Wire Mesh Fence Tutorial Part 2

This is the second part of the wire mesh fence tutorial. Part 1 is here. This week I cover the actual construction of the fence pieces.

Making the bases

The bases were made from thin corrugated cardboard. Each piece was 30mm wide, and either 160mm, 80mm or 60mm long. The ends of the base were cut to a point, starting 15mm in from each end. This allows the bases to be placed next to each other, letting them make corners without any gaps, thus avoiding the need for separate corner pieces.

This is shown more clearly in a picture from last week's post

The edges of the base were sealed with masking tape and the whole base was painted with watered down PVA. This was an attempt to prevent the base warping when it was textured and was moderately successful. I normally make bases using two layers, one of cardboard and one of plasticard, as this lets me keep the base thin, while the plasticard prevents virtually all warping. I didn't do that in this case, but I probably will on any future builds.

Attaching the posts to the base

Each post was cut from 3.2mm x 2.5mm plastic rod, and was 50mm high.

Many (many) years ago I bought the NWSL Chopper. This is a cutter with the added advantage that you can set a couple of stops, which means that it's really easy to cut multiple pieces to exactly the same length. If you don't have such a device, a ruler and modelling knife will do just as well. One of the nice things about plastic rod is that you only have to lightly score the plastic, after which flexing it will snap it cleanly across the score.

I looked into various ways to attach the posts to the base, including drawing pins and superglue, but in the end I decided on a hot wax glue-gun. I have one of these, although I hadn't used it in about 10 years. I marked a line down the middle of each base piece, and decided to set the posts at 20mm, 80mm and 140mm on the 160mm piece. The smaller pieces each had two posts - the 80mm piece had posts at 20mm and 60mm, while the 60mm piece had posts at 15mm and 45mm. They glued fairly easily, although my placing wasn't quite as accurate as I'd hoped. I did wear a mask while doing the gluing (as well as making sure the kitchen fan was on), and made sure to follow the glue gun's instructions.

Some of the bases with the posts attached

Cutting the mesh

Each fence piece was the same length as its base, and 40mm high. This let me centre the mesh on the posts, with 5mm clear at the top and bottom.

If you have plastic mesh, it's probably much easier to work with. I didn't have any, however, but had some car repair mesh that had been lying in the cupboard for many years. I tried marking it and cutting it with a knife, but that didn't work. In the end, I made a 160mm x 40mm template from cardboard, held it against the mesh and cut round it with scissors. This worked well enough, with just a couple of pieces requiring a bit of trimming.

Attaching the mesh to the posts

Attaching the mesh sheets to the posts caused me the biggest headache. The first problem was that, because the posts were in the middle of the base, they needed to be supported underneath when the mesh was clamped to the posts. In the end I built a Lego wall, which let me lay the posts on it without bending anything.

Fence piece showing the posts being supported while the glue dries

I tried various attempts at fixing the wire to the posts, which worked to greater and lesser degrees (usually lesser, and often resulted in cling film being stuck solid to the posts). Eventually I settled on the following approach:

• apply Tacky glue (stickier than PVA, but any thick wood glue should work) to the ends of the post, but not the middle
• place the mesh on the posts (approx. 5mm down from the top) and secure with second Lego wall and clamps. The wall goes down the middle of the posts, which is why this area must be glue free (see side view below)
• apply a bit more glue over the top of the mesh if it looks like it needs it
• leave to dry
• when dry, remove the clamps and apply glue to the area where the clamps were
• let dry thoroughly

This isn't as convoluted as it sounds, although you will need some fairly large clamps.

Side view of a piece being clamped

Top view of a piece being clamped

Making the torn piece

As mentioned last week, I decided to make a damaged piece with some torn fencing. For this I just cut the bottom of a piece of mesh and pulled the wire back. The hole was made by cutting out some strands with scissors - again, nothing complicated.

Finishing touches

Once the mesh was attached I textured the bases. I mixed up some household filler with a lot of PVA (prevents the filler shrinking and cracking, so I've read) and applied it to the bases.

Base with filler applied

When this was dry I washed it with diluted PVA and covered it with sand. The reason for the dual approach was that I wanted the ground to be a bit built up around the posts, and sand and PVA alone wouldn't have given me the necessary height. When the PVA and sand had dried I applied a layer of very watered down PVA over the top, just to stop the sand being knocked loose when it was handled. Finally, I added a few standalone rocks, although I'm not sure I'll do that on any future bases.

Base with sand applied

I cut some 15mm x 10mm rectangles from plasticard and attached them to four of the pieces. These would become "KEEP OUT" signs when I painted them.

At this point, the pieces were ready for painting, which I'll cover next week in the final part.