Crop Duster Converted To Low-Cost Bin Cleaner/Shop Vac

Crop Duster Converted To Low-Cost Bin Cleaner/Shop Vac CROP STORAGE Handling Equipment 19-2-11 Garnett Love, Le Prairie, Manitoba, salvaged an old pull-type crop duster to come up with a grain bin cleaner that also doubles as a shop vac. The crop duster was originally equipped with a pto-driven fan, steel hopper, and 33-ft. boom with holes spaced 4 in. apart. The fan was mounted on the back side below the hopper and blew air into a manifold equipped with rubber hoses that led to each side of the boom. Love removed the boom and moved the manifolds onto the top of the hopper, then cut a hole into the bottom of the hopper that lines up with the air in-take opening for the fan. He mounted a baffle made from corrugated tin inside the hopper, as well as a screen, to keep grain and dust from reaching the fan. He also mounted a rubber seal along the hopper lid to make it air tight. A 3-in. dia., 25-ft. long air seeder hose hooks up to the manifold and is connected to two 5-ft. long shop vac hoses hooked together. Different shop vac nozzles can be hooked up to the hoses. Love used a length of pvc pipe to extend the reach of one nozzle that's used to clean bin walls. "It has a lot more suction than a conventional shop vac so it really does a good job. I can get the bin walls so clean they almost look like new," says Love. "Another ad-vantage is that there's no dust inside the bin while I'm working and no filters to get dirty. Small particles of dust or dirt are blown out the back of the machine through a homemade spout. Bigger particles are trapped inside the hopper. I use a trap door on the bottom of the hopper to empty it out.,, Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Gar-net Love, Portage Le Prairie, Manitoba, Canada RI N 3A1 (ph 204 857-8120).

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