By Dick Hagen, Ag Business Writer
A slick, new 75’ x 80’ farm shop with special lighting, in-floor heating, a huge 40’ door and a burgundy and beige color scheme is getting all sorts of attention on the farm of John Dulin, Kenton, Ohio.
“The contractor that sold me the building has people coming here every week it seems to check out the building and especially that big hydraulic door. So it’s a real treat for me and my farming partner, son Dana, to show them the works,” explained Dulin, who is also maintenance manager for six school buses in their local special education district.
Yes, big attention getter is that 40’ x 16’2” Schweiss hydro powered door out front. It’s big enough to easily provide ‘drive-in’ maintenance on their Cash/IH combine with 16-row header, or their Case/IH 24-row planter. And with zero lose of headroom when fully open that 16’2-inch height readily accommodates the big combine.
Straightforward answers, no hassel
John admits he’d never heard of this Minnesota outfit until he noticed a magazine ad and then got on the Internet (www.schweissdoors.com). “They’ve got an incredible web site showing their different doors installed in several locations. You see how things work and how to custom fit their doors to most any building,” explained Dulin. “I liked what I saw so I got on the phone and told them what I wanted. They told me the delivered cost to my farm. It was just about that simple.”
He did check out a couple of other door manufacturers but the ‘big picture’ on the Schweiss web site showing those 40’ wide hydraulic doors helped make the deal, especially that zero loss of headroom when fully open. His local building contractor said the door was a perfect fit.
Convenience is the trump card
“I can’t say enough about it. Any machinery we’ve got you can just run it in and run it out. That big door really makes our machinery management work that much more convenient,” said Dulin.
The big door provides ‘night time’ convenience too. His contractor wired three 8’ special lighting units called TH Electronic Ballast, each with 32-watt high efficiency bulbs onto the interior side of the door. He also placed 10 more of these 32-watt fixtures in the shop ceiling (and one over the pool table). Plus he’s got two 400-watt high efficiency fixtures on the outside ends of the building.
“If the shop is full and I want to repair a piece of machinery in the evening, I just open the door and flip the light switch. And if more interior light is needed those three lights on the hydraulic door conveniently provide extra interior lighting as well. With everything turned on it’s lit up like a ski slope,” chuckled Dulin.
Brand name of the new shop building is Golden Giant, a Kenton, Ohio construction firm that just recently moved into farm building construction. However John and his son, Dana, are terrific mechanics. They did their own installation of the in-floor heating system. The building was such a good fit for both their farm and school district mechanical work, they decided a 20’ x 25’ office addition made good sense too.
The Dulins farm 1600 acres of corn and soybeans including 50-60 acres of winter wheat. Their operation sits about 60 miles north of Columbus or 30 miles south of Finley. Both John and Dana also have full-time jobs. John is a school bus mechanic for First Student schools and is now doing all the bus mechanics (6 buses) in his new shop also. Dana is a mechanic with ODOT (Ohio Department of Transportation).
Being in close proximity to Ohio State University a telephone visit with John Dulin invariably closes with a ‘Go Buckeyes’ chant. He’s not an Ohio State Graduate. He married a Michigan lady. But when Ohio farmers get together if they’re not talking corn, or talking farm shops, they’re likely talking Buckeye football. John admits, “We’ve got quite a streak going so it’s sort of fun.”
