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The power of a simple machine

Does what it says on the tin
Itsallaguess
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The power of a simple machine

#488135

Postby Itsallaguess » March 21st, 2022, 6:24 pm

So I had a few large fence panels to install at the weekend, where some elderly ones had blown out following the recent storms and were clearly beyond repair. They'd lasted a few more years than they had any right to, in all honesty, and so it was now time to think about how we were going to get some nearly 2m x 2m lap larch panels slotted into existing concrete posts...

I didn't fancy trying to man-handle them in, because it would have taken at least two people to lift them vertically, and probably a third steadying the top, to make sure things stayed upright and 'square', and I didn't fancy organising a small army just to put a few fence panels in, and I also didn't particularly want to risk the expense of the new panels on trying to cut the man-power, and just ending up with some more broken panels. 28Kg per panel isn't much on it's own - it's the large-sheet cumbersomeness of them that spoil jobs like this, especially where ladders and wind might be involved, and I wanted to do the job safely, with no risk to either man nor panel...

We've got some fairly tall trees above the line of the panels, and there was enough height under the tree-line to be able to think about using them as 'the third man', and I stumbled on a great value 6-to-1 pulley system for less than a tenner -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B0015NNONG

Now, the reviews for that thing are brilliant, and it really sounded like it could do the job, but loads of the reviews were recommending to ditch the original 'twisty-washing-line' rope that comes with the pulley, and buy a proper length of high-strength paracord, so that sounded like a great idea, and a 30m length of this was also ordered -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B07G82RQMB

Getting an improved cord also allowed me to use the original 'washing line' cord to throw over suitably-large and well-positioned branches of the overhead trees, which would then hoist the pulley system into position and be tied down to form the upper pulley fix...

All that was left then was finding a way of safely and securely supporting the large fence panels themselves, so a pair of large ratchet-straps were used, to wrap vertically around each panel, with a couple of thin strips of wood from the old panels used on the upper and lower edges of the new ones, to stop the straps deforming the new panel wood -

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00RGQ79LE

Connecting the tree rope to the pulley, and also the other end of the pulley to a short length of rope wrapped around the top of both ratchet-straps, was enabled by a couple of 8mm steel shackles -

https://www.diy.com/departments/diall-steel-d-shackle/1520588_BQ.prd

And that was it.

Each 27Kg panel was positioned just outside the relevant fence posts, and the pulley system allowed me to easily lift the panels to a height slightly above each pair of posts, so that they could then easily be dropped back down inside the post-slots, with the fantastic 6:1 pulley system allowing me to pull just 4.5Kg of lifting force to get the panels to the required height.

The whole job was done safely and easily, and all fence panels are now in place, with no risk of damage at all during the installation process, to me or the panels!

I was lucky to have the trees overhead, but if no trees were available I think I'd be able to fashion a similar vertical lift with a tall ladder, braced securely between a pair of fence posts in two bracing positions to keep firmly vertical. This type of lift is more or less straight up, with very little perpendicular force, and so a good vertical-ladder brace would offer up exactly the same lifting opportunity using this type of pulley-system as well, I imagine, and it's likely that I'll need to test that theory out relatively soon, so I'll come back with an update!

Anyway, I thought this 'simple machine' pulley was an absolute marvel - it was a pleasure to use over a sunny weekend, and it's great to have the garden looking just slightly less of a war-zone than it did a few weeks ago....

Cheers,

Itsallaguess

kiloran
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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488149

Postby kiloran » March 21st, 2022, 7:38 pm

A fine effort but a bit of a faff. Wouldn't it have been easier to have delegated the task to your wife, while you devoted your time to important financial matters, or watching Liverpool?

--kiloran

Itsallaguess
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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488168

Postby Itsallaguess » March 21st, 2022, 9:24 pm

kiloran wrote:
Wouldn't it have been easier to have delegated the task to your wife?


Pfftt..

She was on Ebay all weekend kiloran....

If she's still on it by tomorrow night, I might have to lower the price....

Cheers!

Itsallaguess

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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488221

Postby DrFfybes » March 22nd, 2022, 9:04 am

Interesting idea.

Our panels are fortunately 1.5m with a concrete gravel board, rather than 2m panels, which makes things MUCH easier. For doing these solo I have a tall step ladder which is conveniently about 6 foot to the top rail. I position it with the apex about 3 feet back from the fenceline, and balance the panel on the top of the ladder with the bottom corners resting on the posts, then climb the ladder towards the fence, lifting the top of the panel so the bottom edge drops into the slots.

It sounds easier than it is, and it is a lot easier if the corners of the bottom panel rail are rounded off slightly so it pivots into the slots easily.

Paul

sg31
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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488238

Postby sg31 » March 22nd, 2022, 9:56 am

I used feather edged panels which are considerably heavier than standard larch lap panels. I've got a bad back so brute force was out, luckily I have a good friend who has a 7.5 ton digger which he knows how to use. We put rachet straps on the panels, attached the straps to a hook which is on the end of the digger arm, hoisted them above the concrete post slots and gently lowered into position. We didn't even break into a sweat. After the job was done we adjourned to the pub where I paid for the drinks several times, we both left there quite 'happy'.

Sometimes it's not what you know, it's who you know.

One bit of advice, if fitting new panels they often arrive quite wet, if so stack them in a well ventilated spot for a while to allow them to dry out. Wet panels swell slightly and they will be a very tight fit, once ventilated they will slide in easily.

pompeygazza
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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488297

Postby pompeygazza » March 22nd, 2022, 1:51 pm

rather than fit a single panel I fitted two half panels (alright it cost a little more but you get more strength as you have 4 thick horizontal bars rather than 2) which were dead easy to lift in by myself.

