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Or what's up with Timbo, eh? That's two of them I did get out, once I gave up on sledge hammers and high pressure nozzle on a garden hose. and got the right tool.You can figure out how deep in the ground that longer one was.
Are these things a bitch to remove or what?! Even with the right item.
There were 5 of the bastard things at the outset.
The fifth one is right up against the fence in the far RH corner of the bed, to the left of the green bin. It's going to be a lot of fun, so it will be next.
Most of them have jagged tops from the sledge hammer when driven INTO to the ground, and all have sharp rusted tips where the master of overkill - in 1991 - cut them up.
I ended up going to Bunnings (a home improvement Wall-Mart kinda place) and buying a star-picket remover/lever thingie.
$145, but you still need to soak the soil. For ages.
Was there Sunday, Tuesday, and will be back Thursday AM. Saturday we finish emptying my trailer of soil here at our place, and go back to dig out the remaining soil and cut out all the old tree roots.
Just to get rid of a a garden bed and expand the lawn.
The fence will need to be replaced with a colour-bond steel item.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Edits: 07/12/17 07/12/17 07/12/17 07/12/17 07/12/17Follow Ups:
Got one more out yesterday (Saturday) AM with Robert (Son1) and the other one was so deep I gave up.
Went back across the city 30k (20 miles*) and back 30k. Took him and Ruby with me for a break. Had a good long chat with Rob at home and in the car.
Grabbed the angle grinder and a new cutter disc, and it was all done by midday in time for Ruby's sleep.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
The video shows a wooden post being removed, but it works with t-posts also.
The one I do have is capable of doing the job. And it is available here in Australia, the one you reference is not. I searched.I'm not persuaded that the chain used to grip the posts would tightly grip a 3" wide star-picket, or a T post as used in the USA.
Also, each picket is <3 ft into the ground and the last 2ft is a layer of stiff clay. Most unlike the situation with the fence posts in the video.
All the pickets out so far, came out with the special tool I bought which I pictured within this thread, yesterday.
That is, once I was able to get the jaws of the tool around them and the base low enough, flat and stable. This required digging a hole right beside all but one of the pickets.
The last two are surrounded by and entangled with tree roots, some quite thick roots, some of the roots have grown through the circular holes along the picket's length. I will need to use the chisel point of my long crow bar to cut down each side of the star and cut the roots. Having soaked the area around both of them for a few days this should be fairly easy.
Pulling out the picket with the tool will come after that.
I will also need to dig a trench so that the lever can go down low enough.
Thanks for thinking of something, which does work down low like I need, but:
the chain might not grip onto tar coated mild steel when down to a very small ring, and
I can't obtain one of them, so
I will have to keep going with the tool I now have. :-)
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Edits: 07/14/17 07/14/17 07/14/17 07/14/17
Being a bit lazy, if a 20 pound sledge hammer wouldn't lossen them up, I'd have gotten out the jack hammer and dug down a bit and just cut them off 6-8" under the grade.
-Rod
The leverage device is great and costs only $145, cheaper than a jack hammer? Possibly.
But! It 'expects' the picket's head to be 2 or more feet above ground level, which none of these were/are. So I've had to dig a hole down beside all but one of them.
Got another one out today, in the cold. Easey-peasey after a 2-day soak, and it was the one in the tightest spot up against the fence.
The remaining two have tree roots through / tightly around, them. So I have to did a hole and a trench the same depth, to get take the pressure plate low enough and so that the lever can go down far enough and, hopefully pulls the thing out.
LBNL I have a 5' long and heavy crow-bar digger with a spade-bit and a spike on either end, so they WILL come out. The spade bit will allow me to gut down along all three sides, and the weight will cut any hidden roots.
The other trick I've known for years having dug out ferro-cement arrow-head fence posts using it, and that's flooding a hole surrounding the post and waiting 'a-coupla-days' while topping up the water. Then you siphon out the water and as a last resort, use a high pressure hose/nozzle to dig them out.
Makes for a muddy yard, but it does work, eventually.
