What hay rake is this?

bja105

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I want to know what it is, can I fix it cheaply enough, and will it work for me?

Its missing a few teeth, I can find them somewhere I bet. The bent wheel is the issue. It wobbles and hits the frame, temporarily stopping it. I think I need to replace the wheel, or do you think I can heat and bend it enough to work?

If I fix it, will it work for me? Have never hayed myself, but I have made hay with horse equipment with my Amish friends. The tractor is a Ford 4610, I will be cutting with a Mathews Company Rotary Scythe 7E. I don't have a baler yet, but I will have a round baler by spring, and I might buy my neighbor's Deere 12t, also. I am more concerned with having round bales, first. I have until next year to get my equipment ready.
 
I use old rakes like that all the time for about 1300 bales every year.They are cheap to buy and you don't have to replace expensive tires. Not sure what kind you have but the teeth remind me of the 3 bar IH rakes I have.
 
McCormick 4 bar enclosed gear (no model except this) built from either 1939 or 40 (would have to check as cannot remember for sure, 3 bar enclosed was one year and 4 bar the other) untill 1958 and you have the muck wheels on the front that are scarce. And as for the bent wheel hitting the frame, that is easy, just put that wheel on the left and left on the right, McCormick that can be done with, some others not. Good operating rakes in the $800 range. Teeth are harder to find than other rakes and only the steel wheel rakes have the teeth to fit. But I can easly find them for you. 3 different dealers that probably have in stock. And for less money with shipping than most farm stores that could even get them. You need to drain the water out of that gear box, plug in bottom and refill with 90 weight gear oil. and if the rake has ever set outside there will be water mixed in the grease that is in there. And also there are 2 grease fittings inside the gear box that should be greased every year and to do that just loosten the 2 wing nuts on the bolts to lift the top off. There was a seal around the output shaft that will no longer been in there. I do have the parts book for it that I could copy at cost if you want it. Would take me a while to find it as have not needed to use it on the last several I did referbish for the field behind a team of Belgins. This year only 1 McCormick rake-tedder and some New Idea rakes. takes a while when they are rusted sollid and then you paint them.
 
2 positions plus out of gear on that throw out lever but only on is operapable, center is out of gear. The other is for the reverse tedding setting that the enclosed gear does not have as the secong gear is not in that gear box but the lever is same as on the rake-tedder machine.
 
OK, I know what it is, and thanks! I see some manuals available, and even found a source of teeth, perhaps. http://balsters.ipower.com/baler-rake-sideteeth.html

Anyway, next up, if I get it in service, will this work for me? I know that a rake makes a windrow for the baler, and I think it can be used to get the wet hay on top. Will this rake do that for me to bale with a round baler? I'm looking for a Vermeer 605c or equivalent.

Can I tow this rake a mile or so home behind my truck without breaking anything?
 
Can you stay down to 3 MPH? Much faster and it will shake itself apart. The Caster wheels will want to wipp around. And I think Balisters is no longer around for years as he died several years ago and everything was liquidated. I have used those types of rakes but know nothing about a round baler except they are not for me.
 
You could chain the wheel to a tree with the bent in section against the frame and hook a chain to it and pull it out to where it could be used.
 
(quoted from post at 01:45:00 08/27/14) OK, I know what it is, and thanks! I see some manuals available, and even found a source of teeth, perhaps. http://balsters.ipower.com/baler-rake-sideteeth.html

After the owner passed away, Balsters closed, and a couple of years ago the inventory was sold off to the highest bidder.

http://schultzauctioneerslandmarkrealty.com/balsters-implement-auction-september-15-16-and-17/ (I missed Leroy's post.)

A wire spring manufacturer should be able to make just about any rake tine/tooth, but they'll need a good/new one to start with and may have minimum quantities that you'll have to purchase (could be just a few, or several hundred or thousands of units).

AG
 
As Leroy said - McCormick Deering enclosed gear
side delivery rake (4 bar).

That's what they're called - there's no model
number or anything like that.

They did have various options, ours has rubber
tires. You could also get a seat for pulling with
horses, and there are different sprockets to
change the speed of the "cylinder" - the main
spinning assembly.

Sprockets could have 8,9,10,or 11 teeth. Might
want to count yours just so you know where you are
in that spectrum.

Slower sprockets are for light fluffy crops -
faster for heavy crops. Also to compensate for
horse drawn vs. tractor drawn.

