Tomato Cages

Wanted some cages that were easy to store, ie. that would fold flat, and be relatively cheap.  I decided to build my own.  Settled on using some cattle fencing, 4x12 panels of heavy duty welded galvanized rods that will last forever.   Had to borrow the neighbors truck <same one used to haul the alpaca poop> to get them home, after first cutting them in half at the local Tractor Supply.

Then came the rough design.  Priority was easy storage... hanging them on the wall of the barn.  Decided to cut them down into 24" pieces... 8 pieces per panel... equals two complete cages per panel.  How big to make them?  I saw several online that ranged from 12" up to 24".  Played around with different sized and settled on 18" square.  They would fit in the beds with some room to plant around them.

First I cut off the bottom horizontal rail.  This left 3 spikes per side to press down into the beds.  I used a piece of square steel with holes in it as a jig of sort, to bend every other bar all the way up to the side.  These would eventually form the hooks to attach the sides together.  Like this... <the trimmed bottom is at the top of the pic>

The excess was trimmed, and the center loop was offset to form a lock of sorts... so the sides would not slide around.

Offset center loop...

Then the sides were put together and the loops bent closed.  The finished cages looked like this.

This weekend they are going to be painted and then placed over the plants.  Future pics to come.

They were pretty easy to make once I decided what I wanted, and cost was minimal... each panel costing $22... and I got 2 cages per panel.  I wanted to powdercoat them at a cost of $16 each, but a friend of mine talked some sense into me.  I was in love with my cages, but not enough to spend almost $250 to bake some paint on them.  I'm gonna prime and spray my own paint on them.  They're gonna look purty when i'm done.... hopefully this weekend.