The remaining two pickets are now soaking and will get more water before I have another go this Saturday.
Trisha has been a very good safety officer keeping recently dropped tools away from my feet. ? Mattock, square hoe, crow-bar, square shovel, and the post remover!
And, Ruby has been helped by her mum to think - about anything else than coming out an playing in the mud, and falling on the jagged top of a picket.
Limited time each visit is due to Ruby's sleep pattern. And my limited endurance ;-)!
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Edits: 07/12/17 07/12/17 07/12/17 07/12/17
I don't see those around here....what are they used for
in your situation?. Never heard of "star pickets". I bet
"bloody" after wrestling with them.
down each flat surface. These holes being punched out after / during extrusion from a press. Then they are cut to length, pointed and coated in a bitumen product.Known also as Y-posts, in the US more commonly made as a T-post?! I think the star picket is unique to Aus. and NZ. Click below my post for the Wikipedia page.
Steel fencing posts were IIRC, developed in the 19C with stamped out little rectangular hooks for the holding of wire / barbed wire. IIRC the hooks alternated up or down facing. Barbed wire was developed in the USA and completely changing the cattle industry there.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steel_fence_post
Many years ago I've built barbed wire entanglements on courses with the h'army and in the field - using the very same kind of pickets.
But I've never had to pull any out that were this deep in the ground. That longer one had 3 feet in the ground and a jaggedly cut end, no point.
See alsohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbed_wire
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_fencing
The history of technology and socio-technical human activity systems is one of my many interests.
Before trying to get these pickets OUT? The builder of this bed had fixed the two thick heavy retaining boards to the posts using 4 driver bolts, which had rusted in the soil for > 26 years, so I had to use an angle-grinder and cutting disc to cut 20 bolt-heads off. Heaps of fun digging out enough soil to make room and cutting at a difficult angle, with a death dealing tool to boot! He had also used long posts that he cut up none too cleanly so they have no give at the point.
Thank God for modern garden bed kits designed for later removal, eh?!
Thank you for your interest, and ...
end of vent!
;-)
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Edits: 07/12/17 07/12/17 07/12/17 07/12/17
Thanks, great explanation!. Yes, vast majority of posts here
are "T" posts, but I've see "U" posts with the notch cutouts
for barbed wire.
Great way to get posts out if no tractor or puller handy is to
saturate the soil with water, let it sit overnight, or to dig down
6-12" and cut off with grinder.
Harbor Freight used to sell a decent "T" post puller for only $30. US.,
but for some reason discontinued selling them.
Yep been doing that from the get go, even using a high pressure nozzle on the garden hose! Lets you dig down the sides of the thing.Bloody thing comes off though, so I'm glad I took a plastic one which floats.
The now killed tree's roots are the big problem. See rest of thread.
JBTWay you're real good on cone speakers, yes? Email me please.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
Edits: 07/13/17
Cannot email you, your settings won't allow. Click on
"Coner" at the top of my reply to send a msg.Mark
Edits: 07/13/17 07/13/17
:-)!
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
You got me interested in star posts / pickets today. Interesting stuff.
In the 1970s living in PNG, star pickets and marston matting were laying around just about everywhere.
I had no idea star pickets were patented in Australia.
Bush walking in the Blue Mountains the last two days I saw plenty of them holding timber steps in place. What a great bit of gear!
Cheers,
John K
For me the puller is the best bit of gear!
I have plans for star pickets at home:
For the big climbing rose, really long pickets driven in deep, plus the existing ones.
and, for vertical gardens using some scrap galvanised rod fencing and some plastic coated similar stuff. You hook the small pots to the horisontal rods, add dripper system. Hard for snails and slugs to get to. Put snail baits under it as well.
Grow food? strawberries, other berries? Peas and beans, herbs, Easier to pick for old folks.
And, to hold summer shade cloth sections in front of the deck's sunny North facing gaps.
Should we decide to move the gardens I now have the right tool. And, my BILaw has a property and his fences include some pickets, IIRC.
Warmest
Tim Bailey
Skeptical Measurer & Audio Scrounger
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