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He Produces New Shares For Old Plows
Steve Rea and his company, Ploworx, produce tough-to-find fitted plowshares, moldboards, landsides and other parts for old and outdated plows. Rea says his company is one of the few anywhere in the U.S. or Canada to manufacture new, low-draft yet high-performance replacement parts for plows and tillage equipment.
  “We currently have parts for the more popular Deere, I-H, Minneapolis-Moline, Massey-Ferguson, Ford-Ferguson, Dearborn, A-C, Case and Oliver brands. We custom-make conventional blacksmith shares and moldboards, shins, landsides and other tillage parts using forged carbon steel.”
  Ploworx has no affiliation with any of the OEMs, but the products it offers are made with tooling purchased from Crescent Forge and Shovel, a well-known company that closed in 2012. Rea says there’s a big market for his products by Amish farmers, as well as people involved in competitive plowing, hobby farmers, and plow collectors.
  Rea has verified how well his products work through field testing. In 2014 he ran independent tests on various equipment and learned that the older fitted style bases he produces require about 1/3 to 1/2 the power needed by plows equipped with throwaway-style bases. He says the quality of plowing with his equipment is superior at lower speeds, which is important to farmers using draft horses and people inolved in competitive plowing.
  Rea has also made design improvements to several products, including a new version of the old Oliver sod bottom. That design, which shows more curvature for better soil twist as it rolls off the moldboard, works on Oliver 219 and 419 plows, on the Ford 101, and the Minneapolis-Moline plow. Ploworx moldboards are also drilled for extensions that help improve trash coverage.
  Prices for shares are in the $125 range, plus shipping. Ploworx carries an inventory of many shares and Rea says he’s willing to do short manufacturing runs if needed. Parts made from patterns are available in 3 to 4 weeks, but custom products require more time. His business also hard-faces plow shares, rebuilds cast-iron shares, repairs moldboards and helps people locate older replacement plow parts and hard-to-find bolts and hardware.
  Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Ploworx, 13909 Duck Creek Road, Salem, Ohio 44460 (ph 330 332-9386; www.ploworx.com).


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2018 - Volume #42, Issue #2