I hate to keep posting this picture over and over
again - but the topic comes up a lot.

I run a 4H club, and the kids restored this one.

I love using the thing. I think it was well worth
the effort to save them. It really works very
well. Ours doesn't leave a piece of hay behind -
it scours like no other rake I've ever used.

Of course it's not the right tool for doing high
production, and yeah it's a little awkward in
tight spaces, but for say a 5 acre field - it's
really nice. Especially when it's set up right
and you've got all the teeth away from the
strippers so it runs silently.

Leroy's right too - that gear box fills right up
with water, keep an eye on it, because if it gets
very rusty in there, it can cause with the
cage/roller bearings.

One other thing I'd add, this rake probably isn't
for you if you can't weld. Those stripper bars
break pretty easily, and it could get frustrating
if you can't fix them yourself.
a167158.jpg
 
Something else I find interesting is that yours
seems to have some paint left on it.

Often hard to tell if the paint is original or
farmer paint.

But one big challenge we had when restoring ours
was to find the original color scheme.

Doesn't really matter to most - but we really
wanted to "restore it" vs. just getting it
working.

I THINK mccormick actually mixed up the paint
scheme over the production years, making it much
more difficult to research.

But from your picture it looks like the levers and
crank handle were white.

If you could look it over and list the different
colors of the parts - it'd help to have the info
recorded here to help others.

These things are rapidly disappearing, as is any
knowledge of what they originally looked like.

What you see in the picture I posted is the what
we settled on based mostly on old paint flakes -
and the ONE color picture I've ever found of one
of these rakes. (see the link - click "Look
Inside" - then scroll down to "page 10")
click here
 
Exactly. Those wheels will shake the entire rake to pieces (at least the rubber ones do) if you go too fast. The rake will start hopping all over the place.

There's a connecting rod on top that links the two casters - if you disconnect that, things seem to improve. (I figured that out when mine shook the linkage off!)

I've had mine up to maybe 8mph or so without that linkage.

But for your situation - driving a mile each way - and assuming if you're round baling you're probably doing a decent sized field - I'd guess your money would be better spent on something a little more modern.

These are old machines - and they need some extra care and attention. I personally wouldn't want to be a mile down the road with it and have something snap.

It'll definitely work for you - but I wouldn't want to rely on one as my main rake.

As I like to teach my 4h kids - there's always a good reason that this old equipment evolved.
 
I use one my grandfather bought years ago, about 1940 or so as that's the only rake my father (b. 1936) remembers in use on the place. Been in steady use since new, takes a pile of grease and often. Makes a nice fluffy windrow. Picks up well too. Can't go too fast with it, but a little faster than a good walk, say 4 or 5 mph at the most. If you have to travel the road though, any faster than a crawl and you'll shake the machine apart. You can adjust the angle of the teeth as well. Mine are slightly forward pointing. Good for a heavy crop but make sure you clear the ground when they're like that. Good luck with yours.
 
How many acres or how many bales will you put up a year? Hay is a time sensitive crop, speed and reliability are important to put up good hay before the weather turns bad. If you have five acres, or always have ideal weather, that rake could be made to work...slowly. If you have more acres, or do any custom work, a better rake is needed.

Good rakes seem to hold their resale value. If you fixed that rake up, I doubt it would gain much extra value as a working rake. It would probably have more added value as yard art or as a collector's item, especially if it was painted nice.
 
What some call ropeing bad is what others call good work and the way it is wanted instead of a so fluffy windrow you cannot get into a baler pickup and the least little bit of wind and it is again all over the field.
 
If you think it has more value as yard art or colector than use then you are dreaming. That McCormick and the New Idea No. 4, also a steel wheel rake are the most wanted rakes around. I cannot find enough to meet the demand.
 
if it rakes as well as my j i case f 170 ... you better believe it is worth fixing up and saving,,,the old rakes of all kinds inour nek of the woods liked to run at a fast walkin pace ,, AND ,they do a GREAT JOB ,.john saelie has teeth for case rakes
 
(quoted from post at 19:04:41 08/27/14) If you think it has more value as yard art or colector than use then you are dreaming. That McCormick and the New Idea No. 4, also a steel wheel rake are the most wanted rakes around. I cannot find enough to meet the demand.

I understand why the New Idea #4 might be so sought after since it has the reverse gear and can thus tedd with your Amish customers.

