Welding Tips and Tricks

Bunch of 1inch square tubing 8ft od. spools/wheels, been hacking them up and making round bale feeders

Only 1/8 wall tubing.
Using a Hobart Handler 135(the old ones) maxed out with c25.

Nice reuse of materials John. Just don't crush it when you drop those 2000# bales in it.

Yep these puppies get the snot beat out of them.
I'll get you some pics of some that have seen better days.
I'm constantly running out to the different farms, to repair them when guys back into them and bust them up.
3/32 6011 at 65amps and some chain binders.
I have about eighty(80) of these "wheels", it takes two of them to make a feeder, and about three hours.

I'll get some more pics.

~John

Got a pic of one in use? I'm not picturing how such a feeder would "work". Large round bale in the center, I imagine, but why? Does having the frame ensure "equal access for all"?

Difficult to teach cows " table manners " ! only their necks fit through the gaps so it limits how much feed they can trample & cr#p on ! plus in the spring when there are little circles all over the field you can tell town folk that aliens landed there !

That feeder in the pic is not complete, I still have to put 8 more vertical members in...
That makes 18inches in between vertical members, just enough that a cows neck can fit in.
I'll get you some pis of my feeders in use, but here's some of the web

Another one of the old interweb.




I'm gonna be using metal roofing, like rolled coregated quanset hut roofing, and self tapping screws, to go around the bottom 2/3 of the feeder.

I'll be getting you guys some pics of my actual feeder, "soon"

~John

Here's another good example.

~John

Re-using what you have is fine - but corrugated roof sheet is going to leave some right nasty edges

Done. sort of.

I think your right noddy, it would leave some nasty edges.
I could possibly take and bend/wrap the top edge over to form sort of a "pipe" railing on the top????

What do you think?

~John

John,
I found the problem with your welding....you are missing something in your helmet
-Jonathan

AKweldshop wrote:

Here's another good example.

LOL. Thanks, now I understand. Just had to breakout the PlaySkool toys for me to see the big picture.

Superiorwelding wrote:John,
I found the problem with your welding....you are missing something in your helmet
-Jonathan

Hey Johnathan,
That helmet is for grinding, I stacked three clear lenses in there.
Makes the best grinding helmet.
~John

Here's a feeder that's sunk in the ground about 2ft.

Here's one thats been in use for about 2 years, Welded together with a Lincoln 88amp flux core welder.
Still hanging together.
And one more thing, always move your feeder around every other bale, it will keep it from getting built up.
Just hate it when farmers just let the feeders build up and get buried.

I never found an effective way to roll the top of corrugated sheet over to form a safe edge especially in a circle - it just won't cooperate trying to bend it in 2 planes - it's also quite thin ( the cheap commercial ones I repaired tend to be around 14 gauge )- it's just askingfor trouble & a vets bill ! is there a steel yard around you ? always worth asking them if they have any seconds / damaged / cover sheets at a good price - way easier to use flat - I think if you have to use the corrugated then the way to go maybe cut a 3" or so wide strip down the 8foot side of some plywood wrap that around the top edge of the sheets allowing it to cover the top edge by a small amount & fix right through both - I've had good success with the small self drilling fixings used for fixing roof sheet on to purlings - available in several lengths & generally just under 1/4" diameter - just need a drill with a suitable socket on to drive them.

I'll look around for a better substitute for the roofing....
And yeah those self tapping screws are more helpful than most people think.

~John

Got it patched back up, and back on the truck, ready to put in service.

thanks for viewing.

~John