Why buy a commercial cultipacker when you can make one with old propane cylinders? Emmett Machande asked himself that question before using the cylinders.

“I wanted something to give me better seed/soil contact,” says Machande. “I had an old 10-ft. disc frame lying in the weeds and came up with the idea of hanging old 100-lb. propane cylinders on it.”

Machande removed the valves from three cylinders and filled them with water to remove residual gas. After draining them, he built a bonfire under them to ensure they were safe for welding. Only then did he take them to a local welder.

“I had him put 3/4-in. by 6-in. stub axles on each end of the cylinders,” says Machande. “Then I had him make angle iron brackets to fit the cylinders.”

Machande stripped the discs from the frame and hung the brackets under it. He then bolted bearings to the brackets to mount the cylinder stubs.

“I also moved the wheels and hydraulic lift to the rear to provide room for the rollers,” says Machande.

He soon put the DIY cultipacker to work prepping food plots for seeding. “Our soils are wind-drift loess, and they usually need multiple discing to break up the lumps, but the rollers did the job,” he says. “They left a nice smooth seedbed, and I had the best food plots ever.”

Machande has since used the implement to flatten out gopher mounds. It worked just as he had intended.

“No extra weight was needed,” says Machande. “This was a lot cheaper than any cultipacker I had seen on equipment auctions.”

Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Emmet Machande (otterejm@gmail.com).