Any ideas for building a chain link fence…i heard that you can use wire screen (mesh) but what would you use for the poles?
I have used screening, applied a srong holding hair spray and trimmed down wood food stirs
found in the grocery dept.
Poles? For O scale, Home Depot sells very thin rebar in 8 ft lengths. Same color as chain link poles
picture of fence on page 2 of: http://davidvergun.tripod.com/
if site busy, try back in 1 hour
Mesh from Michaels
Dave Vergun
HO scale…
for HO posts I have used a #4 finish nail, cut the head and grind or file smooth predrill a hole and either drop in or glue and paint. CA to screen mesh. Have also used cheese cloth as fence, kinda hard to cut straight.
If you purchase one of the Walthers electrical substation kits, you receive bridal veil material and plastic poles. Assembly is very tedious. It looks OK, even though bridal veil is still a little oversize for chain link fencing, but it’s about the closest you’re going to find. Regular screenwire would give you chain link fencing with scale 1 foot squares – not very appealing.
I generally use two materials to scratchbuild wire fencing: bridal veil and pantyhose.
Bridal veil has a fine mesh, but it’s really too big for chain link. I use it a lot as hog wire fencing, which can be seen all over the midwest, along rail and road right of ways. Hog wire is usually mounted onto wood poles, so I use either toothpicks or small basswood round stock for poles (scale 4’ tall).
Nylons are sort of hard to work with, but will give you the most scale mesh available. To make nylons into chain link, you’ve got to stretch and paint it. I use an old 1x6 as my assembly jig. I use finishing nails driven through the nylons into the wood to stretch it out as much as possible, making sure the nylons don’t touch the wood (2"-3" of clearance is best). I them spray paint the nylon material my desired color (dull aluminum, mostly) and let it dry. Once dry, it stays stretched out and can be cut to size with scissors. I usually use 16 AWG solid wire for poles, with the insulation cut away. The wire is a bit flexible, but that means it won’t break or injure you when you lean on it! Assembly is with superglue.
I have had great success with window screen, but you want the cloth type, not the wire. The wire is simply woven together and unravels too easily. The cloth stays together nicely even when cut on the bias as you will do for cahin link. For posts I simply use styreme rod. I cut and glue the rod to the screen at appropriate distances. When all is assempled I spray paint it with metalic silver paint. Make sure the paint doesn’t fill in any of the holes in the screen. If so just pop it with the point of a needle. When all is finished it looks great.
Ron
I have used bridal veil and fine aluminum rod for the vertical posts and have also seen N scale rail used.
What about that barbed wire stuff on top of some of the high security fences?
I have used aluminum wire screen and for the posts I used wooden shiskabob sticks purchased at you dollar store or grocery store for less then a buck. then drilled holes in my layout and glued them with hot glue gun and painted them with silver paint this works very well the ends of the sticks are pointed and this make for easy installation this technique is very quick and easy. they are aproximately 1/8 in diameter and you will find various other uses for them as well HAPPY RAILROADING