My pipe fence project is under way

rf33 · Aug 8, 2002

I finally got the time to start setting some posts this week on my fence project. Let me start out by saying that perhaps the end of July/beginning of August is not the best time to start a large scale outdoor project in Texas. It has been hovering around 98 degrees for the last two weeks, and it has been pretty slow going. I am setting the posts about 3' in the ground and putting 2 - 80# bags of sacrete per hole. I am mixing the cement in a wheelbarrow, then dumping the cement in each hole. Next I line up the post and level it. So far I have gotten all of the corner posts set, and have set about 80 more posts. I figure that I have about 300 left to go now.

Did I mention that it has been hot here?

I have attached a picture showing some of the posts I have gotten set so far. They still have not been cut for height.

rf33 · Aug 8, 2002

Here is a picture of a set of gate posts. These are 4 7/8" OD pipe, and man are they heavy. I set the gate posts about 4' in the ground, and used 3 - 80# bags of cement per hole for these. These gates are not too heavy (about 80 lbs per gate), so I think that this should be fine for these gates. For the front entry gate which is pretty heavy (about 200 lbs), I think I will have to try to set them close to 8' deep.

Casimir · Aug 8, 2002

rf33---

You can solve part of your problem by running cable (wire rope) from the top of the gate post to the bottom of the adjacent post and putting in a turnbuckle that will allow you to tighten the cable as the weight of the gate causes the post to begin to lean. A solid horizontal bar between the two posts will also increase the strength, but the real advantage comes from the triangle affect of the cable pulling the top of the gate post toward the bottom of the adjacent post. The turnbuckle also provides for adjustments a year or so down the road, to keep the gate level and swinging properly. A second cable and turnbuckle from the gate post to the bottom of the far end of the gate will keep the gate from sagging, also. I hate sagging gates /w3tcompact/icons/clever.gif/w3tcompact/icons/tongue.gif.

bmac · Aug 8, 2002

Is there an invasion pending that I'm not aware of? Man, that ought to be one sturdy fence. I'm tired just from reading about the work you have done. Looks nice.

Kodiak · Aug 8, 2002

I just knew that sooner or later that someone would come up with a commercial use for rhinocerous. However the logistic of ranching them appear to be tremendous.

wroughtn_harv · Aug 9, 2002

Morning Ron,

I'm glad to see you're getting after it. My wife has asked me a time or two maybe three about what that nice man from east Texas was up to. In the mornings as I'm TBN'n she reads over my shoulder as she irons her clothes for the day.

Yesterday they brought me in four lifts (bundles) of two and seven eighths for posts. I've got a job I'm starting in Weatherford in a bit or so. I've got to cope (notch) all the ends here at the shop with the plasma torch.

What I've got going is four thousand feet of pipe rail fence. Two and seven eighths schedule twenty pipe that's high tensile steel powdercoated a black vinyl. Ten foot centers but the kick is it's only twenty inches high. I'm gonna be a sore kneed old boy by the time this one is done. Right now I'm looking at a thousand to twelve hundred eighty pound sacks of Maximizer going through the mixer on this one. The holes are spec'd at three feet deep and one foot across.

It's a barrier fence around the new high school there. So if you or anyone in a couple of weeks is passing through Weatherford on twenty and up ahead you see this blue streak. Well, you'll know I'm on the job.

wroughtn_harv · Aug 9, 2002

Russ I've put in lots of fences just like Ron is doing here in norte tejas. They do it unlike any where else. First thing is the pipe is usually reasonably priced. Used to be it was used drill stem but since all the decent of that has long been used up it's new stuff now. I guess it all started because there were plenty of used pipe around and half the male population was either fitters, weldors, or roughnecks. And since the weldors are always hansome and the most charming. Folks just liked having them around the place working, mostly the women folks.

A fence like Ron is putting in will be maintenance free for fifteen to twenty years. And then the maintenance will be painting. He won't have to worry about the hot wire grounding out or just going dead. Worms and bugs are a nonissue of course. Well, unless he leaves the ends of the pipe unplugged. Then he'll have wasps and spiders but they don't eat much but bugs.

The cost of a good pipe fence is just about the same or less than a good wood or plastic fence for livestock. The difference is the pipe one will last for darn near ever. But I guess the biggest reason for the pipe fencing is because they can.

Some time back I had a customer call me for some ideas on a problem he had with his more a pet than a ride paint gelding. It seems the little fella had found out that all he had to do was to lean and keep on leaning and the fence would eventually break and he could be a hero leading the mares into the neighbor's pasture. Customer had kept on replacing boards but it hadn't worked.

I replaced the pretty four board fence with a pipe one. Made myself one nice little enemy of that paint. He wasn't a one trick pony. But it was his favoritest one.

I've watched a beefmaster bull walk through a standard barbwire fence. Just go through the middle of it one leg at a time like it wasn't nothing but a thing. Of course when it came time for the back end coming through all us guys cringed over what coulda but didn't happen. Just made us hurt clean clear through top to bottom if'n you understand that stuff. Putting one's equipment at such risk makes the prudent and proud of us real nervous.

I've seen a longhorn walk over a five rail pipe gate like you get at TSC. Just walk right up to it and make it into a pretzel just cause he could and the gals wanted whatever was on the other side.

One time a friend told me to keep an eye out for a frontloader. I was up in far norte tejas, around Telephone in fact. There on a country road was some equipment for sale. Amongst that equipment was a relatively new frontloader. An old boy was there feeding the animals so I came to a stop and a visit.

He explained the reason the stuff was for sale was the owner, a nice young man with a family and such, was now a quadraplegic. It seems a neighbor's cow was on the highway after dark and the boy's small car was about the right size to catch the cow perfectly wrong.

Sometimes a pipe fence isn't just about cause you can but also about cause you should.

Egon · Aug 9, 2002

Pipe fence.
Anyplace there are oil fields worn out tubing and sucker rods are used to make fences and corrals. Usually the tubing is used for posts and sucker rods for rails. They work very well and last and last and last.

For a sturdy gate make the hinge post about twice as tall as the gate and use the bracing method previously described. Also Make the hinge gate post taller and run bracing from the top of it to the top of the free end of the gate. This all depends on wide the gate is.

Egon

rf33 · Aug 9, 2002

Good Morning Harv,

Sorry I have been out of touch for a while, but we have been awfully busy around here, both with work, and with our house getting pretty close to done. We are looking to move in to the house in around 6 weeks.

Boy that fence in Weatherford sounds like lots of work/w3tcompact/icons/frown.gif. I am sure that it will look great when you are done with it Harv./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

I had a question for ya, if you don't mind? I know you like to join your top rail only over a post, but my thought was to use short pieces of slightly smaller pipe (maybe 2' or so) which would fit pretty close inside the other pipe, and tack them half way inside one piece, and make a sort of a connector to hold the two pieces in position while welding the two together. Any thoughts?

Thanks everybody for the advise on hanging the gates. I am somewhat familiar with the diagonal bracing methods, but would like to have as little cable as possible around, as the ends which always seem to fray, can be a little rough on horses, kids, etc.

And Harv, thanks for the wonderful explanation on the merits of pipe fence. Oftentimes it really does seem like overkill, but there is certainly a time when too much is just about enough./w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif

heehaw · Aug 9, 2002

very interesting, i have been watching the guy a neighbor hired to put in a pipe fence, he puts the pipes in with the same type tool i use on T-post...no hole diggin or concrete..and so far, it appears he puts them to the correct height, or at least they all sure look like the same height??
heehaw