2012 - Volume #36, Issue #5, Page #26
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Simple Portable Electric Fence Posts
“It’s a simple but inexpensive and handy idea,” says Dueck. “It’s basically a 3-ft. high wooden post inserted into a 4-in. high, 10-in. dia. concrete base. The electric wire fits inside a 2-in. deep slot cut into the top of the post.
“The posts are sturdy and can withstand high winds, yet they’re easy to move by hand so we can stand them up anywhere we want. To tighten the wire we just rotate the post 2 or 3 times.”
He starts with a 10-ft. long 2 by 6 and cuts it into 6 pieces, each 2 by 3 by 40 in. long. He then drills a ½-in. dia. hole into each end of the wood pieces about 1 1/2 in. from the end. At the other end of the post, he cuts a 2-in. deep slot from the end up to the hole. Then he cuts a 10-in. dia. sono-tube concrete form into 4-in. lengths.
To assemble the post, he inserts a 6-in. length of 3/8-in. dia. rebar through the hole in the post, and then places the post with the rebar into the sono-tube. Then he mixes fast-setting post cement, fills the sono-tube, and lets it set overnight.
“You need to have some arrangement to keep the post erect as the concrete sets. Setting time varies but the cement usually sets up enough to support the posts in about 5 min. Also, you want to place some poly under the sono-tubes so the cement doesn’t adhere to the floor,” says Dueck.
“We use these posts around gardens and feedlots and to control where animals graze. They’re very simple and inexpensive. You could build 20 or 30 of these posts for $100, and they’ll last year after year.
“We got the idea because we raise a few horses and their curiosity makes them difficult to control. We got tired of the plastic commercial electric fence posts that you stick into the ground; they work well during the summer but are useless during the winter if you have frozen ground because you can’t move them around,” he notes.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Jack Dueck, Calgary, Alta., Canada (ph 403 815-9384; cgyrv@yahoo.com).
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