Now don't laugh!!Any idea if you can put loose hay in a trash compactor and make hay bales? I generally never think of these sort of things, but with so many people having a small amount of land and cutting loose hay, and the cost of machinery, I wondered if this idea may work. Now I've never even seen inside a trash compactor, I know they are small, but making a few small bales for people who had rabbits, or just a couple of goats may be helpful, you can pick up second hand machines pretty cheap. So come on you techie people, would it work??

-- Carol K (ck7951@bluefrognet.net), December 04, 2001

Answers

Wow! That is creative, out of the box thinking! I don't see any reason why it wouldn't work. What would you tie it with?

-- buffy (buffyannjones@hotmail.com), December 04, 2001.

If you have that little hay to bale, why not use it loose to begin with.

-- Gary (gws@columbus.rr.com), December 04, 2001.

I guess you'd have to take the bales out and manually tie them? Gary, baled hay is easier to store space wise I guess. I'm not sure I would even try it,( I would if I already had an old compactor) I just wondered if it would work. It would also be good for people who could only manage small bales, ie couldn't manage them cos of their weight etc.

-- Carol K (ck7951@bluefrognet.net), December 04, 2001.

At work they use a cardboard baler to compact all the boxes. They make cardboard "bales" that fit nicely on a wooden pallet and they are tied with wire. I don't know if the baler itself ties the wire or if someone does it by hand, but it could probably work with twine. Good luck with that. Sounds like a good idea.

-- Rebekah in Canada (rebekah_swinden@hotmail.com), December 04, 2001.

Certainly 'sounds' like a good idea... but. Square balers as I recall compress the hay and cut it to shape, just compressing and tieing might not look very good.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), December 04, 2001.

I was given a compactor some years ago and one of my first projects was an aluminium can crusher. It worked after a fasion, but the cycle time for crushing each full load was long and made it virtually useless to me... and I wouldn't be suprised if I didn't use up my can money on electric to run it!

-- Willy Allen (willyallen2@yahoo.com), December 04, 2001.

A hay baler works just about the same as a trash compacter only on a bigger scale. The baler augers the hay in and then squishes (technical term there, heehee) it all together with a hydraulic ram. No cutting involved. Then it ties it off. The trash compacter would probably work. It would probably be much simpler to put the dry grass into cardboard boxes or paper bags if all that you needed was a tiny bit. But it would sure be fun to bale hay in your kitchen!!!! It would sure beat getting the hay down the back of your shirt too!!!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), December 04, 2001.

Well Nan that goes to show my memory banks are not as good as I thought they were! :-)

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), December 04, 2001.

I know how you feel John!!!! If getting older isn't enough, being a Mama of teenagers will leach the brain cells right outta ya'!!! heeheehee! And if you ever ever ever forget anything....just ask your teenagers! They know EVERYTHING! LOL!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), December 04, 2001.

Hmmm, if you already had a log splitter, you might be able to make a baler. Some sort of heavy metal box on the end that would be removeable. Even put some slotts on it to make tying them up easier. Maybe I should patent this idea first...

-- Kevin in NC (Vantravlrs@aol.com), December 04, 2001.

Thanks guys, I'm gonna look out for an old one next year and give it a try, if nothing else, I can use it for trash. I can't believe I actually thought of something like that, it's not like me at all!!!

-- Carol K (ck7951@bluefrognet.net), December 05, 2001.

Hey! If you set the log splitter up on high you could make a hay juicer! heehee! Sorry! sometimes I just think funny thoughts! :~)!

-- Nan (davidl41@ipa.net), December 05, 2001.