Treadle Scale Makes Bagging Easy

Treadle Scale Makes Bagging Easy CROPS Miscellaneous Selling shelled corn for home heating and also to deer hunters is a nice side business for Howard Arnold but bagging the grain used to be a slow and tedious job Since he came up with his bagger syste with treadle scale filling 50-lb bags is now fast and easy
We can bag a ton of corn in 40 min says Arnold When the bag hits 50 lbs the treadle scale shuts off the auger We used to have to weigh every bag on a platform scale Now we just weigh once in a while
The bagging system is almost as simple as the treadle scale with shut-off Arnold took an old gravity box and mounted it on a post and beam framework He attached a ladder at one end and installed an access door and a roof hatch
The posts are sections of old telephone poles buried to frost level Beam s tie them together and provide a framework to hold the gravity box
We used rough cut pine to add 5 ft to the sides of the wagon and covered it with a plywood roof and shingles says Arnold It holds 8 to 10 tons and can be filled with an auger
Arnold fabricated a new chute for the wagon to direct the grain into the elevator The elevator is an 8-ft length of an old 16-ft grain elevator It carries the corn to the bagger A cut out 5-gal bucket directs the grain into a bag The top of the bag slides over the bucket while its bottom drops into a second bucket fixed to the 2 by 12-in treadle scale board
The treadle scale is like a teeter-totter explains Arnold There is a 50-lb weight on the other end of the board When the sack reaches 50 lbs the board tips and activates a shut-off switch for the elevator
Once Arnold has replaced the full bag with an empty one he hits a toggle switch and the process is repeated
The plywood shingles and screws to hang the plywood and siding are about the only things we bought for the project says Arnold We ve used it for about 4 years without a problem We even had some guys use it to bag rye grass seed
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup Howard Arnold 5370 Old Easton Rd Doylestown Penn 18902 ph 215 766-8238; Howard Arnold@exeloncorp com

To read the rest of this story, download this issue below or click here to register with your account number.