Finally got my twine discs adjusted

[lastcowboy32]

At the end of last baling season, I was chasing some knotter issues. Going through the knotters, I realized that...

My twine finger clearances were off...adjusted that

One of my twine discs was really worn...replaced it, along with the billhook on the same frame, because it's pinion gear was worn upon inspection.

The twine finger cam was worn...which we rebuilt to its original profile by MIG welding beads onto it and then grinding down.

The ball on the twine finger activator arm was frozen (hence the worn cam)... replaced

After all of that, we got to baling with consistent knots, but my twine disc settings were out of whack. I kept getting broken bales whenever my twine changed over to a new ball and my hand-made knot got pulled through.

Well... after putting 6 bales of twine through, between the end of last season and the beginning of this season... and tweaking the twine discs a little tighter each time... success. Two changeovers in a row and no broken bales.

In hindsight? I did start with recommended settings from the manual for both the new and old twine disk... with the old one tightened a touch more to account for age.

But, we use 7200 twine, and it's a BIG knot to pull through.

So, in the end, it seems that the twine discs need just a little more tightness than usual.

Also... maybe I could have accelerated the "testing" by just giving in to the fact that I would take forever to bale one load of hay, get someone to help me... and then go back and tie a hand knot in the twine every ten bales or so to see if it pulled through OK. Doing that would get maybe ten cycles of hand knots through the baler in an hour or two of pain in the neck baling.

As it was, it turned into a more distributed pain in the neck with a few broken bales every 400 bales or so when the twine changed over, while I was baling alone... which means... stop, go throw the loose hay out of the wagon... clean up the knotters... possibly re-string them... tweak the twine discs... go back to baling and wait until the next twine change.

Don't know... but in hindsight... it would have been better to just put all the pain into a short period of time and get it tweaked.

 

[Muir hill 101]

The road of knotter diagnosis and testing is never fun it
seems the like the more you know the less you really do
they are simple and complex at the same time and one
nut flat tighter or looser can really make a mess of
things

 

[SHALER]

A good report on your adjustments, lastcowboy, you did not mention your model number but I think its a 276? I replaced my twine finger cam follower on my 275 last week as it was worn. $11 from an aftermarket NH supplier.....probably a better deal than mig welding and grinding.....

 

[lastcowboy32]

Agree. I'm still kicking myself for just not plain catching that cam follower roller(thanks for the term for that) pre-season last year. But, I'm proud of the recovery. I have a parts baler with a good twine finger cam...instead of pulling the knotter stack and replacing, we used a piece of cardboard to trace the "good" cam shape... and then used it as a template to build up and grind down the "bad" cam.

Yes it's a 276.

And, hopefully documenting my mistakes prevents others from making them...