Working with hardware cloth...

[Chullicken]

PPE = personal protective equipment? I ended up switching back and forth from bare hands to fitted work gloves. I like these from Tractor Supply, they are pigskin and allow for quite a bit of dexterity. I wear them out within 3 months because I always forget to switch out to heavy duty ones before handling rocks....
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Yes ma'am, personal protective equipment is correct. Just as you said, gloves etc. If you can get it to work for you, I'd go with it for sure.

 

[Pegasusi]

Dremel with cut-off wheels.....fast with clean accurate cuts......for added measure I use a putty knife or 5-in-1 tool and gently tap in the cut edge into the wood frame. www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWvXd-00zhg

 

[aart]

Experimenting with how close I can get to the welds ....

Was curious about that.

 

[aart]

I have numerous power tools that will cut thru HC, angle grinder and dremel tool with cut of discs get used often, but not for this....I just found the snips I used to be the best for the closest cut to welds while also controlling the material. Was working alone 95% of the time..an extra set of hands might have had me using a different tool

PPE....1 glove on snip hand, for blister avoidance, actually pushed snip closed against the floor; knee pads, that floor is hard and my knees are shot; already wear glasses.
Snip side knee holds roll end down, non-snipper hand lifts piece being cut off making way for snips and hand.

You can see on My Coop page how big the pieces are that I was cutting, bending and installing..many were 16' long. The eave pieces were also bent twice before installing, I did have help installing those.

 

[WthrLady]

did 150 feet of 4 foot wide wire on my coop and run. I just used long nose and long handled tin snips and heavy gloves. Went through many bandaids and idodine and one tetnus shot due to it rolling as I was cutting it or hanging it and biting me. I simply rolled it out and weighted each end with a block or bricks while I was cutting.

I screwed mine down with fender washers and then also topped the seam with another piece of wood to cover.

 

[llombardo]

I had to cut like 35 plus pieces all together. No matter what I did the hardware cloth kicked my butt. I was so happy when I was done, I really was. I used the wire cutters and tried to wear gloves as much as possible. It would roll back, I put stuff on it to keep it in place. I got caught on it multiple times, I became numb to the pain and had plenty of water and napkins to clean up the blood and stop the bleeding..lol

 

[WthrLady]

Ya. I took a wire whip to the face. Bled forever!

 

[Kris5902]

I assembled my panels flat, used a plain old cheap staple gun to pin it down in place as I went. Then I came back with small fencing staples and drove those in with a hammer to actually secure it in place.

I know the staple gun staples won’t actually stop anything or hold it firmly, but they did tack it down well enough so I wasn’t fighting the hardware cloth every step of the way while trying to secure it.

I could unroll it and position it with the one hand and operate the staple gun with the other, which was handy for the larger sections. I didn’t consider my ends beforehand though and have a bunch of stabby scratchy corners to fix. Going to try that putty knife idea!

 

[Justso]

My usual getup when working wire..

 

[Compost King]

Flush cut wire cutters are a must for me. This is just an example and not a brand endorsement https://www.amazon.com/Whizzotech-C...8-2-spons&keywords=Flush+Cut+wire+snips&psc=1

J Clips and the tool to use fasten them is a help although not a must for chicken keeping however I love to still use them. I had them for rabbit keeping.
https://www.amazon.com/Miller-Manuf...e=UTF8&qid=1544593335&sr=8-3&keywords=J+Clips and https://www.amazon.com/LITTLE-GIANT...FR5H7XN6J8Y&psc=1&refRID=AD2H861TZFR5H7XN6J8Y

a large Hammer and 2 x 4 for making 90 degree corners. I can't describe exactly how to use these tools but you can see the tools I mentioned above in this video along with how to bend the hardware cloth correctly with a hammer and 2x4. This guy does great instruction videos for all sorts of things. this is how to make a rabbit cage but what he shows in this video will make working with hardware cloth so much easier

I would suggest Safety glass and gloves even though I use neither. But I also know when to turn my head when using the flush cut wire cutters... they will fling any loose ends very far and that can be a dangerous projectile.

I still use the rabbit cages I made as Chicken Transports, Rooster jails and brooders... Bantams can squeeze out of the cages for the first 3 days though lol

The J Clips are great for making chicken size doors for coops too. saves on the price of hinges.