Kinda OT, grain bin for shed

A neighbor has a 18' gov't bin he said he would give me to get rid of it. I have seen where someone takes the roof off and cuts them in 1/2 and lays them on their side and makes small quonset type shed out of them. Any body here ever done that? That would make a 18' wide shed, would need to make a wall of some sort to raise the sides some for more height. Would it be easier to take it down with bin jacks and then reassemble on the ground and cut sheets where needed than to try to cut it standing? Need a shed for wagons and pickup parking, looking for a cheap way to do this. Any thoughts??? Chris

This guy posted some pictures similar to your idea:
tomjones01/09/11, 02:20 AM
Going to try and post some photos of my first effort in this concept. Took a 14X18 ft bin apart and moved it home, and spent a couple of days over Xmas break putting it back together. We took every stinking bolt out of the whole thing, roof and all, and moved it home. I would guess it took us about 12 hours worth of kid and adult work to get it apart. Used our cordless dewalt drill and speed wrenches with sockets to remove as fast as possible, but that is a lot of bolts.

Anyway, so the idea I came up to was to try and build an animal shelter by bolting the sheets together and then bending them into a better shape. We started by simply bolting two sheets together and sucking the ends in with a cable winch to see if it would hold. Since there was just one seam in the center we ended up having a fold develop on one side of the seam. So we bent it back out, and with the remainder of the sheets offset the sheets by cutting one in half and staggering the seams.This seemed to give the building much more strength and maintained the arch better. That being said, in the end we got a little bit of "A frame" shape in the building, but I dont think it made a licks bit of difference. I bolted six pairs of sheets together to make an arch 16 feet long. We then took a 16 foot green treated 4x4 and bolted it with lag screws to each side. FInally we took a cable winch on each end and pulled the sides together to a 9'7.5 inch width. I would have liked to have kept it wider, but we built it in the garage and we got it to just barely fit through the garage door in both dimensions.

There was a lot of pressure there, and we were very careful to stay in safe areas at all times so if the building came free it could not get anybody. Absolutely no one was allowed in the building or on the sides until it was well secured. We put a treated 2x4 across both ends, lag bolted in. There was enough pressure in the center that it would bow the 4x4's out, so for safeties sake and to deal with the bow we put a chain with adjustment in the center drilled through both sides and bolted.I used a chain with a breaking strangth of 1500 pounds. This is a little annoying but seemed like a good saftey backup to me.

Finally we put a full end in one and and a half end in the other using the roof panels. By reversing every other section of the roof and redrilling some holes we could build a square section that we could cut a panelout of with a sawsall. A little driling allowed us to use the original mounting brackets from the roof to secure the end a couple of inches inside the lip of the arch. I used some expansion foam to seal the ends and let that cure.

So far the sheep love it and it has held several major blizzards at bay very well. Final inside measurements would be about 9X16. I have about 60 bucks in cash supplies and about 20 man hours in it. It seemed a little tippy from side to side without the end panels in, but as soon as you put them in it firmed right up. Next project we think we can use them for is a shelter to put our boat into for storage. We will either mount it on a two foot stub wall or else build it with a width of 2.5 panelsto get a little more height. The smart thing to have done woul dhave been to take a torch and cut the whole thing vertically into thirds. That would have taken about 15 minutes and you would have had three ready made if slightly more difficult to move shelter blanks. So you could make three 9-12 X16 foot buildings from one 18 foot bin. Width depends on how steep you want your walls and overall height. Ideally we would have left it wider and not so tall, but we needed to get it out the garage door.

Any questions just shoot!!!

Tom

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p320/tsodak/100_8421.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p320/tsodak/100_8420.jpg

http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p320/tsodak/100_8419.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p320/tsodak/100_8416.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p320/tsodak/100_8418.jpg
http://i131.photobucket.com/albums/p320/tsodak/100_8417.jpg
POKE HERE to read the whole thread.

I knew a guy who attempted to cut a 40' tall grain tank in half, intending to make quonset huts out of the halves. When he made the final cut, it swayed back and forth a couple times and crumpled up like toilet paper. Liketa got him. Keep in mind, this tank was smooth steel, welded 4X8' panels, with brace rods crossing through the center. I think regular bin material would be a lot stronger due to the corrigations. Good luck - it's an idea I'd want to try.

Paul

We have a small one that we cut a hole in and put a door in it and use it as a feed room. Works nice

Chris:
Got me thinking now (yep - scary) but saw some old bins down around Lincoln for sale and know a guy that does bin work.
Prolly work - not that I want anything for the horses though!

Jim

Chris:
Got me thinking now (yep - scary) but saw some old bins down around Lincoln for sale and know a guy that does bin work.
Prolly work - not that I want anything for the horses though!

Jim

Aw WHOOPS

If you take it apart to move just line up the sheets and no cutting will be required.

There are 6 sheets to make the circle so 3 sheets end to end would be 9 foot tall in the center.

Gary

A tip from some one who saw this done. Determine your vertical cut line and on either side of the cut line mount a 2" angle iron to stiffen the sides, Then at the top and bottom bolt another piece of 2" Angle from one side to the other and then cut from the bottom of the bin to the top and the last cut do it from a loader bucket with some one on the tractor to operate so you can get away from the bin halves fast if need be. I would leave the bottom ring bolted down to the bin pad if there is one until all the cutting is done. Set the 1/2 bin wall on top of a 48" concrete foundation,Lag down the angle iron to the walls and enclose one end and a nice little storage building it is.JH

John is right about reinforcing first before the cut. The only time a bin is strong is when it's a vertical circle with a roof on it. Take the roof off and it gets floppy real quick. Cut it down the sides and it ends up in a pile. We took a couple of 18 footers apart and used them for windbreaks but they were a real handful when they were cut apart. Jim

downsouth,

That is a nice idea. Thanks for posting the links to the pictures.