Home-Built Tile Carriers

Home-Built Tile Carriers TILING MACHINES Tiling Machines 24-4-36 We make portable bunk feeders, some of them up to 30 ft. long, by cutting 24-in. dia., 15-ft. long pipes in half and then welding them together end to end. The bunks mount on old car wheels and axles. We can easily pull 100 ft. of bunks around with a 3-wheeler ATV. The bunks don't weigh much and handle nice because the wheels are positioned at the center and all follow in the same tracks. A steel rod above the center of the bunks keeps cattle out. We made tile carriers out of a pair of big 6-ft. dia. steel reels. The reels are connected together by a long steel pipe that mounts over the bale loader on my front-end loader. We made a metal framework for each reel to connect it to the pipe. With two reels we can carry two different sizes of tile. For example, we can haul 150 ft. of 6-in. tile on one reel and 250 ft. of 4-in. tile on the other reel. The reels are supported by steel I-beams originally used by phone or electric companies to support large reels of cable. Each reel slips onto the pipe and is held on with a piece of chain. We've built several clear span, metal storage sheds on our own for less than $1 per sq. ft. One shed has 72 ft. of clear span width and is 48 ft. deep. To make the trusses we buy used steel bar joists from demolition jobs around big cities in our area, where they have a lot of flat roof buildings. We weld two joists together to make a single truss. The 72 by 48-ft. building has three such trusses. Our total cost to build the 48 by 72-ft. shed was only about $2,000, which included $1,200 worth of galvanized roofing. (Donald Davies, Rt. 1, Box 194, Dawn, Mo. 84638 ph 660 745-3350; fax 3360)

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.