massey 510 getting ready for beans

son and I are getting ready to take out his 80 acres of beans. we've never grown beans so not sure how to set up the combine. have a manual and have looked at that, but wondering any "tricks" to help us out. one field got overrun with weeds, I think they are pigweed.
thanks
Gary

Soybeans vary in size due to weather and growing conditions. You have to pick a starting point and adjust from there (sieves, air, gap, cylinder speed). Run the combine several yards and then take a sample, check the tank, walk where harvested. Beans on ground? Open sieves and maybe less air. Pods in tank more air needed. Beans in the pod in tank less gap more cylinder speed. Beans split in tank gap to narrow cylinder speed might be to high. We liked to check sieves by pouring beans on them with combine off. They should just bean open enough for the beans to pass through. If you have pig weed slow the machine ground speed to let it thresh the trash out of the crop. Simple 😉

If you have a lot of pigweed then you had better wait until a good hard frost or you will plug that MF 510 real fast in those green weeds.

thanks guys gonna give it a shot on Saturday and see what happens. will start in the field without pigweed and hope to make it work.
Gary

A 510 Massey and tall green weeds? I feel very sorry for you!

don't feel sorry. come help!!!

the 510s we had handled weeds as good as anything going in those days , only trouble we ever had was wrapping on the shukin rolls , but my 300 hundred massey fuzt about it ,, like new salvaged cylinder bars made a world of difference ,,. I brought in 30 seasons of crops with a worn out 300 ,.. as far as settings for beans ,, it is nearly same seting as corn ,on a 300, you will want to lower the throat chain to the middle or lowest setting to the floor , the air fan may require higher speed , seldom do I change the deflectors unless the previous operator has the machine all whakt up ,,. the cylinder should be about 70 % or wider as possible to still get the beans ...cracked beans slow down the cylinder ,.. it is all trial and error and common sense ,, best rule of thumb is try one adjustment at a time ..

first thing to do if you are going to try cutting green material is remove the cylinder access door and check the condition of the rasp bars,if the mounting bolt heads show signs of wear ie slight taper you will be ahead of the game to replace them or get you a long prize bar and keep it close by,make sure your cylinder drive belt is in good condition,i found out if you will shift the cylinder drive gearbox to high then crank the variable speed to around 500 to 550 for a starting point the cylinder drive belt will handle more without slipping because the belt will be near the outer edge of the variable pulley on the cylinder instead of next to the bottom of the pulley,make sure the concaves are adjusted level front and rear, need to check the operators manual to be sure but if I remember correct rear was 3/8" front around 1-1/4" ??? Run the cleaning fan wide open, air baffels set equal spaced apart with a slight upward pitch,set the screens similar to corn adjust as necessary to get desired results,one of the biggest things you can do to avoid plugging is keep the reel low enough and running fast enough to assure even feeding of the table auger even if it shatters a few beans when cutting damp or green material,set feeder house chain front drum in the position for beans don't remember which hole but most feeder housings had a decal with the positions on it,set-up right you could run enough material thru it to get about get all the hp out of the 6 cylinder perkins without plugging it, but if you weren't careful you would be on the end of a prize bar BTDT more times than I care to remember,ran one for several years with 15' ridged head and pickup reel no auto header height back then soybeans were cultivated and on a small bed which made it easier not to scalp the ground