# My $16.27 Milk Stand (Pic Heavy)



## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

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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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

Hmmm....some of the pictures I posted with the photobucket links are cropped off....so in some you only see part of it, but enough to see most of it  Can't upload pics the typical way because I use my phone and it won't resize them.....hope those from photobucket didn't post too big.....


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## tmfinley (Feb 21, 2008)

Wow! That is truly awesome! You will heal soon and you will have this awesome stand for many years to come. Great Job!


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## JamieH (Nov 29, 2010)

impressive!


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## adillenal (Feb 6, 2009)

I am impressed with your work as well as your persistence. Hope you heal soon and you will certainly enjoy your milkstand which looks just like the one I have but cost over $300.


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## doublebowgoats (Mar 6, 2008)

Hooray for you! That is just great! It looks beautiful.


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## Halo-M Nubians (Oct 26, 2007)

that looks amazing! You are brave..I would be way to chicken to do it. From what I can see your welds look great! My husband is handy with a welder and has made me a couple of stands and head stanchions. I don't think his welds are as nice as yours..don't tell him I said that.. :blush2


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## Lynn_Theesfeld (Feb 21, 2010)

Wow That looks great... you sure you don't want to start building them to sell?  

Hope you heal fast, job very well done!

Lynn


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## Caprine Beings (Sep 19, 2008)

Very nice!


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

Thank you....one bit from High School I still use (though rarely) took Metal Working 101 my Sophmore year and picked up a few tricks by watching hubby and playing his tool fetcher a time or two 

He checked everything over and only one of my welds didn't penetrate and had to be redone....

We cut up the circles from the reels and will be using 3 half circles as the frame to attach sheet metal to.....the end result will be a copy cat of those metal Porta-Hut shelters you find online....That however will be all hubby's doing.... I can do simple things like the stand, all straight lines and a basic box, but anything more than that is beyond me, lol

Lynn- No way!! lol I was so mad about 1/2 through I almost quit. We have enough to do 2 more though and perhaps when hubby has down time he'll make pretty ones with the interchangeable head gates (that was his original plan) and the ability to be folded up flat to sell on Craigslist... I plan to paint those black with hot pink zebra stripes..... Might do the purple/pink stripes on mine (have a large nifty stencil set) after I get the feeder holder on it. 

Oh I can't take credit for the design.....hubby drew it up....his had the interchangeable head gate, a clevis pin thing to make the big head gate taller for large bucks, plus what he drew was plans for one that folded flat..... I copied his, only without the cool/complicated stuff and I made mine to fit the expanded metal so I wouldn't have to cut it down....And his didn't have the lil squares sitting on the front pieces... I tried cutting them off but kept blowing holes in the metal (ruined 3 sticks before I just left them on) so I gave up on getting them off and used one to loop the locking chain through instead, lol 

It is super sturdy though and will make milking Sabrina more comfortable since I have been tieing her to the fence and sitting on the ground


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## boeredsilly (Feb 10, 2011)

Nice looking stand and Kudos for welding. Me, no way. If it can't be sewed together or hot glued or super glued then I am out of luck.


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## Cotton Eyed Does (Oct 26, 2007)

That is a really nice job. YEA for you!!!


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## Legend Hills (May 29, 2008)

Awesome job! I'm very impressed with your skills. I hope you heal fast. It is so very nice to have a milk stand. I was milking my girls on the ground for a while a couple of years ago but ended up buying a stand that was certainly a whole lot more expensive than yours. Congrats on a new stand a job well done!


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## linbee (Jul 7, 2010)

Most excellent! Yeah for the girls!


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## Fly to the Moon (Sep 11, 2010)

That is seriously awesome. I'm jealous!


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## cmeyer1 (Apr 21, 2010)

Good Job!!


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## Faithful Crown Nubians (Dec 5, 2007)

Great Job!


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## LaManchaLady (Feb 5, 2011)

You Done a great job


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## K-Ro (Nov 10, 2009)

That's a great job, wish I could do something like that.


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## carlidoe (Jul 30, 2010)

Great job!! Very impressive.


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## 2Sticks (Dec 13, 2007)

Super impressive, looks so great!


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## catdance62 (Mar 2, 2009)

heck yeah! You go!


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## pettigrewfarms (Nov 14, 2007)

:handclap awesome job


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## cariboujaguar (Feb 9, 2009)

Gotta love a woman who can weld! I come from a long line of welders, I hope to start making stanchions also, thanks so much for sharing your ingenious technique!


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## lonestrchic23 (Jan 7, 2011)

cariboujaguar said:


> Gotta love a woman who can weld! I come from a long line of welders, I hope to start making stanchions also, thanks so much for sharing your ingenious technique!


My uncle owned a big welding supply store and I spent lots of time there with my cousins playing Darth Vader in welding hoods....lol

Then I took the metal working class in HS so I wouldn't have to take band or Home Ec.. lol

Hubby built windfarms and did electrical work for ages...feel into welding on accident about 10 years ago and now spends a majority of his time contacting out on welding jobs....

So welding just keeps snacking me in the face, lol I don't have scrap wood around really, so I'm happy to at least know how to do it 

Screwed up on a hay feeder/feed pan holder I tried to come up with.... built it all out of expanded metal and had to braze it to the stand with the torch and by melting baling wire (heat the expanded metal, head gate metal to orange and then melt the baling wire into both of them until its all sealed)....got it all on, was very pleased with my brazing job...tested it the strength.....Insanely strong and the brazed spots didn't look too bad for my first time doing it...

Started feeling very smug... Until I stepped back to admire and realized it's attached WAY too high!! Ugh... Can't cut it off with the touch or I'll blow through the head gate pieces and ruin them....so when I gather up the patience I'm going to try using the dremel to cut it off one brazed piece at a time (and of course I brazed as much as I could so its on strong and in many, many places)

O'well.... it will hold a goat for hoof trimming so I'll figure out the rest later


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## pjt367 (Apr 3, 2010)

Thanks for sharing your adventure! You're an inspiration!


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## VickiLynne (Feb 8, 2008)

Very nice job! 

Vicki in NC


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## Horsehair Braider (Mar 11, 2011)

My first post here... that is a wonderful job, good for you! 

I need a milk stand but unfortunately for me, I do not know how to weld! Although I am a jeweler and know how to "weld" (we call it "soldering") on little bitty pieces of sterling silver, this is totally beyond me. I imagine mine will be a Frankenstein monster of wood! While yours is very nice!


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## Drycreek goats (Sep 8, 2009)

wow what a great job,heal fast and so some more!


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## sarafina (Dec 26, 2009)

Awesome job!

Learning to weld is on my list before we move to Arkansas. I was always going to get one of the welders at work to show me..... now that they work for me it won't be a problem LOL.


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## dragonlair (Mar 24, 2009)

Wow, what a great job you did! I'm really impressed!


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## Red Mare (Apr 23, 2011)

It looks awesome! I'd love to get more into welding, but we just don't have the time or money to start another addiction right now!
I did quit a bit of it in high school, and I loved it- but the welders are just so expensive!


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## nikita (May 17, 2010)

WOW!!!!!!!!


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## cindy (Sep 16, 2008)

dance: dance: dance: :biggrin
EXCELLENT!


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