2011 - Volume #35, Issue #2, Page #40
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"Made It Myself" SP Feed Mixer
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"It's designed to maneuver through the narrow feed alleys in my head-to-head tie stall barn and saves time and labor. All operations are fully hydraulic and controlled from the operator's platform," says Tanguay.
The "Ready Mix 700", as Tanguay calls it, is equipped with a 70 cu. ft. capacity mixing tank. A pair of chains with slats, combined with a 12-in. auger, are used to mix grain, protein, silage and chopped hay all together. A 12-in. wide conveyor feeds out to either side.
Power is provided by a Honda 13 hp engine that was converted to run on LP gas. "The LP gas-powered engine is perfect for work inside a barn because it doesn't produce any smoke or toxic fumes," says Tanguay.
The sides of the mixing box are made from 1/8-in. thick steel and the floor is made of stainless steel. Two 30,000-lb. "WH-78" chains with angle-iron slats spaced 16 in. apart, run at low speed providing a fast mix with a low horsepower requirement.
"During filling, the engine runs at idle as it drives the mixing chains together with the auger, which has convergent flighting," says Tanguay. "The auger pushes the ingredients from each side to the center for a more uniform and faster mixing action.
"To unload, I just open a sliding door on front of the tank and the feed drops onto the conveyor. It takes about two minutes to unload the mixer."
A belt-driven hydraulic pump matched with a pair of hydraulic motors (one for each wheel) operates the mixer at the correct speed. A 2-way control valve is connected to a foot-operated pedal, which provides forward-reverse action with speed control. "I added a ęcushion-valve' on the hydraulic motors to protect them whenever I release the pedal at high speed," says Tanguay.
The mixing mechanism is driven by combining a belt and a bender with some reduction sprockets and chains. The bender is connected to a handle that's used to start and stop the mixer.
The mixer is equipped with an electronic scale that works with a single load-cell. It's connected to a lever supporting the box with eight 1-in. ball bearings, which ensures low friction and gives high precision to the scale. When filling, the scale indicator is connected to a computer fixed to the wall of the barn. The computer controls multiple electric motors that drive grain augers and protein augers, as well as conveyors and silo unloaders that fill the mixer automatically.
"The computer was developed by my brother Simon, who is a computer scientist. It can keep in memory 8 feed recipes with up to 8 ingredients in each one," says Tanguay. "The computer is connected to the electronic scale indicator by an RS-232 serial port. Whenever I want to fill the mixer I just connect a cable to the computer and select the recipe that I want and let it fill automatically. It takes about 5 to 7 minutes to complete a full load in the mixer and another two minutes for mixing correctly before feeding."
Tanguay spent 150 hours and $8,000 to build "exactly what I wanted" and says he couldn't be happier with the machine.
"I built my first total feed mixer 14 years ago. After many years of operation, it finally wore out. However, I was so satisfied with it that I decided to build a new one with some improvements. Hopefully it'll last 20 years this time!," says Tanguay.
Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Guy Tanguay, 94, 1er Rang est, Saint-Gervais, Quebec, Canada G0R 3C0 (ph 418 887-6336; melaguy@globetrotter.net).
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