IH - McCormick 45 Baler

I just picked up an IH 45 baler, and I'm looking for the knives for it. It was last used in 07, and it's all original. Only thing is paint is faded. Well kept.

I hate to say it, but if you get it to cut well, you will still have the problem if getting it to tie well.
Used a 45 for years and it was a pain.

When I cut a small area to test, as I just got it last week, tied nice, and I use twine not poly, just the knives are worn. The guy I got it from, did a great job of maintaining it, and average three thousand plus bales a year, he ran it up to about 2007, when he got sick, and had to leave the farm business.

If it works as well as you say,then you have a rare one. Most are junk.Dont tie well at all.

45 we used in the 70's must have been an anomaly too, it seemed to tie and work quite well, given the reputation they had. I always wondered why some of these 45's worked like they should, and others drove people back to previous methods of putting up a hay crop.

I think most of the IH balers were that way until the 440s and 430s with the all twine knotters came out. I remember my dad fighting a 37 baler for a couple years before buying a 440 that was a great baler after is was finally set up right.

I have a 47 wire tie that does pretty good - at least I never have issues with the knotters.

My farmer friend ran an IH 440 until the chamber was about paper thin, they did upwards of 20,000 small squares per season in those days. I remember my father marveling at this 45 baler, as it was a trade in or something, was old and rusty then, but worked better than the 532 Ford at times, which was a lot newer.

Try Kieters (spelling) in Penn. May still be available from IH. They were not a good baler but they mad some changes and some were ok but there reputation was shot by then.

We ran well over 1000 acres of hay through our 440 several seasons in a row before we bought a big round baler. Bggest problem is some dealerships never trained their person on how to set up and time a baler - and that needed to be fine tuned (with IH balers anyway) when the baler went to the field the first time. Our local dealer that tried to service the 37 and the 45 before it didn't have a better handle on what they were doing than my dad did reading the manual.


After they poked around on both of them for years my dad bought the 440 new one off their lot. First couple years we owned it there were issues - it would tie 100 bales in a row then for no reason miss two- three in a row then go back to working. After the 37 and 45 though that was a huge improvement. After dealing with this for a couple years we were baling far from home an my dad asked a local IH dealer to send their baler man out. After 3 hours of adjustments and walking beside it in the field that baler would make a 1000 bales in a row without breaking one and it worked good for several years after - even with all the hay going through it.

My old 47 wire tie lost time last summer when the pinion bearing went out. Local CNH dealership had their "baler man" set it up after replacing the bearing and its gone almost 2000 bales without a breaking one.

I am like some others, I grew up around a 45 in the early 70's. No idea why dad put up with it, but I have sat on the left bale chamber tying bales more hours than I can count. Sadly, dad would never cut much more than 100 bales a day due mostly to issues with the 45 baler, although it was just the two of us most of the time. We baled thousands of bales with that 45, pulling it mostly with an 8N Ford. To my knowledge that was the largest tractor ever on that baler as the previous owner pulled it with a small Ferguson (cannot recall the model). I still have the 8N tractor, and still runs great, but the baler likely went to China as scrap, as it was sitting on the farm when I sold it (scrap was not worth much then). I have fond memories of baling growing up, but I can only imagine how much better my memories would have been with a baler that would actually tie more than 10 bales without missing. And I am not exaggerating very much. If you have one that ties, it is out of the norm, and other than the knotters they seemed to be a decent baler.

(quoted from post at 05:38:41 07/06/15) I just picked up an IH 45 baler, and I'm looking for the knives for it. It was last used in 07, and it's all original. Only thing is paint is faded. Well kept.

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Hello-

If you are talking about the twine knives on the knotters, you need IH part number 668961R21. This is the newer style that has the replacebable razor blade. Should still be available at a case/IH dealer. They are around $45 each. Makes a huge difference in tying from the old style you have to sharpen with a stone. Google image the part number and you will see what it looks like. You will need to add more washers for shimming the new knife when fastening to the knotter than the original knife. Hope this helps!

-Jesse

Always interesting to hear baler stories, more so about the fine adjustments and getting them to work like you describe. My father was not so good at it, but he had a good friend who was and what a relief it was when he came by to work on the 532 ford, it sure baled nice for a long time after and we could get some work done.