Regarding the McCormick: Why would that McCormick be more sought after than say the similar John Deere 594 rake with your Amish customers. The Deere has significantly more metal in it where every old McCormick that I ever looked at looked at personally was rickety, falling apart, and rusting away. Never really heard anything good about any of IH hay equipment for that matter either.

While I do like those New Idea rakes, I do not like how they made lots of the heavier components. Many of the heavier parts are layers of much thinner metal riveted together to produce a thick structure piece. This method Works fine if machine isalways shedded from weather , but many that set out have rusted away where the laminated iron holds water between the layers.

FWIW: Not picking a fight. Just trying to learn..
 
The JD 594 is third on list of what they like. It is actually made lighter than the McCormick And then the stripper bars were spaced on every third tooth instead of every second tooth and on that in some conditions the lack of a stripper bar would let the hay go between them and wrap around the real inside the bars. The later 594 rakes were drilled so you could put a bar at every tooth but I have never seen that. I have rebuilt a few of those Deere rakes as well but most were the 3 bar models. On one I did I had a completely junk 4 bar that had the holes drilled every 4" apart and I moved the front and back frame rails over to the one 3 bar and put the stripper bars at every other tooth or 8" spacing instead of the factory 12" spacing. Deere had a problem with the design of the drive on them and the center gear that stays in one position to keep the bars rotating to correct position liked to wear out fast. And when that would happen then you could not keep the tooth angle in time. Also the teeth are fastened on more flimsey than the McCormick, you go to the McCormick 3 bar rake-tedder that was built from the mid 20's to 58 is a different story, not a very good rake in my opinion. I do not like the setup McCormick used on any of them to adjust the rear end height of the real, NI is easy and Deere in between. All have there good designs and there bad designs Like that 2 thickness plates for the NI tilt lever and the poor mounting for the real bearings but with NI being the only 4 bar tedder what else do you do. And I have converted a 3 bar NI to a 4 bar. Before I realized it I had put the real of a MH rake in a McC rake with no problems as they are that nere identical. In the last 15 or so years I have handled I would guess someware between 50 and a hundred rakes in NI, McC, JD, MH and Case and I used a David Bradley low wheel rubber rake to farm with along with a NI 4 bar. This summer a like New 594 sold at consignment for around $1,100 so they will bring good money. Just different ones like different things like we like different makes of tractors.
 
No Amish around here, so I didn't consider that market. In this area, steel wheeled rakes were nicknamed "hay beaters" and they were all gone by the 1960's.
 
exactly Leroy - I always kinda wondered why people complained about the roping.

I like it, especially using a narrow baler like the super 66 or the 24t - I just have to touch the window with a few pickup teeth and the whole thing gets drawn in, even if I'm not lined up just right, or if the window's too wide.

Curious why people wouldn't want that.
 
Still used steel until end of hay production in 81 after cows left winter of 80. And up to around 10,000 bale a year on small squares.
 
I used Uncles New Holland one time and it would not make a decent winwrow for any thing. To wide for baler pickup and scatered all over because it was so loose before the baler could get to it.
 
Leroy - Thanks for the Tutorial.

I believe JD called those rakes with the extra stripper bars "mint" rakes. I have only ever seen one of the 594 "mint" rakes myself. Guess, I should have bought it as the price was not much over scrap.

Oh well, I think I will stick with my current couple of JD 594's. A loose fluffy windrow dries very well for me. I rake sooner than many do and then use the rake to flippy the windrow which controls fading/bleaching, but still promotes drying as I have a loose fluffy windrow that air can pass through. For a guy who does not use a tedder then I believe a loose fluffy windrow is a must. That said the fluffiness of the windrow is adjustable using the time pitch angle lever so a normal windrow is possible as well. I do not want any rope makers of any kind.
 
Would have to check to be sure what all is different on the mint machines but I think there are other differences. Parts books will show that.
 
Like others have said, its an IHC. The bend in that wheel is nothing compared top a Case rake I fixed up. Whoever had dinged it had also broke all 4 of the teeth pipes. It had welded up pipes, bows, back casting for one of the tail wheels. I got it going tho. Got 2 Case rakes, and one JD rake, all steel wheeled.

That flat chain is #50. You can get the teeth at 898 828 3276. You should be able to get parts for it at 717 543 5136 Good luck
 

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