Home Built Portable Bale Feeder

Home Built Portable Bale Feeder BALE HANDLING Bale Handling (31B) 22-2-36 I built this portable bale feeder from scratch, modeling it after a commercial model. I use it for both small square bales and big round bales. The main outer frame is 24 by 8-ft. and the inside frame is 4 ft., 6 in., by 21 ft. The sides of the feeder are 44 in. high. The top and bottom rails are 2 by 4-in. tubing and the rest are 2-in. sq. tubing. The hay saver pan is 6 in. deep with an 8-in. high "V" in the middle. To bend the 1/8-in. sheet metal for the pan, I had a welding shop use a plasma cutter to make a cut every other couple inches where I wanted it bent. By doing that I could bend it in the angle needed and then weld it back together. I welded pieces of 2 by 2-in. angle iron into the joints for support where the 4 by 8-ft. sheets meet. The rear axle came out of a 13-ft. Oliver disk which I had to narrow up a little. The front axle came off a Kewanee disk. I had a welding shop make the spindle and used 3-in. sq. tubing for the spindle and the hitch. I used about 20 lbs. of welding rod on the project. When I was done I gave it two coats of paint. I figure I saved about one third of the cost of buying a new one if you don't count my time so I'm not sure if I would do it again. It turned into quite a lengthy project. (Tim Lynn, 2353 135th St., Spirit lake, Iowa 51360 ph 712 336-5004)

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