silo

[bill not in oh]

I copied this link from the Barter Board, so I guess I should apologize for a cross post....


http://pittsburgh.craigslist.org/zip/222261745.html

Anyone have an idea how these are put together, how much the individual pieces would weigh, and the total weight of this silo?

[Bearfootfarm]

The sections bolt together. I have no idea as to the weight. Maybe you could find a manufacturer of one similar and look up shipping weights

[agmantoo]

You either need a set of jacks made for the purpose or access to a crane to dismantel. The individual sheets/panels than make up portions of each ring are not so heavy that you cannot handle them by hand. The dismantling starts at the base and you work up and let the bin down with the jacks/crane as you progress. The last thing to remove is the roof. With the crane you place and with an old truck wheel with mounted tire inside the bin you then drop the hook down through the top center opening and affix the wheel to the hook. The crane hook is then raised and the tire/wheel cannot exit through the hole and the bin is picked up by the "rig". This assumes the anchor bolts have be disconnected at the base of the bin. Once elevated each ring is separated and then the panels than make up each ring are dismantled. To facilitate an efficient disassembly, power tools for nut/bolt extraction are desireable. There are a lot of bolts. The rings are of thicker material at the base and as you move upward the material is a thinner gauge. You need to mark which ring the panels are remover from for later reference when reassembling. The task is rather simple but somewhat time consuming the first time you do it.

[rambler]

As Agman says. I've taken down 2 & moved them a mile to my place. You get 3 A-frame winches that are made for it, (aka bin jacks) and lift it from three points around. Unbolt the bottom sheets, set it down, repeat. I only took 2 rings off, then set it on a car trailer, & pulled them home with a tractor. The roof gets interesting to take apart from what I hear......

Electricity available & an electric 1/2 inch impact gun will save your sanity in doing this.

Two people can load a sheet of tin on a hayrack, they aren't that heavy. Most bins the bottom sheets are thicker than the top sheets (need to be stronger to the bottom), if you intend to reassemble mark the sheets so you get it right.

The ad says a little surface rust, wow, that bugger is rusted! Will need a coat of almuma paint right quick.... Be _real_ careful on looking those bolts over, if they are rusted up too, they are _miserable_ to get apart. Hope the threads inside are still good.

Generally to get good & water tight again, you are supposed to put together with new bolts (they have a gasket washer).

To me it looks like there is a stirator ring inside it up on top. Maybe not, but those can be worth a couple 100 bucks if in good shape? Or maybe just a spreader, those are worth a few bucks too if you are in farm country.

--->Paul

[Up North]

Bill if you have a 3/4 ton HD pickup and a gooseneck trailer behind it you should be able to move it once you get pieces dissassembled and chained down. The roof you can take into 5 or 6 "pie" pieces( just to get wide end of "pie" slices narrow enough for road transport.)

When we took down a smaller 1200 Bushel Bin , we found it necessary to have a 2nd man on the inside with a wrench because some of the bolts would spin.
That one looks big enough you could cut a door in it and use for truck/tractor/hay shed.
PS Bring lots of plastic milk jugs with a top hole cut in them to collect and transport all those bolts....Unless you have a crew of people, plan for more than one day to knock apart & load a bin of that size....good luck

[bill not in oh]

Thanks for the replies gents. That's about what I thought it would take.

[fantasymaker]

You can usually rent the bin jacks and around here if we need to move one we usually fly it