Grain Bin Mail Box

Grain Bin Mail Box FARM HOME Miscellaneous 12-4-18 The smallest grain bin you've ever seen actually stores mail on the E.J. Siefker farm near Moran, Kan. The mail bin, 18 in. tall and 24 in. in dia., is precision scaled to a real 6,000 bu. bin. And, like a real bin, it's equipped with a ladder and a top lid. But to handle mail, the bin also features a front door and a mail sign in the shape of the American flag. The mail bin was a Christmas gift from Siefker's wife, Barb. It was built for the Siefkers by Jim Strong, a retired friend and neighbor. The bin completes an impressive layout of 41 more conventionally sized grain bins on the Siefker farm. The mail bin's sides and roof are made from separate sections of rolled galvanized steel. They're studded with rows of sheet metal screws to make it look like metal sheets have been bolted together, just like on real bins. Thin metal strips down the roof add to the realness. A local tin shop rolled the flat sections of steel in a circle for Strong. He then lapped their ends together, installing lag screws with hatch heads into a strip of metal placed up and down along the inside of the joint. To build the roof, Strong cut a wedge out of the center of a flat sheet of metal and brought the outside edges together, where he installed lag screws. He fashioned the flag from heavier gauge steel, bolting the bottom end to the bin, which allows the upper end to be raised and lowered. He then painted the flag red, white and blue. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, E.J. Siefker, Rt. 2, Moran, Kan. 66755 (ph 316 237-4486).

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