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Sunday, April 3, 2011

The Adjustable Wrench and the Damage Done

I was in a feed grinding frenzy yesterday.  I had several calls for barrels of feed and I also got a call for a ton of wheat. I thought that would be easy to find. I discovered most folks have sold their wheat and it is expensive and hard to find. I scored a ton which had some wet chunks from around the auger and fired up the hammer mill. I found that fellow who wanted the ton had found some grain closer but that made little difference to my plans as I need the whole grains anyway.
The first feed customer showed up when I was adding the alfalfa. I was in a hurry to get done and I pulled the baffle out of the mill so the alfalfa would flow in better. Suddenly there was a crash and bang and the hammer mill jumped an inch in the air. A handful of bolts dropped out the bottom where the vent to control the airflow is. It cleared out right away and so I finished the bag of feed.
Then the hay customer showed up.
It alternated between rain showers and clouds as I filled the bin.
The chicken feed customer took an extra two barrels.
The hay fellow also took a 50lb bag of chicken feed, but when I checked the weight it turned out to be 40lbs so I sold it to him for $5. When it cam time to settle up the bill was $89. He gave me a hundred and said to keep the change as I gave him a good deal last time. I argued briefly... Did make me feel good.
I went and checked the hammer mill. Half the hammers have broken bolts and the screen does not look so good. It also split the top and put quite a few dents in it.
Good thing the adjustable wrench was one of those cheapo wrenches from China. A real crescent would have probably blow up my mill.
Here is the damage:
Can you spot the parts of the wrench?

5 comments:

  1. Looks like collage material. Maybe you could work up a show of stuff you've put through a hammer mill. Farmer 'J. Pollock' Alfalfa has a nice ring crash ding dang bang to it.

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  2. Yeah...sorry about that. The dairy 1 mile away called on Sat. morning and they had milled wheat. In the rush of getting ready to spread fertilizer and go get the wheat I forgot to call you back and tell you we found some. I CAN give you a sweet deal on screenings pellets.

    A 9/16" Craftsman wreaks havoc on a pellet die, too. Sounds like a mini-apocalypse!

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  3. Gorges, yes...

    Collie, a wind chime?

    Orin, I needed the wheat anyway. However, I should have planted instead of making chicken feed. The fellow I was working for has amazing ground. It is dry. Today I was going to take a nap after church and then go plant. My wife did not wake me up and I slept till 7 p.m. oops...

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  4. Ouch! Thats hard on a mill for sure. I once had a half inch combination SKWayne wrench go through the old Case. It didn't go through the screen until it was in small enough pieces. Little round hot blobs of steel, smoking in the chopped grain in the bin was all that was left.

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