Eucalyptus fence treatment

[douglasspade]

I am planning to harvest about 50 eucalyptus tree's blocking the sun from reaching my corn patches. They have also far outgrown their initial function of windbreaks. I recon the trees will be more valuable as fence poles now.

After sun-drying and removing the bark, what can I treat them with that is not too pricey and available in Thailand? In my home country we use 'Creosote', but I have not yet seen anything locally similar to that.

 

[stubuzz]

Chandrite do a wood preserver.

[kickstart]

Eucalyptus fence posts do work .in about 1 year they  just rot out  at  ground level I put up a stock fence and realized this problem ,and got some road tar and treated the bottom 3 foot ,and they still rotted out with in a year ,and somewhere 4-5 inch posts  and I removed all the bark,I will admit during the rainy season the land did get very wet ,which did not help. 

As the op said you can not get creosote in Thailand ,but many years ago I know a guy who used to soak  posts in old sump oil mixed with diesel ,he said that was just as good as creosote ,weather that will work I do not know ,but if the post are dry ,in theory the wood should soak the brew in .

Give it a go ,or sell the wood around here it is 700 baht/ton. 

[douglasspade]

2 hours ago, kickstart said:

soak  posts in old sump oil mixed with diesel

I actually did paint a 'hydraulic oil - engine oil - dirty diesel - gear oil - canola and soya cooking oil' mix, on the bird coop poles as well as some on a sheds poles. It seem to keep the poles 'oily' and water does not penetrate the sides, but under the ground it still seems like it is wet and rotting, too early to say. 

 

Have seen a lumber pole yard close to Surin, will pop in and find out what they use to treat their poles.

[kickstart]

4 hours ago, douglasspade said:

I actually did paint a 'hydraulic oil - engine oil - dirty diesel - gear oil - canola and soya cooking oil' mix, on the bird coop poles as well as some on a sheds poles. It seem to keep the poles 'oily' and water does not penetrate the sides, but under the ground it still seems like it is wet and rotting, too early to say. 

 

Have seen a lumber pole yard close to Surin, will pop in and find out what they use to treat their poles.

If you want some wooden fencing posts it will have to be Thai red hard wood ,some wood yards sell second hand posts  ,place near me sell second hand "round house posts" 6inchs in diameter ,they are 300 baht per Soorp,a Soorp being a Thai measurement, being  just short of a meter ,so a 5 meter post wouldbe 1500 baht ,not cheap .

As for 3-4 inch round fencing posts ,never seen them ,wood now being so expencive ,bar eucaliptus ,every one now uses  concreat posts. 

[CLW]

I guess if you are selling the wood and buy some concrete / steel fence posts it might a better solution

[douglasspade]

4 hours ago, CLW said:

I guess if you are selling the wood and buy some concrete / steel fence posts it might a better solution

I will get around 2000 Baht with the current price, and at 100 Baht a 2m pole I will only get 20 poles. Steel is a good idea but will need something really strong like droppers that will be pricey as I wall span at least 5 lines of tight barb wire.

I have cut a 3rd of the trees and lumbered 42 poles of 2m so far. I will end up with around 120 poles.

 

I have seen a video of a guy who dips poles in a diesel and oil mixture, but he scald the poles bottoms and the sides that will be submerged in he soil first. Maybe I will do the same, it seems legit.

[cooked]

One might wonder why Eucalyptus isn't usually used for fences. Even Thai red wood rots after 4 - 5 years. 

[douglasspade]

3 hours ago, cooked said:

Even Thai red wood rots after 4 - 5 years. 

No attempt is made to preserve the wood. Common Thailand attitude is to rather let anything go that will cost money, time and effort until it's <deleted>.

Most times bigger logs are cut into planks or the logs are split, leaving the whole grain exposed to suck up water. I think the trick is to keep moisture from entering the pith else it will keep sucking it .The sapwood also gets rotten around the hardwood, hence pulling a waterlogged planted pole usually leaves the sapwood behind in the ground and reveal the hardwood core attached to the rest of the pole.

 

It is a means to an end to use the wood purposefully instead of spending 30K on concrete poles. Also although we get 8 hours of sunlight, the corn and pumpkin fields get most of the tree shadows due to the low sun of winter, not enough sun to grow well and fruit.

 

I process about 5  trees a day, depending on the horrid N/E gusts that passes weekly.

Cut the trees to 2M poles,

 

 

and process some firewood from the smaller branches/tree's also.

 

 

[kickstart]

On 1/18/2021 at 9:11 PM, douglasspade said:

Steel is a good idea but will need something really strong like droppers that will be pricey as I wall span at least 5 lines of tight barb wire.

