Spring-Loaded “Pusher Tubes” Speed Up Bin Sweep Auger

Spring-Loaded “Pusher Tubes” Speed Up Bin Sweep Auger AUGERS Paul Sears was watching his nephew use a sweep auger to clean out the last pile of corn in his 32-ft dia bin “He was holding a shovel while standing on one foot and pushing his other foot against the auger to force it into the pile and using a shovel at the same time to throw any corn that spilled over the top of the auger back onto the pile It was hard on his back and if his foot slipped it could be dangerous He already had a bad back so it wasn’t a good situation I decided to do something about it ” He came up with a couple of long pvc “pusher tubes” that use spring compression to put constant pressure on the auger “The pusher tubes increase the capacity of the auger to reduce bin unloading time and also reduce the shoveling work ” says Sears The 2 tubes are spaced about 7 ft apart One tube measures 12 1/2 ft long by 2 in in dia and the other tube is 16 1/2 ft long by 3 in in dia One end of each tube attaches with wire to a bolt on a 2 by 6 board that’s attached to the top of the auger and the other end of the tube lodges against the bin wall The tube is made in several jointed sections One section is capped and has a long spring inside it with about 20 in of compression The operator sets the compression by pulling back on a metal handle “The spring stays compressed until the auger moves away from it Then you move the pusher tubes to a new location on the bin wall and reset the spring ” says Sears “The board helps keep grain from spilling over the auger ” Sears is working with a local inventor and says if there’s enough interest he may look for a manufacturer Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Paul Sears 824 Maple St Grinnell Iowa 50112 ph 641 275-1445

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