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Gravity Drop Box Leaves Piles Of Chaff
Leaving chaff and seed in piles on a field is a good thing if you have cattle to turn loose after harvest. It's especially good if you can trap the chaff without spending a lot of money to do so. Ken Schumacher had the cattle and an idea for a cheap trap.
"I wanted to be able to spread the straw back on the land
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Gravity Drop Box Leaves Piles Of Chaff COMBINES Accessories 31-2-11 Leaving chaff and seed in piles on a field is a good thing if you have cattle to turn loose after harvest. It's especially good if you can trap the chaff without spending a lot of money to do so. Ken Schumacher had the cattle and an idea for a cheap trap.
"I wanted to be able to spread the straw back on the land, yet give the cows something to eat," says the Saskatchewan farmer.
What Schumacher ended up with was thousands of 24 by 50-in. piles on about 500-600 acres. Each contains 10-15 lbs. of chaff and seeds. The secret is a gravity-powered drop box that tripped when full. Mounted behind the sieve and in front of the straw spreader, it catches the chaff, but doesn't interfere with the straw.
He built a two-sided box with a sheet of plywood about 58 in. wide, to match the size of the sieve opening, and 30 in. deep. A frame was made from 1 by 1-in. tubing, and the 10-in. sides were made with plywood.
A shaft was attached to bottom of the box and about 6 in. from its front. The shaft rides in two pillow block bearings. The bearings are each bolted to pieces of angle iron that are bolted to the bottom of the combine axle and extend back and parallel to the ground.
A large block of wood, attached to the bottom of the collection plate and ahead of the shaft, serves as a counter weight to the board. A 2-in. steel pipe about 62 in. long is attached opposite the block and extends across the board to rest on the angle irons. It serves both as a weight and as a stop to keep the empty box in collection position.
"As the box fills, the weight of the chaff and the board exceed the counterweights, and the chaff drops in a pile," explains Schumacher. "When it empties, it drops back into position. A chain limits how far it can tip so I don't need to worry about it if I am backing the combine up."
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup,
Ken Schumacher, Box 549, Delisle, Sask., Canada S0L 0P0 (ph 306 493-2308).
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