State of the Game

Darth Ender

D
ubermick said:
There are still some exceptions to the rule, but technology creep is slowly ruining them. I had an Audi S4 that I absolutely adored until some eejit (that's fer you, nemo!) ploughed into the back of me doing 40mph while I was sitting in traffic. (On his phone. In an uninsured car. On a suspended license. While out on bail.) I've since gotten a Golf R which is an absolutely fun car, but they took the proper handbrake out and replaced it with a little button to press. And it's a tiptronic with flappy paddles, since manual gearboxes are getting more and more difficult to find.

Pair that with my wife's Kia EV which is as soulless a piece of machinery as you're likely to find.

California over here's decided that as of 2030, no more petrol powered cars to be sold. Which, y'know, great for the environment I'm all for that, but until they all have a universally decent range and can be charged quickly instead of needing hours and hours to be plugged in...
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driving isn't about having fun anymore. it's just an appliance you use because safety and environment outranks personal freedom given the quantity of participants involved.

the golden age of being a gear head for cars and driving is over. Which sucks, because i am one ... but i also hate ICE and how much modern ones are a barrier to DIY. So i'm not sad to see them go.

i dont mind the end of gas powered (new) cars in 2030. even if it takes hours to charge ...with cars with 400+mile range, that would more than cover the driving we've had to do out here in the past 7 years. and for the singular instances where i'm doing something else, we'd just have to use some other mode of travel to avoid intermittent recharging (assuming it's not super fast). public transportation as annoying and inconvenient as it is, is kind of the only real solution to vehicular pollution and cost-creep ...so we'll adapt.
 

Darth Ender

D
Bottom Hat said:
@Darth Ender

Serious question to be unusual - can I offer any advice on helping with your fence for the sexpond? I've done a few fences before and we get some really bad winter wind down here on the coast, and they have only ever gone when the wooden panels rot, the posts do a good twenty years.

First up, what is your ground like, and how tall are your posts; along with what type of post and panel are you using - do they have any wind breaker features? I know a lot of panels in the East end Midwest have slatted boards that alternate to allow some wind pressure to pass, unlike the ones we get here.

I can give you some numbers, and more in a pm if you want some non-condescending advice, as I really am not taking the mick with this - fences are bigassed jobs and it sucks donkeyballs when they fail, so I can understand how frustrated you must be.

Rule of thumb I was taught was to go down one third of the above ground height, normally to 2 feet, but don't forget to add a couple of inches of gravel below for drainage. Perhaps as importantly though is that the hole is 3x the diameter of the pole, but more if using narrow poles. This is for bracing really.

Anyway, let me know if I can offer any help, as a lot is often missed if you follow YouTube stuff if you know what I mean, especially if you aren't doing a dead straight line.
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We went with a curtain setup so we can draw them when not in use. so we have 10ft poles positioned about 10ft apart bolted to concrete footings that are buried in the ground. The problem is, i only buried the concrete footings about 90% of their total height into the ground and packed it back down with dry dirt. So when i had left the curtains up, even drawn, the force of the wind was enough to just torque the footings and push the dirt up without much problem. (the footings are like pyramids).

I think i'll need to bury them a bit deeper (can't bury them all the way)... but more importantly, i need to really pack them in properly and most importantly, take the curtains down completely when the winds are getting super strong like that again.

In the end, i'd rather them have done what they did rather than break. It was my mistake for leaving the curtains on there at all.. it's not a setup designed to handle very strong winds and never will be.
 

Manticore

Manticore
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Darth Ender

D

Darth Ender

D
nemolomen said:
Report it...you know you want to...what did rootsrat change reiterate the forum rules to say again?

State of the Game

A little birdie tells me he'll be back at some point. You didn't hear it from me.
forums.frontier.co.uk
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i've only reported 1 thing in the 7 years i've been in this forum. and that was an emergency. Rules are otherwise for mods to deal with. i'm not a volunteer.
 

xzanfr

xzanfr

Bottom Hat

Bottom Hat
Rubbernuke said:
Hate? Its cool. You are bonding over fencing, the manliest of all DIY
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Okey dokey mate - I just didn't want to bore people to death! Here is what I wrote to Ender about fixing them beyond the previous post (pun intended) - I have left out the parts about the man-love and bromance, and where the two of us go from here....!


