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Portable Scoffold Built From Round Baler
Lisle Dunham turned a Vermeer round baler he bought for $300 into a scaffold for construction work around his Grinnell, Iowa, family farm.
"It's a poor man's manlift," Dunham says, explaining that it can be hitched to a tractor to move around quickly and easily.
As a project engineer for Vermeer, Dunham
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Portable Scoffold Built From Round Baler BALERS Balers 32-1-25 Lisle Dunham turned a Vermeer round baler he bought for $300 into a scaffold for construction work around his Grinnell, Iowa, family farm.
"It's a poor man's manlift," Dunham says, explaining that it can be hitched to a tractor to move around quickly and easily.
As a project engineer for Vermeer, Dunham knew what he would find when he stripped sheet metal, rollers and rubber belts off the baler. He welded an A-frame structure to the baler's tailgate to support a 4 by 10-ft. treated wood platform with 1 1/4-in. square tubing safety rails on each side.
"It lifts up to 15 ft. off the ground," Dunham says. With pivoting, parallel links on each side, the platform self levels as it raises. He uses the tractor's hydraulics to raise and lower the scaffold. The platform also pivots laterally at the center to level out on uneven ground.
"I added manually set outriggers to make it rock solid," Dunham said. "I used square tubing and made it adjustable. The tubing fits in a receiver to shorten and lengthen." Lock bolts hold the work platform securely in place. The outrigger bases are on the ground and need to be manually moved to set the correct height. Dunham says he's considering mounting the outrigger bases on the baler frame instead.
The scaffold can be used on its own by stabilizing it on the baler's screw jack or while hooked up to a tractor. When moving the scaffold, Dunham locks transport pins to keep the frame rigid and protect the hydraulic lines and cylinders.
The portable scaffolding eliminates the set up and tear down time regular scaffolding requires, Dunham adds, and it can be raised to any height - from 2 to 15 ft. off the ground. An added higher pivot point for the platform allows an 18-ft. working height.
"I know I've got my money's worth out of it," he concludes. Dunham spent $300 on the 35-year-old baler and another $450 for new steel, as well as using scrap angle iron.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Lisle Dunham, 2039 N. Penrose St., Grinnell, Iowa 50112 (ph 641 236-7400).
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