SUPPLIES
- Pliers
- Roll of 14-gauge high-tensile wire
- Fence stretcher
- 3- to 4-foot steel hot-wire rods
- Screw-on plastic insulators
- Glass doughnut insulator
- Hammer
- Staple nail
- 12-volt battery
- High-voltage, low-impedance, short-pulse
- fence charger (12V battery operated with black and red cable connectors)
Overview
Electric fences are convenient because they not only encompass an area you want to contain livestock, but they also save you the cost of building a permanent fence. Building a 12-volt electric fence is easy to do with the proper techniques and tools. Using a 12V battery-operated electric fence is also handy because you don't need electricity.
Step 1
Cut a 2- to 3-foot piece of wire. String the wire through a glass doughnut insulator. Nail the wire to the corner post 3 feet off the ground.
Step 2
Tie the end of the wire spool around the glass doughnut insulator on a corner post.
Step 3
Unroll the wire on a side of the area you're encompassing. Cut the wire 3 feet longer than the span of that side. Put the end of the wire in the fence stretcher. Place the fence stretcher around the corner post (this post also needs a glass doughnut insulator loop attached to it, as described in Step 1).
Step 4
Ratchet the stretcher until it becomes difficult.to tighten the wire. Wrap the tight wire in the stretcher around the glass doughnut insulator, and wrap the wire tightly around the doughnut insulator and then around the wire. Disconnect the fence stretcher.
Step 5
Hammer steel hot-wire rods into the ground 6 inches deep. Hammer a rod in every 50 feet. Attach the wire to the plastic insulators, and screw the insulators on each rod. Adjust the plastic insulator's height as desired.
Step 6
Hang the battery-operated fence charger at a corner post of the perimeter. Connect the black cable from the charger to the negative terminal of your 12V battery. Connect the red cable from the charger to the positive terminal of the 12V battery.
Step 7
Wrap the fence charger's ground wire to a rod. Hammer the rod into the ground near the charger.
Step 8
Wrap the fence charger's electrically charged hot wire to the fence wire you want to charge.
Step 9
Turn on the fence charger.
TIPS AND WARNINGS
- TIP : You need solid wooden corner posts on each side of an electric fence.
Construct one side at a time.
Check the battery, and make sure it is fully charged daily.
