An Illinois farmer says he's come up with an inexpensive way to make his own chisel plows. He uses junked moldboards.

Bob Elder, who farms near Chenoa, says old moldboards make great chisel plows because of their rigid frames and high clearance. He mounted three IHC 3-bottom plows side by side, bolting them together into a single frame. Then he used his cutting torch to cut away the moldboards, leaving narrow chisel points. He mounted a hydraulic lift cylinder up front to raise and lower the front end of the trailing machine and left the three rear wheels in place. One draw-back is, "I have to crank the rear wheels up and down for road travel," says Elder. The plow retains the spring-loaded hitch that permits the plow to detach if he hits some-thing solid.

The home-built chisel works so well Elder recently started building a second "improved" model. He mounted two 4-bottom IH plows side by side on an old IH disk running gear fitted with large wheels off an old combine. The high-profile wheels give him plenty of clearance to raise the plow out of the ground hydraulically, eliminating the rear land wheels. "I needed the better lift at the ends of fields and going down the road."

He also installed conventional chisel plow points on the old moldboard shanks on this new model but adds that just cutting off the moldboards like he did on the first plow also worked great. Anyone can make a cheap chisel plow that way, he notes.