Tip-Up Warns Him Water Is Off

Tip-Up Warns Him Water Is Off MISCELLANEOUS EQUIPMENT Miscellaneous 34-4-19 In the winter, Wisconsin farmer Craig Carlson uses a tip-up when ice fishing to let him know when he's hooked a fish. During the summer, he uses a tip-up to let him know when he needs to check the couplings on the mile-long hose delivering water to his 70 beef cows that graze in a different paddock each day. The tip-up - a cedar stick with yellow and orange ribbons - is attached to a water shut-off gadget Carlson made. He built it four years ago to save wear and tear on his pump whenever hose couplings loosened, and water leaked. After talking to a plumber friend who said there were no simple solutions, Carlson came up with a mechanical system with a pump switch, a bow trigger release, and half a spring from a storm door. "If the pressure drops, the pump switch senses it," Carlson explains. "A spring (trigger release) closes the valve and flips up the spring-loaded stick like a tip-up." The parts are mounted on a piece of wood and slipped into a plastic tote on cement blocks, which is visible from the kitchen window. "I told my kids I'll pay them $5 if they see the flag is up," Carlson says. "It alerts me to the fact that there's a problem, and I find the leak faster. When it's hot it can be an emergency if the cattle don't have water." Carlson calls his gadget H2 NO and built it from off-the-shelf parts and scrap materials for less than $50. He has also built them for other grazers, and will sell plans to others who are interested. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Craig Carlson, 10849 3rd Ln., Athens, Wis. 54411 (ph 715 443-6647; ninepatch@airrun.net).

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