Ferris Flower Wheel

Ferris flower wheel FARM HOME Miscellaneous 12-5-31 Driving along Highway 138 three miles south of Stoughton, Wis., you can't miss one of the most unique flower displays found anywhere - a colorful "flower wheel", resembling a mini ferris wheel, in the front yard of the Sanford Kleven farm. Kleven built the "flower wheel", whose 10 metal boxes are brim full of flowers in virtually every color, as a showpiece for the flowers he raises as a hobby. "Lots of people stop to look at the flower wheel, and some even ask me if I'll build them one, but so far I've only made one unit for myself," says Kleven. To build the flower wheel, Kleven took two big 5-ft. dia. wheels from an old hay rake and painted them white. He mounted the wheelson a 3-ft. axle made from metal tubing. Next, he removed the spokes from each wheel and replaced them with twenty 1/2 in. dia. pipes. He welded the pipes to the wheel rims and, at the end of every other pipe, he attached a 1-in. long "stub". Each "stub" extends through a 1/2-in. dia. washer welded to the outside top edge of each metal flower box. Kleven bought the 10 boxes at a local surplus store. Each measures 22 in. long, 6 in. wide and 6 in. deep. As Kleven turns the wheels by hand, the washers saving freely around the stubs so the boxes remain upright as the wheels rotate. The next step was to use channel iron to build a frame around the flower wheels. The frame can be equipped with small tires and a removeable tongue which al-lows Kleven to haul the "flower wheel" inside his workshop during the winter so he can start flowers early. Kleven plans to pull the flower wheel in parades. He pulls it with a garden tractor. A belt wrapped around the trailer's axle slowly turns the flower wheel. Contact FARM SHOW Followup, San-ford Kleven, 595 Bass Lake Road, Stoughton, Wis. 53589 (ph 608 873-7621).

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