stretching farm fence

Bird · Jun 21, 2004

( Both times ten inch Cresent fence pliers landed square on the bridge of my nose. First time I saw bells and heard stars. Second time I lost all sense of pride and cried, big tears, loud boohoos too. )

/forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gifI can sure identify with that. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

MF1455v · Jun 21, 2004

( For dispensing the wire I use an idea I stole from one of our TBN'rs that's much smarter than me. )

Harv, glad you mentioned this, I did the same thing. I took this idea from you and made me one. Use it on pallet forks on my tractor. It works great. I did use a larger plate (little over 2ft across)on the bottom for wire to rest on. Did not get any hang ups on 200ft roll of 48in no climb wire.

Thanks for posting your projects. This one saved me a lot of time and energy.

Poppa · Jun 21, 2004

Harv, thanks for the pics and the stroll.

Spent last spring putting in my first and only fence. 1800 lineal feet. Wood posts ten feet on center. I drilled all the holes in a day with a rented skid-steer. Then spent three weeks placing, plumbing and back pounding each post. with a tamper bar. Three different guys came out to help at three different times. Each time they would help with a few posts, I would look at THEIR work on MY fence, suggest we had done enough for the day and feed them a few beers and my thanks. Some posts got tamped in twice.

Vividly remember tamping in post 189. She ended up being the end post of a 670 foot straight run, down and back up a swale. I am very proud of how you can stand at one end and not see any posts peeking around their neighbors, just a row of soldier heads going down and then climbing back up. Don't know if that makes sense. Guess a picture would help. As a Newbie to fencing, I though the hard part was over.

Then I went and bought seven, 330 foot rolls of thirty-nine inch field fence and a mile of barbless. I could have used only six rolls of the field fence but I loathed the idea of splicing. I did one, it's at the far end of the property, out of the way where only I and my neighbor might see it and I still spent an hour or so just making that look right. Must have worked cause I had to point it out to the neighbor and my Dad. The first day of pulling wire my hands hurt. The second day they bled. The third day my head bled from being tired and not watching out for how fast a roll of wire can re-wind itself. Apparently took a nap cause I woke up tangled in field fence. Don't know how I didn't loose an eye, I guess God must have wanted me to have both.

My longest pull was 220 feet. Did that on purpose cause I too knew it had to be tight to be right. Moved the rolls around with my daughters wagon since there wasn't a tractor then. Learned that unwinding a roll downhill is a thousand times easier than unwinding one up hill.

Anyway, I am still proud of that fence a year later and will take every complement that gets handed to it. I walk the length of it twice a day with the dog. Partly to appease the dog and partly to appease my own ego. Don't mean to equate my work with your art but just wanted you to know that I can appreciate yours for what it is.

Thanks again, Mike

turnkey4099 · Jun 24, 2004

re: the tightening pliers. I saw a commercial one used by an old man. The fence was mostly lying on the ground, posts mostly held up by the wire. He just walked along doing 3-4 crimps between what posts there were. A fem minutes and he had a tight fence.

I went home, grabbed a pair of vice grips (why do they call them a pair when there is only one?), welded matched pieces of angle to the jars. Works great and I don't have a problem with pinched fingers. I have suggested this to other people but they don't seem to listen. I guess one demonstration is required before the light dawns.

Harry K

rockyridgefarm · Jun 24, 2004

Love the fence, Harv!

Mine has very little slack, but I will get to crimping...

How about the bottem of the vmesh. Can it contact the ground, or stay up off it?

Why did you place the fabric on the outside of the posts, are there not critters gonna be pushing on it?

I have a really cool saddle quide that i clamp to the post, and then trace round about it with my flame wrench. Sure makes fast work of those saddles...

Sure hope to get a post pounder someday. I don't like the FEL approach... Right now I do those by hand. Sure annoying to hit limestone that way...

polecat · Jun 24, 2004

As always harv!!!!! beautiful work!!! /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

wroughtn_harv · Jun 25, 2004

Morning Mike,

I have about six or so different "Sure--Cuts". I use them for two and seven eighths only anymore. For the two and three eighths I have the Vogel notcher. I think it's in "build it yourself" or "projects" but I have a thread on all the techniques I use to notch pipe. A lot of the time I'll use a portaband and that works fine too. If you have to do a pipe that you don't have a template for I have a trick. I butt the pipe perpendicular. Measure the distance between contact points outside. I then go back that distance to start the notch.

I like to keep the fabric off the dirt. For horses it's generally recommended to keep it up six inches to a foot up. If given the opportunity I'll keep it four inches or so up. This makes trimming under it easier too.

This fence isn't about livestock. It's about image. He went with the fabric over pipe frame because of cost. Then he went with the V Mesh because I gave him the option of it or non climb. But when I do livestock fence I try to put the fabric where the livestock are pushing against the framework and not just the fabric.

I think most folks would be surprised at how much abuse a fence gets from even pet farm stock. This was brought home to me by some white goats and a new non climb fence a bud put up. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Fence fabric is a great brush--rub--massager.

bgott · Jun 25, 2004

There is something to think about when stretching fence that I've never seen mentioned here. This only is a factor when you live in an area that sees close to zero degrees or below temperatures. You can stretch a fence too tight. You get out there on a 98 degree day and stretch that fence tight, pluck it like a guitar string tight. The first day the temperature bottoms out those strands snap and give themselves shrinkin' room. Then you get to go back and fix 'em in that nasty cold so that no livestock get the urge to warm themselves up by taking a little stroll. Or because the rancher you did the work for decides having you fix it at 10 below will be good positive reinforcement of a lesson he figures you should have known. Then you have to go back in the summer to stretch it again because wire doesn't stretch worth a durn at 10 below. Just a little lesson I learned about doing fencing after moving from Northern California where it gets down to 20 above at the most to Central Nevada where you can see 40 below on occasion.

Poppa · Jun 25, 2004

I get some of that weather related problem. Luckily, before I stretched my fence, my neighbor told me about hearing wire pop at 15 below. i thought she was a little crazy but this winter when we actually had two mornings at 15 below, that wire was like a bow string. Of course now that it is 85 above it feels like limp spaghetti and I have to tighten but not TOOOOO much.

Mike

Slamfire · Jun 27, 2004

(
The will also pinch. In fact from someone who knows take it that they can do more damage with an accidental pinch than a framing hammer with a serated head can do on purpose.
)

I've seen what a 32 oz. Vaughn does to a thumb, full swing by a pro. I won't call you a liar, but he's in another line of work now.