Saturday, November 20, 2010

Design Change Needed on the Barrel Feeder

Well, live and learn I guess.  Just identified a couple of design flaws in the barrel feeder.  Neither affect the functionality of the feed - just ease of use for me.

#1 - need to be able to open the hay net on the bottom to remove old hay as needed.  I put a bale that had a bunch of corn stalks in it in there last night.  The hay field had been corn field the year before and there are a number of 'volunteer' corn plants in random bales.  I spent 15 minutes pulling the left over corn stalks out through the small mesh.  Not fun but doable.  Corrective action:  remove the metal ring at the bottom and run tie string through instead so it can be opened and easily dumped if there is any bad hay.


#2 - the lid doesn't stay open during filling which makes it a two hand operation to fill.  Corrective action:  look for a different type of hinge or a mechanism to hold to lid open while filling.  Sounds like a trip to the hardware store!


Still happy with it overall.  It's a great learning project!

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