Do-It-Yourself Vacuum Keeps Combine Clean

Do-It-Yourself Vacuum Keeps Combine Clean COMBINES Accessories 30-2-4 Instead of blowing chaff and grain dust off his combine, Saskatchewan farmer Phil Simrose set up a simple vacuum that gets the job done well without blowing dust up in his face. He uses a gas-powered leaf blower/vacuum with a 15-ft. section of hose clamped to it. He carries the light flexible hose onto the combine and dust and debris is deposited a distance away, on the ground. "It works great to suck up dust and I also use it to clean out the solid chaff that builds up around the rotor, under the front plate," he says. He uses the blower's original rigid plastic tube for his vacuum intake but thinks a more flexible nozzle might work better. One problem he has is that static electricity builds up because of chaff traveling through the pipe. "One possibility I'm considering, is to hook up a wire that would connect to the vacuum, and hang down to touch the combine, discharging the static," he says. Simrose says he likes his system better than using a shop vac because the big hose won't plug up and he doesn't have to keep emptying a shop vac's 5-gal. receptacle. Although his exhaust pipe is ribbed because that's what he had on hand, Simrose says any flexible, lightweight hose would do. "At first, I tried putting on a 2 1/2-in. dia. hose, but that was too small. The 5-in. dia. hose is working well," he says. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Phil Simrose, Box 102, Mortlac, Sask., Canada S0H 3E0 (ph 306 355-2709).

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