Seems like i never have enough steel. Where do you guys get your steel for your fences? These are the type of deals i look for.
Those pipes would make nice brace or corner posts, with a little wlding and fabrication. But for fence posts, substituting for t-posts. I think you would need special clips though. Probably wouldnt be good for running barbwire without some custom fabrication to keep the wires from sliding down the pipe. Same would apply for pannels or woven wire. T-posts have barbs to help wire sliding down.
But I seen something like this before. The guy drilled holes in the pipe and ran smooth wires for his horse pasture. I overheard him saying he was going to have to replace it because the pipes were staring to rot away at the base. Maybe coating the bottoms of the pipes with rust proofing might be something to consider before you use a excavator to push the pipes down into the ground. Then capping the tops to keep the inside dry may also help. I like that they are hollow when you push them down, they will be good and tight and should stay put.
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Looks nice but my bull would rub that fence down pretty quick. He a gentle giant and has great demeanor but like most cattle they rub anything they can. There’s really nothing to help keep the fence from sliding down the poles like barbs.
I learned my lessons the hard way sometimes… I made a mistake of putting two brangus feeder steers on the pasture. They both were cry baby, fence wrecking, bull gate bending, high jumping, escape artist champions. When they were loaded on the trailer pointed in the direction of the processor, I actually breathed a sigh of relief 
. I laugh about it now after everything has been repaired. But at the time, processing date couldnt come soon enough.
Brahman has the nick name fence wrecker. I got a little experience with Brangus (brahman / angus cross). Never again will I make that mistake and besides the beef really wasnt anything to write home about either.
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I grew up chasing cattle. My dad loved a bargain and when he went to the sale barn alone it never failed he showed up home with every jumper, runt, half blind, bottle baby, mean, weak, sick calf , cow, pig , or horse in the entire sale barn that sold for cheap. I had no problem with him buying that motley crue of misfits and brawlers, but the problem started when he stuck 2 gallon bottles in me and my sisters hands and a pig slopping bucket in another systers hands. My mom and i smelled that old spice aftershave, and we would hear that motor start about as soon as he got back. We would look out the window and see some fence jumpers headed for the highway. I can relate to what you’re saying. I think you had it worse, and a lot of people do. There is nothing easy about farming beaides the talking about it and the daydreaming. There is a reason that steak tastes really good!
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Tractor or Rural King. I sold or gave away all of my T posts after I planted the first trees in '08 - '09. Then when I needed to plant more trees, I had to buy the T posts all over again. I will keep a bunch of them when I think I won’t need them again.
I don’t have any land, so don’t need big fence projects. But every tree gets a cage until it is big enough to be deer proof.
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Yes… and you know the reason why 
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My last buy was in 2020 or so and I was able to get 8’ T-posts @ Tractor Supply for $6.50 each. I think thats the price of a 6 footer now. I called all over, no place could match them, Cooperative Extension was making suggestions, but nothing worked out and covid was really making it difficult. The guy on Country View on YouTube uses alot of that pipe for fencing, he buys it used from the gas/oil industry. He,s in southern Illinois.
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One place my dad buys t-posts is at Menard. I think they have reasonable price and as a bonus they have an 11% rebate to spend at the store. 8' Studded T Post 1.25# at Menards®
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For orchard fencing projects, buying bulk steel smartly can save a lot. A few good sources people often use:
- Local scrap/recycling yards – often have posts, pipe, and angle iron at much lower cost.
- Farm auctions / estate sales – great for bulk deals on used steel and fencing materials.
- Steel supply yards – if you need uniform lengths and heavy gauge, buying direct in bulk is usually cheaper than hardware stores.
- Craigslist / Facebook Marketplace – surplus pipe, oilfield tubing, or even old corral panels can often be repurposed for orchard fences.
- Co-ops or fencing contractors – sometimes they sell leftover or odd-lot steel at discount.
If you’re fencing an orchard, oilfield pipe or drill stem steel is especially popular—durable, cheap in bulk, and easy to weld.
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Watch out Clark, the county is going to come knocking, asking “where’d you get all these street sign posts?”
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I just wanted to give you orchard fence makers a tip on welders you might not know. They make handheld ark welders now and they cost very little https://www.amazon.com/s?k=handheld+arc+welder&adgrpid=1341406659543226&hvadid=83838191006991&hvbmt=be&hvdev=m&hvlocphy=86421&hvnetw=o&hvqmt=e&hvtargid=kwd-83839035874819%3Aloc-190&hydadcr=28333_14518102&mcid=8ca43f5b4ea634848a447b65983a2fee&msclkid=a97eca4ef3ed1e9f13fda2826bf3f975&tag=hydusmmsn-20&ref=pd_sl_7aob8rhet0_e
@Audi_o_phile no worries these are the really thick older style type of posts not used in decades unless by someone like me. @Fusion_power i think these would make a really good solar panel rack for mounting panels. Might be worth looking for used ones like i did.
https://growingfruit.org/t/solar-system-design-solar-panel-rack-bulk-steel-framing/44109
Literally we have never had so many great resources available for such a small amount of money. Steel is an incredible building material!
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Hi Clark,
I look for deals like that all the time. In fact, if I could find that ad, I might go buy some of that pipe, assuming you already got all you wanted. But I don’t see the ad on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist.
I’m currently looking for steel pipe for culverts. Minimum 7" diameter. If you happen to come across some, please let me know.
I’ve heard of those little welders. I suppose the advantage is that you can use just a 115v generator to run them, with at least a #12 extension cord.
As long as they hold up, I suppose you have a light duty portable welder for cheap.
If someone is looking for a stationary welder, I’d recommend an old used Lincoln tombstone welder, or the Miller Thunderbolt equivalent. You can pick those up all day long for less than $200 on Facebook/Craigslist. At auctions you can pick them up for less than $100 generally. They will weld up to about 1/2" plate.
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I have some super thick 6 or 8" steel pipe wrapped in asphault. It is some very heavy duty stuff. I will need to measure it and see which it is. The sign posts was one of those ads they put up and i asked them just to buy the pile and they offerred it to me at $3 a stick.
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Oh my gosh. That is insanely cheap.
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I just buy bulk and paid them $200 to deliver, loading and unloading. I never met them personally. I asked a friend to handle the transaction for me after i made the deal over the phone. They were asking $5-7 a post i think and i just told them they could go that way or they could just name a price and i would buy all their steel. The scrap yard was plan b apparently. It was all reasonable but steel is dirt cheap right now. People cant move it and i’m one of those people that everyone likes to deal with because they get their money and no complications. If they need machines i can get them, if they have weird hours i will send a friend. I just work the deal around their needs. It is not worth it for me, to buy less than $1000 in steel because it takes as much work and time for me to setup a smaller deal. If someone just needs a stick or 5 i just give it to a friend. A guy once was delivering some free woodships and i gave him an 8" x10’ stick he needed for his bumper. He asked if he could pay me for it and i said you already did with the woodchips. He brought me 9 more loads. A friend brought me that steel for free they were throwing away when they cleaned up the jobsite. Sometimes i do favors for friends or friends of friends. Everything in this world comes back to us in some way.
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I do the same type of thing. I got like 25 loads of wood chips this season and always gave the guys a small box of fruit. I figured it was a cheap trade for the woodchips, and the guys seemed to appreciate it.
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Just bringing this up again steelis cheap right now. Finding what you are after can be a challenge though when you do it should be well worth it. If i purchased this from them i would just buy it all
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