I get what you're describing - I think you have the main issue though, leaving the curtains up.

If I'm honest, with the height of the poles, I'd definitely go deeper, to two feet, and probably make them wider but straight instead of pyramid shaped. I realize why you went for the shape you did, but it seems vertical and wide does the job.

In terms of compacting the dirt, did you compact below the post? Really tamp it down hard, very very firmly, then add a couple of inches of gravel. When you pour the concrete on this, it binds the gravel and works like a huge bunch of fingers gripping into the dirt beneath, but the gravel stops any standing water from eating away at the footing if you see what I'm describing.

So the idea of bolting the poles to the footing is fine, no problem at all - make sure to leave a couple of days after pouring before putting the fixings on though, just so it has time to set and settle, as the crystalline formation takes longer than the setting appearance suggests.

What is the gap between the bolts? Presuming they form a square. This is the measurement to triple for the width of the hole. Ie a 3" bolt gap should give a hole 9" across. Square holes are much stronger too from the corner shape giving better bracing. Hire one of those hole digger tools if you can (rabbit holer, or post hole cutter - they have two shovel faces facing each other that grab the dirt) as it really helps your back when going deeper. Then square the hole with a normal shovel and use the rabbit holer to remove the crap. You can hire tamping poles too for firming the base, but a bit of heavy wood on a pole is cheaper to make!

So that is the main advice mate. Getting the depth, width, and sturdiness of the base below the concrete pour is really critical for long life. But reducing the drag from the curtains is clear too as you said - but that's already obvious to you!!

Hope this helps anyway, and as above I won't be offended if you don't want to do this - I just wanted to pass on the tricks that were passed to me :)


Ps - you'll probably need more concrete mix too. Get the ballast portion right as if helps gripping the sides, but always give it a little time to set well before attaching the bolts, so they don't cut off and smooth the concrete around the threads. Get a good length bolt too obviously!
You can cover the concrete top with dirt, turf, gravel if you want, but that's aesthetics. Just go for a good depth.

Let me know how you get on buddy :)
 

Rubbernuke

Rubbernuke
Bottom Hat said:
Okey dokey mate - I just didn't want to bore people to death! Here is what I wrote to Ender about fixing them beyond the previous post (pun intended) - I have left out the parts about the man-love and bromance, and where the two of us go from here....!


I get what you're describing - I think you have the main issue though, leaving the curtains up.

If I'm honest, with the height of the poles, I'd definitely go deeper, to two feet, and probably make them wider but straight instead of pyramid shaped. I realize why you went for the shape you did, but it seems vertical and wide does the job.

In terms of compacting the dirt, did you compact below the post? Really tamp it down hard, very very firmly, then add a couple of inches of gravel. When you pour the concrete on this, it binds the gravel and works like a huge bunch of fingers gripping into the dirt beneath, but the gravel stops any standing water from eating away at the footing if you see what I'm describing.

So the idea of bolting the poles to the footing is fine, no problem at all - make sure to leave a couple of days after pouring before putting the fixings on though, just so it has time to set and settle, as the crystalline formation takes longer than the setting appearance suggests.

What is the gap between the bolts? Presuming they form a square. This is the measurement to triple for the width of the hole. Ie a 3" bolt gap should give a hole 9" across. Square holes are much stronger too from the corner shape giving better bracing. Hire one of those hole digger tools if you can (rabbit holer, or post hole cutter - they have two shovel faces facing each other that grab the dirt) as it really helps your back when going deeper. Then square the hole with a normal shovel and use the rabbit holer to remove the crap. You can hire tamping poles too for firming the base, but a bit of heavy wood on a pole is cheaper to make!

So that is the main advice mate. Getting the depth, width, and sturdiness of the base below the concrete pour is really critical for long life. But reducing the drag from the curtains is clear too as you said - but that's already obvious to you!!

Hope this helps anyway, and as above I won't be offended if you don't want to do this - I just wanted to pass on the tricks that were passed to me :)


Ps - you'll probably need more concrete mix too. Get the ballast portion right as if helps gripping the sides, but always give it a little time to set well before attaching the bolts, so they don't cut off and smooth the concrete around the threads. Get a good length bolt too obviously!
You can cover the concrete top with dirt, turf, gravel if you want, but that's aesthetics. Just go for a good depth.

Let me know how you get on buddy :)
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Fence Pron 100%
 
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