He Built His Own Yard Equipment

He Built His Own Yard Equipment FARM HOME Lawn Mowers 31h 38 When Dave Braun built a new home on 5 acres near Sheboygan Wis he had some steep ditches to mow along the busy highway that runs by his place He decided to make a ditch mower out of a spare mower deck I had to run belts behind the tractor to run it and I wanted it to tilt either way and go up and down he explains I made an angle iron frame and made it work -- eventually Braun also built a big lawn vacuum after suffering from sticker shock when pricing new vacuums He turned to his shop and stash of parts He started with his neighbor s old wood chipper and modified it with a pivoting vacuum that chops and sucks leaves into a chest freezer he mounted on top He cut the end to make a door cut an angle on top similar to commercial models and painted it green so the neighbors wouldn t think I was pulling a freezer around Braun says It holds a lot of leaves because it chops them up first he notes He also completed a couple of smaller projects -- mounting an old pull-behind sprayer on the front of his tractor and making a wagon from the frames of two junked Deere riding mowers With lots of labor a few purchased parts and fasteners Braun s John Deere fleet has cost him very little money and keeps his yard in great shape Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Dave Braun W2289 Playbird Rd Sheboygan Wis 53083 ph 920 565-7221; braund@tds net

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