portable bag closers

[Brad Buchanan]

Hi all,

It is time to pick your brains. We are considering bagging corn to transport for heating purposes.
We have a modified gravity wagon so we buy our corn in bulk, but are thinking that if we could bag the corn ourselves, it would be easier to handle.
Can you recommend where we might find a good/used portable bag closer?

Thanks in advance for your thoughts!

Brad
 

[DaveK(IN)]

How about 20 gallon plastic garbage cans. About the same weight to handle plus it has handles, a lid, and is reusable.
 

[Patrick Klise]

I did a little "googling" and apparently the major producer of these portable bag closers is a company called Fischbein. E-bay has some listings right now. If you"re near a major city you might look under "packaging equipment" in the yellow pages or ? The new ones seem to be a bit pricey. Hope this help.
 

[Ken Macfarlane]

Locally the used bag stitchers are mostly available from folks that used to bag sand, or potato growers.
 

[FR.]

What about using five gallon plastic pails
with lids. they are easy to handle and store
and can be used over and over. I use them for
coal.
 

[cd1]

I don't know what you already have or what your plans are but I had an LMF furnace in my shop for about 8 years and actually I just took it out as I went to waste oil.. When I put it in, corn was cheap so it worked out well, however, with today's corn prices I got to the point that I wished I had oil or propane almost as it was getting close in price and I wouldn't have to mess with cleaning and scraping clinkers out, filling the corn hopper, etc. Just my experience. Also you will get mice and probably not be able to get rid of them no matter what, no poison I tried could keep up. You do what you like but as of today, I can't say I would be buying a corn furnace unless the price of corn falls big time.
 

[S.Crum]

Those old Fischbein bag sewwers are pretty bulletproof. The big thing is to have them set up correctly, keep them lubed, clean them with compressed air on occasion (preferably daily) and DON'T drop them. I've closed thousands of bags of everything from dried whey powder to dog food with them. We just scrapped out a large stationary Fischbein bag closer and 5 sewing heads last year at work. Wish you had spoke up sooner!
 

[Brad Buchanan]

Thank you for all the replies! We are burning corn now, for heat and are very happy with it.

There are a few commecial tater farmers. Great idea to get in touch with them.

We were looking at e bay and saw the Fischbein implements. Not only do they seem to be reliable, but they are made in the grand ole US of A!

We were drawing out of the gravity wagon with a six gallon galvanized pail, which worked well, but was very messy. And da wife can't haul those buckets any longer. What a light weight! :D

Thank you again,

Brad's wife
 

[cd1]

how far are you trying to move the corn, if it's not that terrible far, people have built air lock systems with shop vacs to transfer the corn with air, which eliminates the handling. I looked at flex augers too when I had mine as you can find those probably free from someone remodeling a hog or poultry barn. If your really serious about staying with corn and making things easy I'd put up a poly bin outside your building and for say if your furnace is in the basement, let it gravity flow into your hopper. Then just have the corn augered in by the feed truck or you could use and auger with your gravity wagon.
 

[GordoSD]

Check with your local seed dealers. Mine has a small gadget like sewing machine, electric. He runs it across the top of those nylon seed bags.
Visit local dog kennels and get free 50 lb dog food bags. Some of them are waterproof and damn near indetructible (Purina Dog Chow).
 

[DiyDave]

Twist ties and a hand spinner. Drawback is, that the bags don't stack as well, but it's loads faster.
 

[LA in WI]

Brad,
You sure you want to be using $7.00 corn for heating? With all the dust, mice, etc? Call a local co-op and have them drop off an LP tank and hook it up. No muss, no lifting, no mice, etc.
And some ag people think corn price is not going down anytime soon, could even go up real high if we get another drouth in the Mid-West.
LA in WI
 

[Doug Cotton]

We use an older model Fischbein sewing machine in our potato warehouse and have minimal problems with it. You would love it if you can find one.
 

[Brad Buchanan]

Hey LA.

We started burning corn 7 years ago. We like it for a number of reasons.

We have a heater in the living room which is attractive and has a glass front so that you can see the flames.

The blower runs all the time so that when you come in from the cold you can warm your hands.

We have never had any problems with mice but this may have been because there are quite a few cats around.

My wife and I agreed that we would burn corn even if the cost was the same as oil mainly because we would much prefer to give our dollars to local farmers instead of sending them to countries that hate the USA.

Brad