Pipe fence product

[roadhunter]

Was looking on craigs list and ran across these. Interesting product if you are trying to save time.

Pipe Fence building made easy -- no more cutting saddles

 

[AKweldshop]

Wow that is a good price.

Those would sure saved me some time....

 

[roadhunter]

I'm sure they are not for everyone as some guys are really fast at cutting thier own saddles.

 

[LD1]

$5.50 EACH........Dont seem like a good price to me, but I'm not a fence builder either. And it doubles the amount of welding you have to do, and wont leave as clean of a look.

Good way to turn trimmings that are worth $0.00001 for scrap into a nice chunk of money.

If you have alot of fencing to do, It would be easier just to buy the right equipment to make yourself. :2cents:

 

[roadhunter]

Wow that is a good price.

Those would sure saved me some time....

LOL....

 

[MMagis]

It certainly would save time cutting saddles, but it sure wouldn't look at nice. And at $5.50 each that's adding a LOT of cost to a fence.

 

[bdog]

Freehand cutting saddles takes a lot of practice to do it right. Buying a $20 jig at the welding shop makes it easy though. We welded up a whole semi load of pipe fence at my place and cutting the saddles was no problem. I would not buy these things they are not needed and for the price of four of them you could buy a jig and cut all you want. The extra time in cutting wouldn't be any worse than the double welding you would have to do and it would look nicer when finished.

 

[MMagis]

I would assume these are geared toward people that don’t understand how to cut saddles properly. Of course most folks building pipe fences should know, so the market for these has to be miniscule.

 

[roadhunter]

Hand cutting with a torch and then using a grinder to clean up is time consuming in itself not to mention swapping bottles, cleaning tips, running cords for grinder, etc.. and there is a cost for the consumables like gas, tips, grinder blades, etc... When you take all that time and expense into account you realize that there is certainly a cost for cutting your own saddles as well. Just a matter of which ends up costing more and which takes more time for your situation. Trying to manually do what a machine will do for you is not always cost effective. Minimizing fitting time and maximizing welding time can certainly help speed a project up as well.

 

[Shield Arc]

For the small stuff, I use a hole saw, or roto broach. For the big stuff, I use a wrap around, and torch.

 

[MMagis]

I assumed most people used a chop saw when building fences. I agree, cutting with a torch and cleaning with a grinder would take forever.

 

[bdog]

I can cut them faster with a torch than a chop saw. My fence at my house probably has over 1000 saddles. I never used a grinder on a single one of them. Put the jig on, trace around it with a soapstone and cut. I didn't spend over $5500 on my oxygen and acetylene like these adapter would cost either.

 

[roadhunter]

I can cut them faster with a torch than a chop saw. My fence at my house probably has over 1000 saddles. I never used a grinder on a single one of them. Put the jig on, trace around it with a soapstone and cut. I didn't spend over $5500 on my oxygen and acetylene like these adapter would cost either.

That's pretty simple math. So how long does it take you to wrap, mark, and torch both ends of piece of pipe?

 

[LD1]

I think they would look alot better and cleaner if the pieces were designed to fit INSIDE the pipe.

Basically weld the "stub" to the vertical post, the slip the horizontal piece OVER it, hiding most of it. Then weld that around.

 

[bdog]

That's pretty simple math. So how long does it take you to wrap, mark, and torch both ends of piece of pipe?

Never timed it but maybe a minute for each end? Also a ton of the saddles I cut were on the vertical posts concreted in the ground for the top rail. You don't know how high they are going to be until you set them because all holes are not drilled exactly they same nor do you want to worry about getting the saddle rotated just perfectly when concreting them in.

On the other pieces they come 32' long. Wrestling them around to put them in a chop saw is no fun either. Much easier to cut a quick saddle with a torch.

 

[flyerdan]

That would run into a lot of money if one had a lot of multi-rail fencing to do. The fixtures that use a hole saw and drill press are good for dragsters or Super Cub fuselages where you need exact fitup of compound angles, but are time consuming. If you're hammering out miles of fence in a week you need something like this, we had a standalone air operated notcher. That is a spendy bit of kit for the non-professional, if you can't snag a bargain on craigslist or somewhere.
Have to agree that it is a pretty slick way to turn idle time and scrap into a marketable product though.

 

[roadhunter]

Never timed it but maybe a minute for each end? Also a ton of the saddles I cut were on the vertical posts concreted in the ground for the top rail. You don't know how high they are going to be until you set them because all holes are not drilled exactly they same nor do you want to worry about getting the saddle rotated just perfectly when concreting them in.

On the other pieces they come 32' long. Wrestling them around to put them in a chop saw is no fun either. Much easier to cut a quick saddle with a torch.

Well if you can cut a saddle from beginning to end averaging 1 minute or less that's pretty impressive. I'm sure working on your own project is probably a different pace of work compared to hiring a welder.

If I was estimating a project like with a torch I would figure around 5 minutes per saddle in time and 50 cents in consumables. From my experience things always end up taking longer than it seems like it should and something like swapping a bottle or cleaning a tip also adds time. There are not a whole lot of tasks that any tradesman can average less than a minute completing.

I agree on the chop saw and long pieces. Seems like it woudl be difficult with anything longer than about 6-8 ft. The guys I've seen do this in the field used a porta band. With enough practice some of those guys can eyeball a nice fitting joint.