Stretch & Low Profile Hoppers

The History of Iron Bull's Stretch Hopper

In early 2014, a large RV manufacturer in Nappanee, Indiana, issued a challenge to Iron Bull.

“Build an 8-1/2 ft. wide self-dumping hopper for long scrap, mounted on casters, and made to fit a height flush or slightly lower than their table saws.”

Why? The manager saw a way to eliminate a small but unnecessary time-and-motion step for workers. He recognized it wasn’t necessary to pick up the scrap by hand to toss it up and over the side of the tall scrap container 6 feet away for every cut.

The result of this challenge was a Stretch Hopper that was still self-dumping and designed specifically for a woodshop.

Today, Iron Bull has a standard line of Stretch Hoppers that are self-dumping and engineered for efficient operation and easy use.  Available standard with both ends closed, both ends open (for longer material) or open one end with back-stop.

Dimensional lumber scrap of almost any length tends to fit together in the Iron Bull Stretch Hopper without scrap bridging up due to pieces settling at odd angles. This helps fill the hopper to capacity reducing the number of trips to the roll-off container or dumping area.

Today, many woodworking shops own Iron Bull Stretch Hoppers. Customers frequently tell us, “These hoppers make it so much easier and faster for handling our long scrap.”

If your shop has lots of 6-foot scraps and only occasionally handles material 8-foot or longer, then a 6-foot Baby Bull Stretch Open-End hopper will work well. This gives the hopper a smaller footprint without losing capacity. No need in taking up that extra shop space with an 8-foot or longer hopper.

What Makes Iron Bull's Stretch Hoppers Unique?

Here at Iron Bull, we have done extensive research on many kinds of hoppers available in today's market.

We understand that there are many factors that go into making a safe, durable, and truly efficient stretch hopper with a self-dumping capability.  Some of these factors are the steel thickness, overall design, and the way the hopper is put together in the manufacturing process.

We have taken the strong points of other self-dumping and stretch hoppers and put them into a single package:

• Wrap around lip on back corners
• Welded reinforcing angle around top edge
• Side of hopper extending down past the bottom and welded solid
• Welded gussets on inside front corners

These features, put together in one single hopper, add up to a well-built unit with great structural integrity.

Choosing the Correct Stretch Hopper Thickness

One of the most important factors in a hopper's structural integrity is the steel thickness.

Like any steel product, the thicker the steel is, the greater the strength of the hopper. Thicker steel also has greater resistance to “dings and dents” and punctures from heavy material or careless forklift driving.

Each stretch hopper series has several steel thicknesses to choose from. The steel thickness of the hopper and the hopper base design determine the hopper's overall duty rating.

The duty ratings are an important selection factor. For example, a stretch hopper being used for scrap pieces of trim at a woodshop does not need to have the same overall duty of heavy metal scraps in a metal fabrication shop.

The thicker steel in the heavier duty hopper will have greater “ding and dent” resistance.  This means fewer repairs and longer hopper life.

You can view our available steel thickness and sizes available for our stretch hoppers by looking at our section below entitled "Technical Specs - What size & toughness do you need?"