I was given an old waterwell pressure tank from a friend. I thought it would make a good feeder. Should hold around 600-700# of corn. I have built several stand a fill feeders, but one of the things I do not like about them is having to get down in the dirt/mud to check the timer, or change out the battery, work on the motor etc. I wanted to design one that had the timer in a position easier to get to. I bought one of the road feeder kits that had the remote, and simply ran that wire into an ammo can mounted on the side of the feeder. That ammo can will house the batteries and timer. Now I can stand beside the feeder to change feed times, batteries etc, without getting dirty. The ammo can also affords the use of two batteries, so I will have two 12v batteries run in series to double the capacity. I am a junker so I try to repurpose most junk. I had found a couple bar b q grill grates and thought they would make good coon/squirrel cages for a feeder. I designed the feeder so that it throws out three sides, not the back. I also made the cage hinge so that if I do need to access the motor the cage hinges at least partly out of the way. The entire cage hinges, and then the front gate also hinges to give easier access to the feeder motor. I finished the solar panel bracket today. When my Dad died I ended up with lots of stuff from his shop and he had a case of Flex Seal that he had bought off of TV. I sprayed the solar bracket with that. Some of my welds did not turn out pretty. Several days it was real windy and I think it was blowing the shielding gas away. They should hold though. If I had it to do over there would be a few things I would do different. I think I should have made the lid a bit bigger-but I was using some scrap metal I had to make the lid and that was how much I had on hand. The shape of the tank was a bit problematic in that in order to make it a true stand a fill, the motor would have dang near been on the ground. I did not want it to flood, so I raised it up a bit, making the lid to tall. I could probably fill from the ground, but you could not see inside the tank to see how much was in the feeder. I built some braces across the legs to stand on to give you enough height to easily fill and see inside. I am anxious to see it in action.
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