Latestarter's ramblings/musings/gripes and grumbles.

[greybeard]

I could cut a couple thousand pieces of wire from the roll I bought to use for "H" tensioning... Then "twist tie" the damned fence to the T posts...

Been there, done it, got the memory of really sore hands as the stupid prize.
In 2011, it was dry as bone here and everyone and their uncle was building/rebuilding fence. You couldn't find wooden or tee posts or teepost clips here. Finally went up to Producers at Bryan and got lucky and came home with enough Tee posts to do my job but they didn't have any clips.
I had a little roll of 12.5ga ht, maybe 10 coils in the roll so I made a bunch of tie offs all around the roll with safety wire so the thing wouldn't turn into an unbound slinky when I cut it. Drug my chop saw out and started cutting, 10 at a time and in about 10 minutes probably had 1000 pieces 6 inches long. Never again!! Clips are an alloy, something in them to make em easy to bend. That HT was stiff as could be and worked me to death and they didn't really pull down tight against the post either.

Speaking of tee post clips...I've posed a query up in the fencing section maybe some of you can answer for me.
https://www.backyardherds.com/threads/yalls-turn-to-help-me-with-a-fence-question.37628/

 

[Bruce]

I'm surprised you are having so much trouble with the TSC fence clips @Latestarter. Generally speaking, once I had worked with them some, I found they work pretty well. On field fence, cattle panels are a WHOLE different story. What kind of bender are you using? I have the one @greybeard doesn't like (IIRC)

 

[Mike CHS]

I have gotten a few bags where you can tell there was some QA issues with the manufacturers process. Sometime the ends had a bad cut (burr on the end) and I've had them where one of the legs needed to be bent out a bit but that is fairly fast. I think I have a barrel full of them so just toss the bad ones.

 

[Latestarter]

My bender is a ~5" long "rod" with the last ~2" flattened out and three different sized holes drilled through to work with different gauge wire. You slip the end of the wire in the appropriate hole then twirl the tool around the horizontal wire of the fence to bend/wrap the clip. The clip wire slips through the hole as you go, until the end of the clip comes out of the hole. Works like a champ on the fence ends around the wood posts.

 

[Bruce]

I think the thing that makes the one I have work well for the clips is you can stick the rounded end in the bigger loop (after hooking the shorter loop over the wire on the other side of the post) and pushing the big loop past the wire on the other side. It gives a lot of leverage to get the twist started and you don't have to feed the wire through a hole. Because it articulates, you can get 1 full twist on before moving the tool. At that point you have to stick the wire in the hole and go one twist at a time or do some fancy swiveling. Most likely the one you have would be easier to finish the twisting since it can just go round and round. And of course the one I have isn't so good on clips close to the ground.

 

[Mike CHS]

I prefer the one Bruce has for T-post clips but prefer the one @Latestarter has for the post wire wraps.

 

[Bruce]

I SUPPOSE a fencer COULD have 2 types

 

[greybeard]

I can go just as fast and easy with a pair of these with shortened handles.
https://www.amazon.com/Tools-VISE-GRIP-Pliers-Cutting-2078904/dp/B000JNNVP4

There is no need to twist the teepost clip ends more than one turn around the wire anyway.
Just be careful. My wife was 'helping' me one evening on a long run of HT Gaucho wire and she tightened one of the tee post clips so tight it broke the fence wire.

 

[Latestarter]

she tightened one of the tee post clips so tight it broke the fence wire.

No problem with the gripple... just gripple (splice) in a new piece to cover the break...

 

[Latestarter]

I just checked Bruce and they supposedly have the type you have (that GB doesn't like) at TSC, in stock. I'll take a run over there tomorrow and pick one up. Just watched a youtube of it being used and it makes it look quite simple and fast. I also have one of those thumb press types that I got from Fred when I visited him. I tried that and it may work great on welded wire but doesn't work at all on the braided wire.

The weather is supposed to go all to hell again starting Sunday. Right now the wind is blowing pretty good. I have the whole house opened up & it says it's 69° right now. So I think tomorrow I'm going to do my best to get that rotted post replaced before I have to deal with a flooded hole again. I checked it yesterday and it still had some water in the bottom.