Readers Respond To Exploding Toolbar Story

Readers Respond To Exploding Toolbar Story TOOLBARS Toolbars 23-3-9 Six years ago our neighbor had a fire in his machine shed. The shed was about one third full of round bales and the rest contained machinery. A Landoll chisel plow was backed up close to the bales. One day the bales somehow caught fire. As soon as I heard about the fire I started driving toward the farm. I was about 1/4 mile away when I heard a tremendous explosion. When I arrived I found out that the main beam of the chisel plow had exploded and went flying right up through the shed's roof like a big steaming missile. It landed only about 10 ft. away from the fire department's new pumper truck. The beam was all twisted up and turned inside out. We heard two or three more smaller explosions as the fire continued to burn. The next day after the fire was out I went back. There were three or four sections of 2-ft. long sealed box tubing on the chisel plow that hadn't exploded but were swelled up as round as pipes. I don't know if there were shavings inside the beam that exploded. I do know that all the other beams that were opened up later didn't have any shavings or punchouts inside them. I don't know why chisel plow manufacturers don't drill a small hole in the bottom of the toolbar and put a plastic plug in it to let out pressure. I also don't know how likely it is that the same conditions could be generated to cause this situation to happen again. (Milton Weaver, Wooster, Ohio)

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