Lineside fencing for the Elderbury & District
Posted: Thu May 16, 2019 3:28 pm
One of the things I've always been meaning to do is add lineside fencing, but apart from a couple of small sections, good intent is as far as it got. Re-instatement of the Halt, next to the bridge over my stream inspired me to address various maintenance issues at the same time, and fencing in the area is one of them.
Years ago I bought a pack of 100, 8x8x600mm stripwood, to use for fence posts but it's been sitting unopened until now.
I was reluctant to simply plant posts in the ground, knowing they would soon move and rot, as the ground and wildlife did their thing, and I didn't want to drill holes in the trackbase for much the same reasons. So I designed two different types of push fit sockets. One to be glued to the top of the trackbase and the other to be fixed to the side as necessary. These were then 3D printed in batches of 9 at a time, taking just under 3 hours per batch. I needed 6 batches in total. The sockets were separated, painted and glued to the trackbase using Stixall. The top-mounted ones were then additionally ballasted in, using SBR. The side-mounted ones were subsequently buried in a cast mortar stone retaining wall. The posts were cut to length and marked for the positions of the wires. The simplest way to fix the wires to the post is of course simply to drill holes right through and thread the wires, but to do this the holes have to be relatively large and anyway real post and wire fences aren't generally constructed like that, the wires are stapled to the face of the posts. To simulate this I bought some 1mm diam x 6mm long, split pins. Holes were then drilled into each post at the required spacings. Diagonal strain posts were added to the two end posts and a couple of centre ones, and they were all dunked in Creocote ( Creosote substitute) for 24 hours and left outside to dry for a few days.
For the fence wires I used grey coloured, woven, 100lb fishing line, which is 0.55mm diameter and looks reasonably like twisted strand fence wire. I cut 3 lengths of line slightly longer than the length of fencing and tied a knot in both ends of each ( Most important, you'll see why shortly). Next comes the fiddly bit, getting the line through the split rings. It's virtually impossible to actually thread them, but by using a pair of fine foreceps and putting one point into the 'eye', it's possible to lodge the longer leg on top of the line and by pushing down, it springs onto the line and can then be pushed right on. It's easier to do than to describe, honestly!
The longest section of fencing worked out at 24 posts long, which requires 24 split pins on each wire and you do NOT want them to start falling off the end of the line before you've finished, hence the need for the knot at each end!
The posts were retrieved from the garden and assembly began by squeezing a small quantity of Gorilla glue onto an old pot lid. The first split pin on the first wire was touched into the glue and then pushed into the top hole in the first post. This was then repeated on subsequent posts, all the way to the end of the section. The second and third wires were then attached in the same way. The wires were tied off at one end only, a dab of glue was applied to fix each knot and the whole lot was left to set overnight.
It is then simply a case of starting at the knotted end, pushing each post into a socket and easing them along the wires until you come to the far end with, if you get it right, a few inches of each wire left free at the last post. These can then be gently pulled tight, tied off and glued.
Years ago I bought a pack of 100, 8x8x600mm stripwood, to use for fence posts but it's been sitting unopened until now.
I was reluctant to simply plant posts in the ground, knowing they would soon move and rot, as the ground and wildlife did their thing, and I didn't want to drill holes in the trackbase for much the same reasons. So I designed two different types of push fit sockets. One to be glued to the top of the trackbase and the other to be fixed to the side as necessary. These were then 3D printed in batches of 9 at a time, taking just under 3 hours per batch. I needed 6 batches in total. The sockets were separated, painted and glued to the trackbase using Stixall. The top-mounted ones were then additionally ballasted in, using SBR. The side-mounted ones were subsequently buried in a cast mortar stone retaining wall. The posts were cut to length and marked for the positions of the wires. The simplest way to fix the wires to the post is of course simply to drill holes right through and thread the wires, but to do this the holes have to be relatively large and anyway real post and wire fences aren't generally constructed like that, the wires are stapled to the face of the posts. To simulate this I bought some 1mm diam x 6mm long, split pins. Holes were then drilled into each post at the required spacings. Diagonal strain posts were added to the two end posts and a couple of centre ones, and they were all dunked in Creocote ( Creosote substitute) for 24 hours and left outside to dry for a few days.
For the fence wires I used grey coloured, woven, 100lb fishing line, which is 0.55mm diameter and looks reasonably like twisted strand fence wire. I cut 3 lengths of line slightly longer than the length of fencing and tied a knot in both ends of each ( Most important, you'll see why shortly). Next comes the fiddly bit, getting the line through the split rings. It's virtually impossible to actually thread them, but by using a pair of fine foreceps and putting one point into the 'eye', it's possible to lodge the longer leg on top of the line and by pushing down, it springs onto the line and can then be pushed right on. It's easier to do than to describe, honestly!
The longest section of fencing worked out at 24 posts long, which requires 24 split pins on each wire and you do NOT want them to start falling off the end of the line before you've finished, hence the need for the knot at each end!
The posts were retrieved from the garden and assembly began by squeezing a small quantity of Gorilla glue onto an old pot lid. The first split pin on the first wire was touched into the glue and then pushed into the top hole in the first post. This was then repeated on subsequent posts, all the way to the end of the section. The second and third wires were then attached in the same way. The wires were tied off at one end only, a dab of glue was applied to fix each knot and the whole lot was left to set overnight.
It is then simply a case of starting at the knotted end, pushing each post into a socket and easing them along the wires until you come to the far end with, if you get it right, a few inches of each wire left free at the last post. These can then be gently pulled tight, tied off and glued.