Check out some of the new entries added recently to the Toolbox online. These solutions can be easily replicated with materials found around the farm to make tasks more efficient or less stressful on the body. Click on the solution name for details:
Homemade Mud Free Gate Roller: A Minnesota farmer attached near the end of his cattle-yard gate an old push mower wheel through a slotted metal plate. With wheel and mud deflector, the gate rolls freely when opened and closed.
Homemade Handy Grip Pliers/Pipe Holder: When by himself building livestock pens with pipe, Floresville, Texas farmer Hebert Boening uses a simple support tool he made by welding a short rod vertically to the handles of locking pliers. This holds in place one end of the horizontal pipe while he welds the other end.
Homemade Tractor Step Up: Idaho farmer Seren Chandler used a bit of metal strap and piece of grating to make a step, which he bolted to the tractor's existing step frame so it hung well underneath the tractor's permanent first step.
Homemade Tire Hoist: Iowa farmer R.I. mounted to his machine shed rafters a small I-beam and adjustable trolley. This movable device allows for tire rotation and bolt or spline alignment.
Homemade Sprayer Dolly: To avoid having to lug a heavy hand sprayer around, Joyce Sturnfoll of Victoria, Texas, simply attached the tank to a wheeled luggage dolly, which is lightweight and highly portable.
Homemade Two-Wheeled Log Fork: The Homemade Two-Wheeled Log Fork that Ken Voigt of Wausau, Wisconsin, made consists of four long tines welded on to an angle-iron frame that has push-mower wheels at both ends and shovel handle bolted in the middle.
Homemade Rear-Unloading Trailer: To an old 6-foot by 12-foot trailer used to haul cut-up firewood from his woodlot, Kingsley, MI, farmer Arnold Wurm rigged a winch-pulled sliding wood panel that allows him to rear-unload the wood at the flip of a switch.
Homemade Fence Post Puller: To pull a post from the ground, Mountain Home, AK farmer Charles Jackson positions his front loader to where a hinged clamp can be closed around the post and then lifts up the loader forks.