Farm Shop Modifications

Farm Shop Modifications FARM SHOP Maintenance 20-5-31 Roger & Bruce Elliott, Montrose, Ill.: "We put on a 40 by 60-ft. addition with 16-ft. of clearance in 1992 so we could pull combines inside to work on them," explains Roger. "The extra ceiling height also allowed us to set up a handy storage area above our 10 by 12-ft. office, which we built in one corner of the addition." They built four 32-in. wide heavy-duty shelving units designed to hold a variety of parts. Access is gained by climbing a ladder to the loft. They hold parts for combines and tractors. The Elliotts built a hydraulic hose center where they make their own hose. They built a 7 1/2-ft. tall by 2-ft. wide stand out of 2-in. box tubing. It's fitted with four wood reels holding four different types of hose. A home-made cut-off machine mounts on the left side of the stand. It's powered by a 1/3 hp electric motor and uses a worn out blade off their Makita chop saw as a cutter. A Weather Head collar crimp they bought at a sale for $140 quicktaches to the right side of the stand. It handles collars up to 3/4-in. in dia. and is portable so they can take it to the field. Another improvement the Elliotts made is a pair of extension cords suspended from the ceiling. One is a 110-volt cable fitted with a standard 3-prong plug and the other is a 220-volt cable fited with a 50-amp plug to run their Mig welder and plasma cutter. The 50-ft. cords are wound in 8-ft. coils that hang from iron rings that slide back and forth loosely on a 9 ga. steel wire about 1 in. below the ceiling.

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