire loose on a gate for that reason; makes sense though.

 

[centex]

That's a good looking gate. I didn't know that you were an artist too. It looks like you built a good attachment for the PHD. One thing I found out was that over time all that weight swinging around on the end of the arm will fatigue the metal and it will eventually bend unless you reinforce it. Tonight I will post a picture of the final state of mine with the extra bracing that I added after it bent. It would have been much easier to brace it before it bent.

My bullet style auger works like the step edge in that it grinds the rock into a powder. I probably do not have nearly enough down pressure to make it work like I thought it should. It would probably work much better with about 4000# of down pressure. No one had the step bit augers around here.

It was interesting to see what they did around here in the "old" days when post holes were all dug by hand. They would dig down until they reached rock that could not be broken up with the "idot bar" (so called because the guy they got to use it all day could not be too smart). They would set the post in the shallow hole and wire on a large boulder to hold it down. I took down 200' sections of fence where every post had a big rock fastened to it. I am glad we have better tools to work with today.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( One thing I found out was that over time all that weight swinging around on the end of the arm will fatigue the metal and it will eventually bend )</font>

/forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

Me too. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[wroughtn_harv]

</font><font color="blue" class="small">( I'll have to admit I've never even thought of leaving barbed wire loose on a gate for that reason)</font>

Got that from my dad Bird. He used to just shake his head when a customer would want a chainlink security fence with a top rail.

That rail stiffens that fence up enough where climbing it's a lot easier. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Same principle works with barbwire on top of a fence.

 

[centex]

Harv,

I was only able to get one picture today because my camera battery died and the spare was dead too. This is the bracing I added for the weight hanger. My weights slip on from the top so this works for me but with your style weights, this obviously won't work. Where the paint is missing is where the arm bent. I have to admit that this bend was caused by a stuborn oak tree that did not move out of my way. The real stress is at the other end of the arm. You can barely see the triangular bracing I added there. That end bent while I was digging a hole.

 

[centex]

Harv, I have attached the picture of the other end of my attachment showing the bracing I had to add after the bar fatigued and bent. That's 3/4" steel. I originally welded on the 3/4" bar on the top of the lever arm but it bent behind where this bar stopped so I added the triangular brace.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Good morning Don,

Here's a photo of the DP twelve inch auger head.

 

[wroughtn_harv]

Another.

I'll make an auger for it tonight probably. I'll be able to see how it goes tomorrow when I hopefully start drilling about two hundred holes.

It looks like it won't need much down pressure and you almost hurt inside for all the utilities down the road that will feel it's touch. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif