Horse Pulled sickle bar mower HELP

[deerborn14-49]

I have and old horse drawn sickle bar mower and I'm needing to know how to adjust the blades, so they are closer to base. Some of the blades are making decent contact like scissors but some are touching at the tip and not at the back. How to I fix this. The blade bar is being firmly pressed down across the whole thing and I still have this problem please help.

 

[Roger in Iowa]

Bend guards or replace guards. If ledger surface is worn rounded, replace guards.
Someone may have used wrong guards.

 

[deerborn14-49]

Bend guards or replace guards. If ledger surface is worn rounded, replace guards.
Someone may have used wrong guards.

just going to ask but what/where is the ledger surface

 

[used red MN]

Hello Dearborn.. welcome to YT!
Let’s see if this works, the linked manual at the address below should help you. Due to that linked site being considered a competitor of the parts sales piece of YT they block copying in a live link.
Copy that into your address bar and remove the spaces from in front and behind tractor. Go to page 19 for some helpful information.
https://www.n tractor club.com/manuals/implements/mowers/1950%20Dearborn%20Mower,%20model%2014-15,%2014-16%20Assembly%20and%20Operating%20Instructions.pdf
Some years ago I ran across an excellent pdf manual on old sickle bar mower operation and maintenance it would have been the cat’s meow for you. Unfortunately I lost the link somehow.

 

[peteL]

I might have an old sickle manual in pdf format for you. I'm currently away from home and will send you the manual by direct conversation once I return home..

 

[Roger in Iowa]

Ledger is the surface the blades cut against. The blades are called sections and the piece with all the sections is the knife. Terminology varies with location in USA and the world.

 

[used red MN]

Ledger is the surface the blades cut against. The blades are called sections and the piece with all the sections is the knife. Terminology varies with location in USA and the world.

To add, the ledgers are flat plates that as described set below the sickle sections on the teeth guards. The teeth guards being the parts that bolt to the main heavy sickle bar and point into the crop and divide it for cutting.

 

[deerborn14-49]

Thank all of you for the information I'm going to put it to good use and hopefully get it working better. i will let you know how it goes

 

[PJH]

I have and old horse drawn sickle bar mower and I'm needing to know how to adjust the blades, so they are closer to base. Some of the blades are making decent contact like scissors but some are touching at the tip and not at the back. How to I fix this. The blade bar is being firmly pressed down across the whole thing and I still have this problem please help.

You got very good advice, but in addition - if you have a section that is not making proper contact with the ledger plates, carefully check the adjacent sections on each side of the perceived offending section. An adjacent section may be bent down and holding its neighbors up, making for a poor cut. With the knife out of the mower, you should be able to look longways down the line of sections and see perfect alignment.

 

[showcrop]

PJH's suggestion is a very good one. If there were rocks in the fields where it was used the guards will get knocked upward. A two foot piece of 3/4 iron pipe makes a good bending tool.

 

[showcrop]

Here are my grandfather and uncle, taken around 85 years ago.