"Poor Man's" 3-Pt. Tile Stringer

"Poor Man's" 3-Pt. Tile Stringer TILING MACHINES Tiling Machines 22-5-32 "It's a handy way to handle big reels of tile and saved me a lot of money," says Tim Prestin, Wenona, Ill., who built his own 3-pt. tile stringer out of an old 3-pt. anhydrous applicator toolbar. Prestin mounts the tile stringer on his Deere 4010 tractor. He buys 5- or 6-in. dia. plastic tile wound onto 10-ft. dia. reels. To build the tile stringer he removed the shanks from the 10-ft. long toolbar and welded a pair of 10-ft. arms, made from rectangular steel tubing, onto both ends of the toolbar. A flat metal bracket with a hook at the bottom was then welded onto the end of each arm. To pick up a reel he shoves a 2-in. dia. steel pipe through the reel, then backs the tile stringer up to it and raises the arms until they hook onto the pipe. To lay the tile he first uses a backhoe to make a trench in the ground. He drops one end of the tile in the trench and throws dirt on top to anchor it. Then he drives forward alongside the trench to lay out the tile. "It's a simple, poor man's way to string tile," says Prestin, who built the unit two years ago. "I put in about 8,000 ft. of tile each year with it. I bought the steel tubing for the arms at a surplus store and spent a total of only about $50 to build it. Commercial pull-type tile stringing trailers sell for $2,500 to $4,500. "For big jobs I lay the tile on top of the ground and then feed it into a tiling machine. It also works great when used with a late-model backhoe and clamp-on laser." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Tim Prestin, Box 697, Wenona, Ill. 61377 (ph 815 853-4007).

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