Unconventional Broken Fence Pole Removal

After a wind storm took out several sections of my fence, I was faced with getting the broken post out of the ground before I could proceed with installing the replacement post. In the past I have always dug them out by hand, but this time I wanted to see if I could just pull them out instead.

My idea was to screw a long lag screw deep enough into the broken post so that I could use the screw as an anchor to pull the post up and out. I would be able to use my cordless impact driver to drive the screw down, but I had no idea what I could use to wench it up. Looking around my shop and tool shed, the following is the method I came up with.

I wouldn't think that anyone is going to have the parts I used to accomplish this task, so forgive me for not listing any. I do think that the main idea (the screw into the wood), MIGHT be worth trying. Since I wasn't planning on spending any money on this, I didn't have much to lose.

My plan was to pull the post straight out of the ground with the least amount of digging or physical effort.

Looking around my tool shed, I found this ground stamper I had made many years ago. I think it may have been when I first put the fence in. Looks like I welded a piece of flat iron to a section of iron tubing, filled it with concrete and set a pipe in it. I'm not sure if it was a great idea as a stamper, but it is pretty heavy and sturdy. It seemed like it would work just fine for this project. It was even threaded at the top and made it ideal to fasten something up there.

I used an old broken caster for a swivel and fulcrum. I included a picture of what one of these casters looks like brand new.

Lying beside the caster in the first photo are 2 old pipe adapters.

The pipe adapters worked well for interfacing between the caster stud and the end of the stamper pipe. I welded the adapter to the stud so that it would not come loose.

To complete the next part of the assembly, I went back to my scrap metal and found a short piece of pipe that could be used to place a jack handle into. I drilled through the end of the pipe and inserted an eye bolt. I took the broken center portion of the caster wheel and welded it to the pipe.

My idea to get the broken post out of the ground was to screw a really long lag screw down into the center of the broken post. After the screw was down as far as possible, I would put a chain on it and pull it straight up. Looking through my junk drawer, I came up with some items that I could use to fasten a chain to the screw. It had to faster in such a way that the screw would be free to turn. All parts were loose and held together by gravity. As soon as the main hook is released it all falls apart.

Now it was time to see if this was actually going to work. I took my jig and some replacement fence post out to the yard to give it a try. You can see where my project manager wanted me to start. Using a small cordless impact driver, I set the lag screw into the broken post.

The assisting hardware pieces were assembled unto the lag screw as shown.

Using some chain, more S hooks, and an old jack handle; I pulled the the broken post out with ease.

Old post is out and the new post is in. Since some of the post were fairly far gone before the storm came, it was easy enough for the wind to finish the job. There were a couple of post that I could not drive the screw down far enough to get to solid wood. I may have been able to succeed with those had had a longer screw.