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03/13/11, 11:32 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,486
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My $16.27 Milk Stand (Pic Heavy)
My hubby was going to build me a metal milk stand out of some scrap but he's been overwhelmed with work...On call with 2 drilling companies, working business hours structural welding and building tanks, plus doing some aluminum welding the past few weekends for an electrical substation...He's been feeling bad about not starting it so I thought I'd try to do it with his trailer rig while he was out welding the substation stuff...
Haven't struck an arc in about 7 years, but I thought it was worth a shot... I have a PVC milk stand for my minis, but needed a bigger one for Sabrina and for trimming hooves on Sam once he's older....
Anywho, the frame for the stand came from these huge reels that held electrical wire...hubby was given them as scrap after completing a substation job 3 years ago...never got around to scrapping them out and we have 10 of them. They are about 10ft tall & I cut up two of them to use the square tubing pieces from the center..
Reel before cutting:
Reel after I cut the sticks of square tubing out:
The expanded metal for the floor was left over pieces from these walk ways that hubby welded up on a generator plant 5 years ago... I just made the stand to fit the piece of expanded metal so I wouldn't have to trim it up any.....
Here's the stand after I finished and painted it:
Front of the stand:
Originally I wanted to cut the the small metal squares off the pieces of the head gate & front but when I tried I blew through the metal with the torch, so I gave up on that....ended up using one of the pieces to loop the chain and hook through as a way to secure the head gate......
I forgot the piece for the feed pan holder......but I'm going to use some more tubing to build a bar out in front, connected to the square pieces on the outside edge of the front to hang the feeder on....
So for this stand what I had to purchase was:
Five cans of spray paint: $4.90
Chain and cam lock for head gate: $6.37
High guesstimate for rods/fuel: $5.00 (I only used 5 welding rods and not much fuel was needed to burn them)
The front isn't square, my welds aren't near as pretty and clean as hubby's...
BUT it's solid as a tank and the spray paint hides the worst flaws..lol
I'm VERY happy to have the stand but I won't be doing another one! The reel fell and hit me in the shoulder, got hung up in cactus trying to drag it out of the back, I started a grass fire, I'm sporting multiple burns, 3 good sized cuts & it took me forever......But hopefully after tomorrow I'll get the feed pan holder and then I'll be done 
Can't wait to try it out!
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03/13/11, 11:37 PM
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Hate Oz. Took the shoes.
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Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: SE Kansas
Posts: 2,080
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Okay - looking for the "like" button. This is awesome.
I am still having difficulty seeing the connection between the first and last pictures -but I am sure that someone can explain it to me. Sorry I am not more visually coherent
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03/13/11, 11:43 PM
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Udderly Happy!
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Join Date: Jan 2006
Location: Oklahoma
Posts: 2,830
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OK lonestarchick. Your husband should be really proud. My wife can cook and clean like nobody's business. I've been absolutely blessed with a soulmate that treats me like a kind. HOWEVER, she aint gonna be building herself a goat milking stanchion anytime soon. She leaves that stuff to me!
And, BTW, your finished welding product looks a whole lot better than mine! I'm kinda jealous.
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Francismilker
"The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" James 5:16
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03/13/11, 11:44 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,486
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Quote:
Originally Posted by The Tin Mom
Okay - looking for the "like" button. This is awesome.
I am still having difficulty seeing the connection between the first and last pictures -but I am sure that someone can explain it to me. Sorry I am not more visually coherent
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LOL The big reel in the first picture is all metal and the pieces in the center are the pieces of square tubing that is what the entire stand, accept the floor is made from. I just cut all the sticks out of the center of two big reels.....if you look close at the first picture, you can see the lil square pieces attached to the sticks in the center of the reel......those are the same lil squares I have the chain looped through on the head gate 
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03/13/11, 11:57 PM
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Join Date: May 2008
Location: oregon
Posts: 1,109
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That's awesome. You rock!
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03/13/11, 11:57 PM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,486
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Quote:
Originally Posted by francismilker
OK lonestarchick. Your husband should be really proud. My wife can cook and clean like nobody's business. I've been absolutely blessed with a soulmate that treats me like a kind. HOWEVER, she aint gonna be building herself a goat milking stanchion anytime soon. She leaves that stuff to me!
And, BTW, your finished welding product looks a whole lot better than mine! I'm kinda jealous.
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Aww thank you.....after today I think I'll let hubby do these types of projects though
He was shocked I did it but was sweet enough not to comment on the ugly welds, lol
I'm worn out and feel like I got my rear kicked......forgot sunscreen today and my Irish skin is bright red, lol
And BTW, no need to be jealous....the pictures don't show the bad welds that I had to redo, spots where I blew through the metal and either patched it, or made that piece of tubing face the ground under the floor to be out of sight....does not show just how off square the outside parts of the head gate are (the right side is actually slanted, not even close to straight up and down) and the paint has lots of drip spots, blotches, streaks and at least two bugs I painted over.......
But, it will hold a goat for milking, hoof trimming ect..ect.. and that is all that matters in the long run
Oh and I can't take credit for the design......hubby sketched it out ages ago and I copied his stuff with the exception of the pieces that had to be longer and slightly wider to fit the piece of expanded metal I had that I didn't want to trim down...
Will add more pics once the feeder holder is done and put on 
Last edited by LoneStrChic23; 03/14/11 at 12:01 AM.
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03/14/11, 01:28 AM
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An Ozark Engineer
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Join Date: Jun 2005
Location: Powhatan, AR
Posts: 9,412
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I think you did a great job. If you don't point out the flaws to those not "in the know", it's all good.
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03/14/11, 07:42 AM
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More dharma, less drama.
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Texas Coastal Bend/S. Missouri
Posts: 30,482
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WOW! I am *totally* impressed. Very.
