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One man's scrap iron is another man's farm shop
By Doug Rich The farm shop on the Rezac family farm, in northeast Kansas, is just a bunch of scrap iron--and that is just one of the things that makes it unique. Most of the iron used for the skeleton of the huge shop came from a Kansas City demolition company that was going out of business. Lance Rezac said the owner had been in the demolition business for 25 years but his lot was sold and he had to clear it all out in 30 days. "We hauled seven semi-truck loads of bar joists, truces and posts out of that lot," Rezac said. "The whole deal cost us $6,500 but that was before iron went up in price. There were some huge iron beams on that lot." Sixteen to 18 H beams were purchased from a junkyard for 10-cents per pound. The beams, left over from some big construction projects in the Kansas City area, varied in thickness and length but they were approximately the same size. "We painted it all white when we were done and it looks all about the same, even though it is different thicknesses, widths and shapes," Rezac said. "We straightened iron forever, to build this thing." The most unique features of Rezac's farm shop are the large bi-fold doors. Bi-fold doors "I don't think there are any like them in the U.S. that I know of," Rezac said. Rezac looked at regular bi-folding doors like the ones on their hog buildings, but those have to be latched to shut tight. "I knew we would forget to unlatch them and break the doors," Rezac said. They began designing their own doors, beginning with the small ones and working their way up to the big one on the east side of shop. "We played around forever, trying to get the doors just the way we wanted them," Rezac said. "I thought the hardest part would be folding it up but that ended up being real easy. The hardest part was getting the hydraulics to function properly." His first thought was to use two pilot operated check valves, which build pressure and then release. Once he had installed these valves, the door went up just fine, but it would not come down smoothly. "One side would release and the other pressure valve would recheck and start building pressure," Rezac said. He tried different flow dividers to keep it even, on the way down. Finally, he put a valve right in the middle, like those used on telehandlers or cranes where an operator has to actually suck the boom in. "Then I was worried, if the hose broke, the door might come down on its own," Rezac said. He solved this problem with a rotary flow divider. "You would have to break two hoses at the same time for it to fall down now," Rezac said. Building this shop has been a learning experience for Rezac and he learned something about hydraulic fluid while designing his bi-fold doors. After he finished the two smaller doors, he would come out in the morning and they would be slightly open. At first, he thought there was a leak in the system somewhere. He discovered that hydraulic fluid changes about 3 percent in volume when it cools off. "We were taking warm oil out of the tractor, locking everything down perfectly, and then it would cool off," Rezac said. "The door would come open just a little bit." This problem was overcome with an accumulator tank off a John Deere combine. It has nitrogen in it and will absorb and compress. As it cools off, it pushes against the oil and keeps the system full and the door closed. "By the time we built the big door, we knew what we were doing," Rezac said. Goals One of Rezac's goals with his new shop was to correct problems they had in their old shop. Plenty of space to work inside and lots of windows for natural lighting corrected two of those problems. Another problem area in the old shop was the space where they changed oil and stored grease guns. "The oil in our other shop was always a mess; it was always leaking and dripping," Rezac said. He wanted a cabinet that would hold all of the oil supplies. "We needed someplace to put anything that is oily or greasy," Rezac said. Rezac cut an old fuel can in half, for the bottom of the cabinet, to catch all the oil and drippings. There is a screen on top of this for draining filters, buckets for changing oil and grease guns. The top half is a cabinet area for storing bulk oil supplies. An air operated pump takes the used oil up and outside to an old 1,000 gallon anhydrous tank for storage. Eventually, Rezac would like to use this oil to partially heat the shop. "I wanted a clean way to keep the oil picked up because oil tanks, oil cans and oil filters are just a mess." Rezac likes to keep the shop neat and he does this by having plenty of storage for all of the odds and ends that collect in a farm shop over time. It is also the reason that Rezac is known as the "refrigerator man," in northeast Kansas. He uses old refrigerators for storing everything from electric motors to spare parts for the planter. "I took a load of junk to the dump one day and came home with a load of old refrigerators," Rezac said. "They are dust tight, mouse tight and have lot of shelves. It is an easy way to store lots of stuff. Now everyone knows that when a fridge goes bad, they know we will take it." Each refrigerator has a spray painted sign on the door telling everyone what is stored inside. Rather than use the specific brand name of an implement or vehicle that might later be sold or traded off Rezac keeps the names generic. Rezac also bought shelving from a hardware supply store that was going out of business and more shelves from a government surplus sale. This provides storage space for lag screws, grain drill parts, opening disks, painting supplies and anything else you might find in a farm shop. "If everything has a place, it has a better chance of being put back," Rezac said. It took over five years to complete the shop, working on it when they were not busy with farming or livestock. When asked if his shop was finally complete, Lance Rezac and his brother, Jay, just laughed and said it would probably never be done because they were always thinking of new ways to change it. Doug Rich can be reached by phone at 785-749-5304 or by e-mail at richhpj@aol.com. 1/14/08 Date: 1/10/08
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