I’m trying some lighter-weight drip tape this year, for the simple reason that it is cheaper. All my older stuff was 15 mils thick, but the Ro-Drip that I bought this year is only 8 mils. It makes sense that it won’t last as long, but I’m Scottish enough to eke a few extra years out of it, I think. Time will tell.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise that the new lighter tape blows around more easily in a breeze, but I hadn’t really thought about it, which explains why I didn’t order any hold-downs for it. Besides, there’s the Scottish thing to consider. Why buy what you can make?
I inherited a couple of good-sized rolls of wire from my Dad (yep, Scottish), who probably picked them up for a bargain price at one of the many auctions he used to visit. The wire was thick enough to make good hold-downs, so the only actual thinking necessary was to figure out a quick way to bend them into shape. This is what worked for me:
1. Put a one inch wide stick in a vise.
2. Put a mark the stick 12 inches from the right end.
3. Make another mark 5.5 inches from the right end.
4. Lay the wire on the stick with one end on the 12 inch mark, and cut the wire at the right end.
Cut the wire
5. Slide the wire to the right so its left end is at the 5.5 inch mark. Bend it over the end of the stick.
The first bend
6. Lay the wire across the stick as shown and bend it over the back edge of the stick.
The second bend and done
The legs did need straightening a little, due to the curve of the coil the wire was in, but it took very little time to make each one. I ended up with a bracket that is 1 inch across with 5.5 inch legs.
Now admittedly, I’m not saving all that much money, as you can buy these for about 12 cents apiece, but Jings, Laddie, mine were free!