I have cut a 3rd of the trees and lumbered 42 poles of 2m so far. I will end up with around 120 poles

The enclosed photos are a fence I put up .this section I did 18 months ago , the other side of the field  is 3 years old now the posts are steel pipe , with  the 3 strands the middle strand is electric. 

I got the steel from a steel/builders merchant near me  all in 10 foot lengths ,the steel all grade 2,from China ,I paid 25 baht /kg, each post is 7 foot long ,works out about 120baht/post .the angle iron straining  posts  cost the same,I cut points  on the posts and put the guides on myself ,wire is strained with eye bolts .

The place I got them from is 40 km from me ,ask around you might have a place like this near you .

You have 2 m posts, and you want to put 5 strands of wire on them ,can not see it working ,my posts are 7 feet long 3 foot in the ground 4 above ,I used the post knocker to knock them in ,how are you going to set the post ,dig a hole 18 inches and concrete the post in . 

You want a tight fence ,you will have to put in straining posts ,every 40 meters .and the posts will have to be in the ground 3 foot ,if not with in a few months your wire will be hanging like Christmas decorations ,as a mate of mine once said , well slack and with 5 strands of wire  that is a lot of weight.   

[douglasspade]

22 hours ago, kickstart said:

,how are you going to set the post ,dig a hole 18 inches and concrete the post in

The land is filled and in the rain season it drains easily off into the rice fields. Yes I was going to go half a meter deep and mix cement with the excavated material and compact that in. The eucalyptus is to break the inside of 6 something Rai up into manageable pasture yards.

 

The outside boundary fence I was planning to drop the buck and go for concrete poles just because everyone else is using them here in lower Isaan. Will need a small fortune to get labor digging the holes and carrying those poles around, for 2 people it is 700 Baht, pay and food daily.

 

The eucalyptus fence I was going to attempt myself in my own time. 

 

22 hours ago, kickstart said:

The enclosed photos are a fence I put up

I like this whole idea, reminds me how we do it in my home country.  I have not yet started the perimeter fence so there is still time to change the plans.

 

Some questions...

How far apart are the poles between the straining poles? The strainer poles are not concreted in? Had any issues with cows pushing poles over?

 

[kickstart]

20 hours ago, douglasspade said:

The land is filled and in the rain season it drains easily off into the rice fields. Yes I was going to go half a meter deep and mix cement with the excavated material and compact that in. The eucalyptus is to break the inside of 6 something Rai up into manageable pasture yards.

 

The outside boundary fence I was planning to drop the buck and go for concrete poles just because everyone else is using them here in lower Isaan. Will need a small fortune to get labor digging the holes and carrying those poles around, for 2 people it is 700 Baht, pay and food daily.

 

The eucalyptus fence I was going to attempt myself in my own time. 

 

I like this whole idea, reminds me how we do it in my home country.  I have not yet started the perimeter fence so there is still time to change the plans.

 

Some questions...

How far apart are the poles between the straining poles? The strainer poles are not concreted in? Had any issues with cows pushing poles over?

 

The posts are 6 m apart ,  normally  the post should be 4 1/2 -5 m  apart ,by having one strand electrified I can use 6 m between posts each section is 60 m long ,normal a section should be no more than 50 m long ,in your case with 5 strands of wire you might have to go 40 m to take the weight and the strain of the wire.

And why go with 5 strands  a good stock fence you normally use 3 strands  of wire ,it is a very Thai thing using up  to 7 strands of wire ,they look if they are fencing for a prison camp., unless you want to keep dogs out as well .

The posts are knocked in I used the post knocker  in to the ground 3 foot, for this section in the photo I did it just after the rainy season the posts went in easy  soil soft , the other side was done in the dry season ,and took some doing had to make a hole with a bar and soak the hole in water to get the posts in.

Like I said digging a hole 18 inches deep and concreting the posts in will not work ,the post have no foot on them ,like the concrete posts ,as the soil dries out in the hot season with the strain and weight of the wire ,the posts will move ,the only advantage with concreting the posts in ,the post will be in a sleeve  and should not rot out so quickly as they will not be in contact with the soil .

With the middle   strand of wire being electrified no issue  with cattle pushing the post over ,but I am often  re-straining the bottom strand ,as cattle push at it to get at the grass the other side .and they know they is no electric on that strand 

Re the wire it is only plain wire 45 baht/kg ,soon stretches ,high tensile wire would be best .but at the time I could not find any ,but "ppfence.co "near Bangkok sell it ,and can you find some staples to nail the wire on to the posts ,not easy to find maybe Lazada etc ,or ppfence might have some .