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American farmers have a knack for creating unusual machines. Mark Newhall of US magazine Farm Show picks a few favourites
DENAILER BOOSTS VALUE OF OLD BARN WOOD
Ohio-based Dan Yoder came up with a powered denailer (above) to pull out nails from old bam wood.
A bed of wooden rollers is used to shift big beams into place. An overhead carriage equipped with denailing jaws uses both hydraulic and air power and travels up and down the wood. Hydraulic arms clamp the beam from both sides to hold it in position.
The denailer's jaws open and close with small air cylinders, while the large hydraulic cylinder is used to penetrate hard wood by up to 4cm. Once the jaws close, the cylinder yanks the nail out, then Mr Yoder uses a metal detector to check they have all been removed.
AIR-POWERED SHOVEL DIGS TRENCHES
"I had a big problem with skunks getting under my mobile home," says Texan farmer Russell Hackman.
"I decided to bury a fence in the ground and connect it to the underside of the caravan to stop them."
The ground was baked solid, so he built an air-powered shovel out of a flat piece of 75mm channel iron curved in a duckbill shape. He welded a piece of rebar to one end and fastened it to an air hammer.
"Once I'd got the fence in place I left a small gap to make sure the skunks were out from underneath the trailer," Mr Hackman says.
"Sure enough, two of them came out, and my 20-gauge shotgun took care of them both."
PELLETISING GRASS MOWER POWERS ITSELF
Jason Force is in the process of building a tractor-sized version of his machine that cuts hay and produces pellets in one pass, then feeds these into a burner that powers the mower. The machine - called the Iron Goat - is also remote-controlled so no driver is needed.