I can do things with wood, but metal and welding scares the hooey out of me.
You are the BEST! <bowing down>
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Alice
* * *
"No great thing is created suddenly." ~Epictitus
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03/14/11, 08:19 AM
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Farm lovin wife
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Join Date: Sep 2005
Location: Kansas
Posts: 3,236
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I too am totally impressed and just a wee bit jealous. I couldn't even begin to weld something! That is a real skill and something that comes in handy over and over again. You must have watched hubby a lot do his job. Congratulations!! Wow. LOL
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"Be still sad heart, and cease repining. Behind the clouds, the sun is shining. Thy fate is the common fate of all. Into each life, a little rain must fall." -Longfellow
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03/14/11, 08:22 AM
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Join Date: Nov 2003
Location: Illinois
Posts: 1,537
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I think you did an awesome job. I wish I could weld, and then I wish I had a source for useable scrap metal...! LoL I got my milk stand when the old man at the other end of town was having a yard sale getting ready to move. It's an old wooden stand made from scraps, but I only paid $5 for it.... second best $5 I ever spent. (First best $5 was when I asked a girl I worked with if she wanted to go out to eat with me. She said yes, we hit the drive-thru and I parked my truck facing the road so we could watch people drive by.) She pointed out, there were more of them looking at us, than we were looking at them. That was 26 years ago, and I'm still taking her out to eat, although more often than not, we go in now. Still, I throw it out there as an option every now and then. She responds with look #27 = a blank stare w/expressions of "I don't think so" attached to it.
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A good dog may be hard to find, ...but a hard dog usually means it's been dead for a while
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03/14/11, 09:42 AM
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Southern Idaho
Posts: 4,032
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Awesome job on the milk stand! DH welded a similar one for us, although the bed is smaller for our ND's and it's up off the ground on a stand.
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03/14/11, 09:46 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: Kansas
Posts: 6,143
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I think you did an awsome job! I wish I could do things like that.
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03/14/11, 09:52 AM
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Banned
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Join Date: Jul 2006
Location: S.E. Ks.
Posts: 5,942
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Nice , I want some of those reels
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03/14/11, 09:56 AM
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Katie
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Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: Twining, Mi.
Posts: 19,930
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You should be so proud of yourself! I think you did an awesome job, I wouldn't even know where to begin to weld soething like that.
Great job!
I did get a little chuckle at your telling of all your aches, pains & burns though. I feel bad your hurt but I think it was the comical way you told the story.
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03/14/11, 11:10 AM
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Join Date: Jul 2010
Location: Texas
Posts: 3,486
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Thanks y'all!
Actually I learned to weld in my High School Ag shop. Took basic Ag which was a bit of everything and a brief tour of the shop, then my Sophmore year I took Metal Working 101.
Have watched hubby for a few years and have played his tool fetcher a time or two so have picked up more practical ways to do things than what's taught "By the book" in Metal Working 101. I can make a pretty weld with a wire welder, but don't have one so I had to make due with my ugly welds stick welding....Hubby checked them all out for me and all but one penetrated and was a strong weld, so I'm quite pleased
Alice..... you give me wood and I am LOST! I wanted the stand from Fiasco Farms, but cutting the wood and making it look nice for the head gate is beyond me... I tried out a few times and ended up with a big mess....
Next, I think I'm going to have hubby build me some baby goat shelters out of the circle parts of the reels......He's going to cut them in 1/2 circles, heat the sides with the torch to make them more vertical...he'll take 3 like that, use the stick parts on the bottom to weld them to and it will make a dome shaped frame on a skid type bottom.....screw on sheet metal and well have a copy cat of those "Porta-Huts" sold online....for a fraction of the cost But we'll have to wait until he's finished his projects first (he's building a flatbed for his welding truck because he's sick of climbing in and out if his bed 50 times a day to get tools) and manages to get some free time
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03/14/11, 11:55 AM
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hating the 'burbs!
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Join Date: Sep 2010
Location: N. IL, wishing I was in W WA
Posts: 1,044
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That is awesome!!
I'm a woodworker, so wood is the first thing I turn to, but I do wish I could weld. Might have to learn someday.
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I am the daughter of Earth and Water,
And the nursling of the Sky;
I pass through the pores of the ocean and shores;
I change, but I cannot die.
The Cloud
Percy Bysshe Shelley
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03/14/11, 01:52 PM
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Join Date: Mar 2010
Location: Soggy yet beautiful Oregon
Posts: 389
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Okay, so as mentioned before..YOU ROCK!!! Looks great!!!!
I swear I am going to write a new children's book, it will be a series called..
(drum roll plz...) BETTY THE BUILDER!!!!! Can't tell you how many times I waited for DH to make something, but being so busy supporting his family, I just say to heck with it, and do it myself!!!=) Chicken coops...nest boxes...and the latest the kid dis budding box!!
I think your stand is wonderful!! You should be very proud!!:banana02:
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03/14/11, 05:56 PM
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Join Date: Oct 2007
Location: South Dakota
Posts: 24,108
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Very good! Your hubby will be as impressed as we all are!!
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Teach only Love...for that is what You are 
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03/14/11, 06:18 PM
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Join Date: May 2002
Location: Kansas
Posts: 1,190
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All I can say is "WOW"! It is beautiful. Big sigh..... wish I could do something like that but I would probably just burn something down.
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Living the good life in Kansas.
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03/14/11, 06:26 PM
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Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Bellflower, MO
Posts: 3,695
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Im with Alice I turn to wood first cause a welding torch and me is way to dangerous, not scheduled for a hospital trip anytime soon, LOL!
Love the stand and you get to enjoy the feeling of accomplishment everytime you use it, messy welds bahhh if it works its perfect!!
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