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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488494

Postby bungeejumper » March 23rd, 2022, 9:51 am

DrFfybes wrote:I have a tall step ladder which is conveniently about 6 foot to the top rail. I position it with the apex about 3 feet back from the fenceline, and balance the panel on the top of the ladder with the bottom corners resting on the posts, then climb the ladder towards the fence, lifting the top of the panel so the bottom edge drops into the slots.

It sounds easier than it is

It sounds like some kind of a circus trick. :lol: A small brass band, a rapt and admiring crowd, and a couple of lovely assistants in sequins and spandex. Which hand do you twirl the spinning plates with?

My neighbour is about to replace a couple of fence panels that have also blown down in the storms. His son has offered to get a friend round with an army helicopter. It might actually be less fuss. :|

BJ

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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488521

Postby DrFfybes » March 23rd, 2022, 10:23 am

bungeejumper wrote:My neighbour is about to replace a couple of fence panels that have also blown down in the storms. His son has offered to get a friend round with an army helicopter. It might actually be less fuss. :|

BJ


Watch out for the downdraught :)

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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488528

Postby bungeejumper » March 23rd, 2022, 10:42 am

DrFfybes wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:My neighbour is about to replace a couple of fence panels that have also blown down in the storms. His son has offered to get a friend round with an army helicopter. It might actually be less fuss. :|

Watch out for the downdraught :)

Oh yes, we've already seen that. The last time this friend turned up for a low-level pass over my neighbour's garden, he half-emptied the goldfish pond. :lol:

BJ

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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488661

Postby csearle » March 23rd, 2022, 7:57 pm

If our Its had been around 5000 years ago he would have been heard saying "we could build an enormous henge out of stone; I have a plan!"

[Edit: in fact if one were to believe in re-incarnation maybe he was?]

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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488745

Postby servodude » March 24th, 2022, 2:52 am

bungeejumper wrote:
DrFfybes wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:My neighbour is about to replace a couple of fence panels that have also blown down in the storms. His son has offered to get a friend round with an army helicopter. It might actually be less fuss. :|

Watch out for the downdraught :)

Oh yes, we've already seen that. The last time this friend turned up for a low-level pass over my neighbour's garden, he half-emptied the goldfish pond. :lol:

BJ


I've a cat like that :)

bungeejumper
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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488766

Postby bungeejumper » March 24th, 2022, 8:29 am

servodude wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:Oh yes, we've already seen that. The last time this friend turned up for a low-level pass over my neighbour's garden, he half-emptied the goldfish pond. :lol:

I've a cat like that :)

This I gotta see. A flying cat?

BJ

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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488776

Postby servodude » March 24th, 2022, 8:52 am

bungeejumper wrote:
servodude wrote:
bungeejumper wrote:Oh yes, we've already seen that. The last time this friend turned up for a low-level pass over my neighbour's garden, he half-emptied the goldfish pond. :lol:

I've a cat like that :)

This I gotta see. A flying cat?

BJ

That's not all, he's also a blacksmith
As soon as we bring out the cat carrier he makes a bolt for the door!
;)

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Re: The power of a simple machine

#488782

Postby bungeejumper » March 24th, 2022, 9:01 am

servodude wrote:That's not all, he's also a blacksmith
As soon as we bring out the cat carrier he makes a bolt for the door!
;)

Clever cat. But probably not as frugal as our neighbour's dog? As soon as he saw that we were getting ready to move house, he rushed in through the front door and put down a deposit. :|

BJ

Itsallaguess
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Re: The power of a simple machine

#489935

Postby Itsallaguess » March 29th, 2022, 9:29 am

One of the other things I wanted to mention on this fence-panel thread was how useful a couple of bottom-clips can be if they are sitting on concrete gravel boards or anything similar, where a bottom-fixing can be made for these types of clips -

Image

I use two of these clips per panel, on the lower-edge clipped to my gravel boards, and find that a single medium sized rawl-plug and screw supports the lower edged quite well, and prevents some of the inevitable 'bowing' that affects lap-larch fence panels, and from my experience over the years, this does help to extend the life of these relatively cheap types of panels...

The bonus with the above type of clips is that they can also be useful for situations where there might have been some movement in supporting concrete posts, where sometimes larger gaps than normal might appear where the fence panels slot into the concrete post channels.

We've got one post quite close to a large tree trunk, where the nearby roots have twisted the post a little over the years, and it's clear that one upper side of the panel doesn't sit very well at all within the concrete post channel, and so as well as using a couple of the above clips to hold the bottom edge firmly in place, I also use a couple of them to fashion an edge-extension for the upper edge of the fence panel that doesn't sit very well on that side -

Image

As shown in the above examples, where a post-channel might 'creep away' from the fence-panel edge, a variation on the side-clip configuration, using single clips or a number of lengths of 5mm threaded screws to 'double-up' the length required, can cope really well with a change in any distance that might need to be made up, between the edge of the fence panel and the depth to the back of the concrete post channel.

Once an appropriate clip size has been made up, I use a few short lengths of self-amalgamating rubber tape to wrap fully around the clip sides that would touch the inside of the post channels, as leaving them as bare-metal is too noisy if there's any wind-related rattle after installation. A single clamping hole is made in the fence-side, and with the bulk of the supporting clips being hidden inside the concrete post channels, the end-result is a really good edge-support that's really quite unobtrusive from a visual point of view.

The clips I've used come as a pack of 25 from Screwfix, for around a tenner - https://www.screwfix.com/p/sabrefix-fencing-clips-47mm-25-pack/18728

Cheers,

Itsallaguess


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