Home-Built Tire Cutter Still In Use After 20 Years

Home-Built Tire Cutter Still In Use After 20 Years TIRES/WHEELS Miscellaneous 27-1-28 What to do with used tires has always been a problem, says Ray Mickan, Mickan Motors, Georgetown, Texas. The company was started by Ray's father Daniel in 1927 and used tires have always plagued the business. In the early 1980's, landfills required tires to be quartered so they'd take up less space. To accomplish this, Ray built a hydraulic cutter that's still being used today. It mounts on a tractor 3-pt hitch and uses a hydraulically powered knife to cut through the tires. He says the design is simple. It's shaped like an æL', with the horizontal bottom of the L, which points back from the tractor, made from two side-by-side lengths of 2 x 3 in. heat-treated steel bar. "The bar stock is very hard, so the corners retain a sharp edge. They're spaced just far enough apart to let the knife slip between them, so it cuts something like a pair of scissors," he explains. The top link fastens about halfway up the vertical side of the L. The knife is hinged at the back of the L, in the corner, and there's a hydraulic cylinder on top. This design lets it cut all sizes of tires, from small cars all the way up to large ones off of tractors and construction equipment. Mickan says there was a time during the late æ80s and early æ90s when his used tires were cut into smaller pieces and used for fill in septic drainfields. "An official from the county health department was buying tires here and saw workers cutting the tires into quarters for the landfill. He suggested we cut them smaller - in pieces about the width of the palm of your hand - and use them instead of gravel. We cut up some that way and tried them. It worked great and for several years, we took the time to cut them into small pieces," he says. Changes in tire disposal fees imposed under Texas law made it uneconomical to pay a worker to spend that much time cutting up tires, so Mickan discontinued selling used tires for drainfield fill. He says the cutter is still being used to cut tires into quarters for the landfill, though. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ray Mickan, Mickan Motor Co., 3401 FM 972, Georgetown, Texas 78626 (ph 512 868-6650; fax 512 863-2644).

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