Sisal Baler Twine Tension out of spool, Massey 9

quantech

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I am an old guy who is new to baling hay with my Massey 9 small square baler.

I just purchased some Brazilian Gold Premium Sisal Twine, 9000ft, and when it feeds out of the tight inner spool opening it binds every so often creating uneven tension in the Knotter assembly so that the twine does not get swept off the knotter hook. It get bound on the hook. Nothing is wrong mechanically from my close review of the documentation, I am concerned about what is normal twine flow rate and pressure...out of the spool and therefore through the twine tension brackets to the knotters.

Anyway, should I run out a couple hundred feet of each spool of twine into a twine balls in order to widen the inner spool diameters and therefore possibly allow the twine to flow out of the spool cores more evenly, with more even pressure on through the tension bracket...to the knotters?

I am not certain how much constant tension should be on the twine to ensure good operation. From what I read, just enough to keep the flow of twine from overrunning or flopping loose during operation. Is that feather light, huge pull, or where in between?

Any help anyone will offer is appreciated. Thank You
 
Tension should be a little more/harder than feather light. Are pulling twine from the correct end of the spool? If from the wrong end, it will want to loop and cause problems....
 
Hi Roger,

The starting tabs were nicely affixed to the top side and the twine was new! When pulling twine outwards at an even pull rate/force, it "binds" before even getting to the tension spring area when you believe it should not have a tugging/binding feel to the tension of the twine. It sounds like tearing fibers when pulling out of the "bind"... it runs smoothly a ways, then "binds" a moment.

Reading a bit more online, I found a reference that says (highly edited by me):

PROBLEM: Twine too tight or twine breaks while tying.

CAUSES: new ball with tight core

SOLUTION: Pull out bad twine or replace twine.

I am also an Iowan, and I don't like to waste resources... so I didn't want to pullout a length of twine from the news rolls if I didn't have too. (I already have open spools of poly twine I use for most non-baling things round here.) But, it sounds like that might be what is suggested by the "one chart I found online" that seems to touch upon this issue... not implying I found the perfect answer by any means.

Seems like the "Core" might be too tight. Have You or has Anyone experience this?

Thank You
 
I was having some minor binding a couple years ago and switched to plastic 9000. I have a new holland 275 and didn't have to do anything to the baler and its at least 1/2 the price.
 
The twine is really not happy when drawn from bottom! It twists "against the grain" and I can see a different problem if I were to run it!

I pulled out a couple hundred feet from a spool(and rolled it into a ball)!
Now that the inner core is wider as a result, it seems to pull/feed more evenly with lighter "binding".

I am not able to test bale tonight, but will post my findings as they come in.
 

Hard to get good sisal these days. Try poly. All my knotter and twine breakage issues came to screaming halt once I made the switch.
 

I've run a #9 for years with sisal. Never ever had an issue with a new ball causing issues as long as it was tied on right.

Make sure the "really long twine springs"(visible when twine door open) are not broken and are horizontal when no tension is on them.
 
Have a #10 massy and started with regular twine, was having tying problems. Brother in law wanted plastic on his bales, he had the plastic twine so we tried it. My tying problems went away and never went back to regular twine. I use titan 9600 170 # tensil strength, tried the 130 # but was not strong enough, bales would pop when handleing them.
 
They do ride horizontal, until the binding causes them to drop all the way down, which is why I am now looking at the tightness of the inside of the twine core as a problem. It does not seem to release from spool with even tension. Thank You for your input.
 
I am strongly looking at switching... but wondered if you made any adjustments to knives or anything to run poly vs sisal. Thank you
 
I am not familiar with Massey balers but have used New Holland since 1946. Some of your problem may be your placement of balls of twine in the twine box. Assuming you have the long box with 4 balls side by side, two for each knotter, make sure you start pulling twine from a new ball throught the loop in the lid directly above the new ball, (Probable on the right hand side of each pair). Then when you have used some, swap the two balls for one knotter with each other so you now pull from the left (probably) ball, which will now flow easily around some tight corners. As you will have tied the end of first ball to the start end in the centre of second ball, when the first is finished the pulled twine from the centre of the second ball will now be under the loop in the lid when it is shut, and should flow easily. This whole arrangment simply means that you don't pull the start on a difficult angle for twine out of the tight beginning of any new ball. Also make sure the two twines are not twisted en route to the needles. Use the two left hand balls in the twine box for the left needls and knotter and two right balls for right needle and knotter. We used all sorts of twine over the years, some quite frustrating and now all seems to be poly. At least it is consistent and doesn't rot if it gets wet. Make sure you knotter knife is working EXACTLY to both pull and scrape the knot off the billhook and the knife is SHARP.
 
No I never changed anything, I think the plastic twine slides through everything without as much friction including the hay itself.
Thought I might have to tighten the twine disc but didn't.
 
No I just put the plastic in and didn't adjust anything tied perfect and seems like the bales even stay tighter.
Joe C
 

I'm running a NH 68 that's older than I am and didn't have to do anything when switching to poly. It seems there are bill hooks made for poly, but I've never seen anyone need them.
 
I removed the sisal, and put in some open roll 130# 9000 Orange Poly and it feeds smoothly and the twine does not bind. It slips right off the knotter hook when cut then swiped by the twine finger. I made no adjustment to accommodate Poly vs Sisal. "Like butta". Knives are sharp.

The sisal is new from the Store, but I assume the tight roll might be the result of slight fiber expansion due to Iowa's humidity. I dont see a manufactured date on the package. I am gong to take it back to store and get new rolls of Orange Poly in exchange.

Thanks everyone for the input.
 

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