Stirator Assembly

        Some grain bins have a stirator in them to help dry corn/beans down when they are harvested at too high of a moisture content.  When grain has a high moisture content it will spoil during storage.  Most of the time you can just put off harvest until your grain is dryer, but on wet years corn will not dry down.  Looks like a stirator might be a very good investment for this year.

        First we drilled holes for the brackets that will support the stirator as it turns around the bin.  Then we put the blue bands in place for the wheel to travel on.  Finally we tightened all the nuts and bolts. 

        Here you can see the wheel attached to the I beam.

        Until we were ready to hang the I beam from the center, we used the scaffolding to support it while we attached the three motor mounts, chains, pulleys, etc. You can see the instructions manual resting on the I beam.  We didn't always read it first so sometimes we had to take it back apart and redo it.  Other times it was very clear where pieces went without reading.  

        There are three stirators.  One is fix on the end of the I beam, next to the track the beam follows as it circles the bin.  The other two travel back and forth on the I beam to cover all the grain between the middle of the bin and the outer wall. 

        The electricians came this morning and ran some wires and conduit to power the stirators, spreader, and lights for both inside and outside the bin. They will have to make one more visit once the whole bin is up to wire the grain dump and fan.

Once they left we were done with the scaffolding.  Now you can see what the I beam hangs from. 

        Here is a view from on top the grain bin.  Corn/beans will dump into the top of the bin from an auger.  The spreader will then spread the incoming grain evenly around the bin. 

        When you have moist grain you will turn on the stirators to stir the dry grain from the bottom of the bin by the fan to the top.  Then the wetter grain will be closer to the fan to dry out.  The stirators are small augers that will attach with pulleys to each motor. We have to wait until all the rings are on to attach the augers, but everything else is ready.