WOO HOO!!! It Tied A Knot!!

Bryce Frazier · Jun 25, 2014

Well, I brought some hay home from the neighbors, and I fired the old 68 up. I fed the hay into the pick up until I heard the "thunk" that the knotters make when they engage.

I went around to the knotters, and they DID tie the bale, the bale IS a nice size, although it is VERY loose, I took the two twist tightners off of the chute, and forgot to tighten them back up...

There is only one problem that I can see, when they tied the knot, there is a little loop left in the twine, and on each of the knotters, there are these little silver arms (twine bills??), and they are holding the loops, with the knot/twine against the bale. Now, are the supposed to let go, or what??

I ran out of hay, so I could pack more in to see what it would do, but other than it not letting go yet, it appears to be working great!

I can get a picture if you guys would like, I am kind of concerned, and would LOVE to know what is going on...

On another note, the twine that comes from the box, has been cut, and is now in the position that it needs to be in for the next bale! Thanks, Bryce

Zachary Hoyt · Jun 25, 2014

Good news that it tied. A picture would help me be sure I am understanding the problem correctly. I would recommend spraying silicone lube on the fingers and the twine disks, it seems to help my 68 tie better.
Zach

wisbaker · Jun 25, 2014

If you can get a copy of the owner's manual it has pictures of knotting errors and tells you what to do about each different malfunction. For what it's worth you're learning balers about the best way, work on it until it works and when it stops working work on it some more. My baler classroom was a NH super 66 and a Farmall H almost 4 years ago.

DeltaRed · Jun 25, 2014

Dont do any thing till you get into a windrow and bale some hay.Stuffing a bale into it is not a good test.It only tells you that it 'works'.It needs to be relatively full with a uniform feed to work 'right'.Good Job!

rustred · Jun 25, 2014

there should be a spring adjustment for the bill hooks. they may have too much tension on them. the next bale then pushes that bale back and the twine should be released from the bill hooks. more of a hands on thing by watching what is going on.

macec3(TX) · Jun 25, 2014

Bryce, you will have to bale more than one bale to get the proper density on the bales. The bale chute will have to be full so as to have some resistance. This resistance will cause the hay to compact and you will have a good tight bale. I usually bale 4 or 5 loose bales and then go back and break those first bales. Reset counter and rebale them later when the bale chute is full.

Bryce Frazier · Jun 25, 2014

Alright, here is a picture! Sorry it isn't very good, but it gets the point across! You can see that the knot is trying to pull down towards the bottom of the picture... I will try some spray on Moisture Lube.. It is the GM grade stuff my dad uses at work, and W O W is it good! Bryce

rustred · Jun 25, 2014

that old baler may be set up for the old sisal twine, different bill hooks. not plastic stuff. also important to have the knotters rust free.

Robert Major · Jun 25, 2014

Hi Bryce
Congratulations on it working. I don't do anything with square balers in my shop here for customers. I just come read what you guys are at with yours. Thats enough fun with balers for me in a day.
If all goes well you should be back saying WOO HOO!!! it tied 500 plus bales and never missed one!.
Good luck
Regards Robert

mhb@ufe · Jun 25, 2014

The knife arm may not be rubbing hard enough on the bill hook to wipe the knot off the bill hook.

Mark

teddy52food · Jun 25, 2014

On some knotters, the twine is pulled off as the next bale pushes this one backwards.

casecollectorsc · Jun 25, 2014

Delta Red has the best advice, just go and bale some before you make adjustments. May work better with sisal, like some said needs different knotters sometimes for plastic twine.

Bryce Frazier · Jun 25, 2014

Right on, well then the plan for now will be to leave it alone! It looks to me like if the bale was pushed out a little more, that it would pop off, like some of you said!

I am going to try to mow Sat/Sun which means raking Tue and Wed, and then baling Friday... Sounds like a plan to me!!!

Make sure ALL OF YOU are on the computer next Saturday, that way when I screw something up I have help!!!

Bryce

RickieBlue · Jun 25, 2014

I would say either the bill hooks are rusty from sitting around or the stripper needs to be bent closer to the bill hook so it actually lightly drags across the bottom of the bill hook, wiping the knot off. See the screen shot I took out of the manual. I have included a link to a knotter manual that I found online.

Click here

Bret4207 · Jun 26, 2014

FWIW, the later baler manuals had a lot more and better information on trouble shooting than the 68 manual. I forget exactly what manual I looked at, something from the late 60's-early 70's, a 273 maybe?, but it had way better pictures, descriptions and answers than my 68 manuals (I have several).

There are no "plastic knotters". I've asked a lot of NH experts, dealers, mechanics. They say they don't exist. I'm betting in a few knots the thing will be working okay. The twine running through and over the knotter cleans it up better than we ever can.

showcrop · Jun 26, 2014

Bryce, a few observations. First Delta Red's advice is good for his part of the country, but perhaps not for yours. I believe that you live where rain showers come through periodically, and almost always just a few minutes after the hay is ready to bale, LOL. If you live in rain country I would advise spending a little more time tuning. Second, in order to tune the knotters, instead of feeding enough hay for a full bale, "trip" the knotters after ten inches or so, adjust feed again and trip again, until you have the bugs worked out, so that you can go ahead and bale when the hay is ready, instead of working on it and getting the hay rained on. Third, your knotters should work well with plastic twine. When I switched over I checked with a couple of friends first, and they told me that the switch over was no problem. On the package of the plastic twine it said "works in all properly adjusted balers." I have gone back and forth between plastic and sisal a few times with no problems. Once you go through yours and clean and lubricate and check and adjust all settings, the plastic will work just as well as the sisal.

Mel in SW Iowa · Jun 26, 2014

If your bill hooks are rusty, pull out one at a time and wire brush and polish it off. If they are grooved, either grind and polish grooves out, or replace.

Jason S. · Jun 26, 2014

I have a hayliner 68. I went thru the knotters last year. I put new brass rollers on the arms and I put new bill hooks on it. I went down to the local Co-op and got 9000 twine. It missed one bale out of 500. I ran that twine out and since the local Agco dealer is a mile from me I bought some Agco twine and it is 10000. It would miss about every 25th to 30th bale. I go back to the 9000 twine and have no problems. That's my experience that they seem to prefer the bigger diameter twine. As far as sisal vs nylon I know there are different billhooks available depending on which twine you want to use. The opening is smaller on the nylon twine billhook.

WOO HOO!!! It Tied A Knot!!

Bryce Frazier

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Zachary Hoyt

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wisbaker

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DeltaRed

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rustred

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macec3(TX)

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Bryce Frazier

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rustred

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Robert Major

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mhb@ufe

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teddy52food

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casecollectorsc

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Bryce Frazier

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RickieBlue

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Bret4207

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showcrop

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Mel in SW Iowa

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Jason S.

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