Student-Built Cotton Picker Grill

Student-Built Cotton Picker Grill AG WORLD 30-3-24 "My wife says it looks like we took a cotton picker, put it in the dryer and shrunk it," says Shane Louwerens, an ag teacher at Northwest Mississippi Community College in Senatobia, Miss. The school's 20-member Ag Club spent about 6 months building the 9 by 5-ft. long "50 hamburger" propane grill that looks like a 9935 Deere cotton picker. The grill comes with a full set of lights, hidden cabinet, fire extinguisher and even a DVD/CD player. Louwerens came up with the idea for the grill while looking at cotton pickers. "I realized that if you turn a lawn mower around, it looks like a cotton picker frame," he says. That's when the idea of a grill hit him. Once he said it out loud, his students took over. One student, John Casey, found an old riding lawn mower frame. "It was a piece of junk, but we only needed the frame," Louwerens says, adding that they bought new lawn mower wheels for the rear. Then, the students started working out where the cab and grilling surface would go. "It was funny watching them because each person had his own idea of what would work," Louwerens says. "Everything we did was done in cardboard first and duct taped together," he notes. "Mistakes were not an option, because our $500 budget would not go far." A different group of students worked on each part of the project. Some built the picking unit and little ducts that blow cotton back to the basket. Others built the cab and put the door on top that holds the propane tank, voltage regulator, and DVD/CD player. Other students worked on wiring the front spotlights, work lights and tail lights. The mobile grill even has a rear light that shines onto the grill. "It's really neat at night because when you turn on all the lights, it looks just like a cotton picker going through a field," Louwerens says. They also built a hidden cabinet between the cab and burner box. It holds paper plates, utensils and a spice rack. The cotton picker grill rides smoothly on its wheels. "I wanted it to be motorized but the one time we tried that, I had a student going about 30 mph. It was funny to see but it wasn't necessary," he says. "Every aspect of this project put to use the knowledge gained from our program, such as wiring up the picker's lights, ordering parts, tracking a budget, welding, computers and working with others to produce only the best results." Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Shane Louwerens, Northwest Mississippi Community College, 4975 Hwy. 51 North, Senatobia, Miss. 38668 (ph 662 560-4184; slouwerens @northwestms.edu).

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