How to stretch hardware cloth.

[Ratchnick]

Working on building a quail hutch and i could not find good information on a simple and cheap way to get the hardware cloth super tight on the bottom of the cage so the eggs roll. Well i thought up a way to build a cheap strecher, and it worked well. Next time i will build a stronger frame to get it even tighter.

 

[B-Goock]

Nice job. I may borrow that for hardware cloth.
Horse fence welded wire & chicken wire i usually just weave a smaller fence post through and use a ratchet strap hooked on the weaved in post & whatever I can reach with the other side. Tree, next post, 4wheeler. Click click click tight as crap. Nail away.

 

[Ratchnick]

I thought of using ratchet straps, but i could not figure a good way to hold the cage in place while i stretched it with the resourses i had available at home. I was tempted to bolt it to the milling machine at work and use the crane to strech it but i figured there has to be a simple and cheap way that everyone can do. Its all about using the resources at your disposal.

 

[Tre3hugger]

Nice thinkin

 

[mdees88]

That must be the stainless wire you were talking about. It looks super smooth, that should work great...

 

[Ratchnick]

It is the stainless. And yes its got a perfictly smooth finish. The down side is its harder to cut and harder to get flat. I wish it was 1/2" x 1" but i just couldn't argue with free!

 

[mdees88]

That will be just fine in 1/2 x 1/2. I see they sell it on Amazon too, I've never even looked for it before. I would definitely recommend that stuff to anyone wanting to build a coop over the galvanized wire. I could instantly tell it wasn't galvanized by how smooth it looks....

I like the wire straightener too. When I replaced my floors I added supports under my feeder and 1 gallon waterer. This will help a lot in keeping the floor from sagging. My old floor ending up sagging a bunch from the weight of them.....

 

[Ratchnick]

Good point with the weight of the water, didn't even think about that. I learned a bunch from this cage. With the strecher i was flexing the wooden frame. Next time a much stiffer frame. I'm curious to see how much slant i need to get the eggs to roll out.

 

[702Quails]

I just slowly finessed the hardware cloth with a flat head screwdriver when I was building my cages. Luckily the wire was thick enough to endure the strain from the screwdriver. If I was going to buid these cages on a regular basis, I would make a jig. It would be comprised of a clamp that attaches to a gripper through geared threaded rods. The gripper would be made out of an array of 3/8" thick spurs. There would be two threaded rods on each side and they would be on a crank assembly. Turning the crank would move the gripper forward or backwards.

 

[Kgbao]

Nice job. I may borrow that for hardware cloth.
Horse fence welded wire & chicken wire i usually just weave a smaller fence post through and use a ratchet strap hooked on the weaved in post & whatever I can reach with the other side. Tree, next post, 4wheeler. Click click click tight as crap. Nail away.

Only seeing the title of thread my response as it was loading was pole ratchet strap and truck bumper lol I’ve gotten many a fences tight like this.