Making wire netting cages

[MattyF]

This is a wire cage that I assembled yesterday. There was some old netting that I was able to reuse from a defunct fence; this needed a length of about 4 m. Pallets are not that easy to get hold of, as I have found that builders merchants round here tend to be pretty tight and careful about giving them way, especially the more solidly built ones that you actually want. Still, the cost of the materials is close to zero. My concern is that this lightweight pallet will just decay over the course of a couple of years if left out in the open.
 
I made this cage by fixing the lower edge of one end of the netting to the middle of one side of the pallet using 2 mm galvanised wire and a wire twister attachment on my drill. Then I wrapped the netting around and fixed it at the next corner in the same way, and so on until I had attached it the pallet all the way round. Where the netting overlapped, I fixed it with some hog rings initially, just to keep it in place, then bent the wires back and twisted them round to fix the netting at the join.
 
The whole process took me maybe 40 minutes of faffing about. It should be a lot quicker, of course, as I get used to it. Perhaps 10 minutes? Fixing at the corners and at the sides takes time, because you're fighting the netting and trying to keep it taut. In this case it didn't come out particularly tight. I might be able to get a fair number of logs in this, but it looks to me as if the netting might become detached from the pallet.
 
It probably needs a wire in each direction across the top to keep the netting from bowing out too much. A more general concern is that smaller logs might just fall through the holes. I have some old chicken wire lying around, and I could clip that inside netting as a kind of "liner" to keep small diameter logs inside.
 
Next time I think I will try making a rough cylinder out of the netting beforehand, then plonking the cylinder on top of the pallet and fixing it in place. That seems to be how the village idiot does it in his operation.
 

Have hundreds of meters of stock netting lying around so made a few like this for house logs , only costing time and nails it’s not too bad although the down sides are you won’t get a full load in one and you have to use fresh or decent pallets or they last 5 minutes.

[coppicer]

2 hours ago, roseyweb said:

Isb cage with a plastic hat 

Are you - are you sure you got enough in those? They look a bit underfilled to me ?

[coppicer]

3 hours ago, nepia said:

Which corner of the country are you in?   £40 for an IBC is a lot.

I'm in southwest (very west) Wales. If I look on eBay for anything within 30-40 miles, and that's what I see, sometimes more. And then there's getting them delivered, or fetching them. EDIT Just to be clear, that's for tank and cage. I haven't see any local ads for the cage alone.

Edited May 17, 2020 by coppicer

[waterbuoy]

Presumably you head east at some point?  If so, take a trailer and bring some of these back with you:

 

IBC Cage

WWW.EBAY.CO.UK

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IBC Cages - USED.

 

[coppicer]

5 minutes ago, waterbuoy said:

Presumably you head east at some point?

 

Thanks - I have thought about that, but the truth is that these days I'm seldom more than a dozen miles from home, which is where I work. Occasionally I get as far east as Carmarthen. I'd struggle to get more than two cages in my trailer anyway.

[waterbuoy]

7 minutes ago, coppicer said:

Thanks - I have thought about that, but the truth is that these days I'm seldom more than a dozen miles from home, which is where I work. Occasionally I get as far east as Carmarthen. I'd struggle to get more than two cages in my trailer anyway.

If you can borrow a 12x6 Ifor flatbed (or similar) you should be able to get a dozen on that (stacked two high) plus one or two in the back of your landrover?  Can't be much more than a couple of hours or so each way?!

[coppicer]

6 hours ago, waterbuoy said:

If you can borrow a 12x6 Ifor flatbed (or similar) you should be able to get a dozen on that (stacked two high) plus one or two in the back of your landrover?  Can't be much more than a couple of hours or so each way?!

Well Cardiff is two and a half hours, so Bristol probably three or so one way. Might still be cheaper than delivery though.

[Paper Rustler]

Coppicer I have sent you a pm

[Haironyourchest]

I wonder if chain link fencing would work?

[coppicer]

9 minutes ago, Haironyourchest said:

I wonder if chain link fencing would work?

Probably, but it's expensive isn't it? So perhaps only worth it if you have some lying around.