baler knotter knives

[Robert23239]

Have hay to bale tomorrow with a broken knotter knife blade.

Any body have a idea to make one ???

Thanks

Robert

 

[tim s]

The trick would be getting a hole in them to bolt up. Cutting and shaping a piece of metal and drilling the holes then heat treating it would be the direction to go. A dull twine knife will give a knotter a lot of trouble, not cutting the twine quickly and completely causes the knot to choke too tight on the billhook, and in the next plunger stroke it will break the knot. I carry extra twine knives in my baler kit,,wish you were closer..

 

[msb]

Vermeer uses an ordinary heavy duty utility knife blade. Could you possibly clamp one in place by loosening the knife bolts and slipping the blade in place between the bolts and the Deere knife or ???

 

[tim s]

That's a good idea,

 

[amnion]

Same here. Those twine razors and the shear bolt on the pulley are something I always have a backup for in my 327.

Robert, where are you located? If you are close enough, you are welcome to one of mine.

 

[tim s]

Yes,If you want to keep a square baler running you need these kind of things handy. I have kinda become the Knotter guy in this area, a job that is not a lot of fun, when a baler goes down it's aways hot, the owner is always "worked up" and usualy there ia a rain comming. I have a tote box filled with the "right" size punches, extra pins, keys, bolts and nuts (when you drop one in the hay field it's gone),wiper arms, bill hooks "twine knives" and the tools it takes to preform emergency open heart surgery on a knotter, includeing the handy wiper arm shapeing tool that I got at a baler service school back in 1975. I remeber at that service meeting I had the most eye opening lessons in knotters that I have ever had, and It would be great if that lesson could be re-instated with todays technolgy. At the clinic the instructor had a film (the kind on open reels) that showed in slow motion the knotter working in vararyous stages of "mis-adjustment" and one of those stages was with a dull twine knife, it showed how the un-cut end of the knot would 'choke' the knot tight onto the bill hook causeing it to be harder to wipe clean. I have often thought that if I could get the crew from the TV show "Time Warp" to help me make a training vidio on Kotter functions that it would sell like cold Budweiser on a hot day...

 

[Allen57]

(quoted from post at 12:52:07 08/29/10) Yes,If you want to keep a square baler running you need these kind of things handy. I have kinda become the Knotter guy in this area, a job that is not a lot of fun, when a baler goes down it's aways hot, the owner is always "worked up" and usualy there ia a rain comming. I have a tote box filled with the "right" size punches, extra pins, keys, bolts and nuts (when you drop one in the hay field it's gone),wiper arms, bill hooks "twine knives" and the tools it takes to preform emergency open heart surgery on a knotter, includeing the handy wiper arm shapeing tool that I got at a baler service school back in 1975. I remeber at that service meeting I had the most eye opening lessons in knotters that I have ever had, and It would be great if that lesson could be re-instated with todays technolgy. At the clinic the instructor had a film (the kind on open reels) that showed in slow motion the knotter working in vararyous stages of "mis-adjustment" and [b:bfc4ca5c07]one of those stages was with a dull twine knife, it showed how the un-cut end of the knot would 'choke' the knot tight onto the bill hook causeing it to be harder to wipe clean[/b:bfc4ca5c07]. I have often thought that if I could get the crew from the TV show "Time Warp" to help me make a training vidio on Kotter functions that it would sell like cold Budweiser on a hot day...

Went thru that a few years back. Twine started balling up every now and then. Went thru the motions of adjusting the wiper. It would help for a few bales then the same ole ball of twine. Finally it struck me when we were looking at that little frayed bit of twine on the knot. Got to wondering when and if the knives on the square baler were ever changed or sharpened. Dad usually kept the square baler serviced and by this time he had been gone for about 5 years. As usual it was the weekend, haulers on the field and such so I took the knife off and sharpend it with a wetrock. Put it back on and that took care of that.

 

[cjk]

Tim, that is really a good idea. I would bet you could make a buck or 2 with that film. Can I pre-order a copy?

 

[pete 23]

I don't work on balers anymore, but I often wonder if todays digital movie cameras would work out to mount on baler and just run through a few cycles to see what is going on. If I wasn't so pressed for cash I think I would give it a try just for kicks.

 

[tim s]

Getting a clear shot and the right light, they may work out good, I know the guys on "TIME WARP" use a special high speed camera set up, High dollar units no dout, it's realy some thing the way they slow things down, like a balloon bursting,I like to watch it when I can, it would help to see a knotter in ultra slow motion...

 

[Robert23239]

Hello all,

That did it, I took a utility knife blade and cut it to length to fit in the holder right next to the screw holes. i tightened it up and baled 500 bales this afternoon. But from now on the blades will be in my tool kit.

Thanks everyone !!