Sickle bolts vs. rivets again

PJH

Well-known Member
What bolts are you guys having good luck with?

I put new ledger plates on my NH 451 mower, and thought I'd give the bolts a try. I made three rounds on a four acre field and the outside ledger plate was gone. I figured I'd done something wrong, so I put in another ledger plate with bolts, and it only lasted about two rounds. I used rivets on the third one and finished up the four acres and another five acre field. On both bolt failures, the bolts were still in the holes, but I could turn the nuts with my fingers. These nuts were the self-locking type, and seemed to lock when I put them on. The bolts on the ledger plate at the head end are holding, but I'm skeptical now. The bolts that I used have an allen wrench socket in the countersunk head, and there's not much meat left around the edge of the head. I bought the ledger plates with rivets at the NH dealer, but I bought the bolts at a local farm store, so I'm hoping NH sells better bolts. I have never lost a riveted ledger plate, so right now I'm thinking one more try with different bolts.
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Didn't know thry made ledger plate bolts, wouldn't the nut drag in the hay at the bottom? Interesting.

I see what you mean about the Allen hole leaving very little strength.

I've had good luck with sickle section bolts, this is new item to me never seen them at the farm supply places. To be honest, most sickles are doing away with ledger plates, just a guard with a cutting edge and put the sarations on the sickle.....

Paul
 
Paul, this mower only has replaceable ledger plates on the end shoe and the head, and there is a slide plate in both locations that rides on the ground, and it protects the bolt heads. The guards don't have any ledger plates.
 
I have never seen blots used on the ledger plate only the sickle bar sections. ALL the ledger plates I have sen are riveted on
 
The bolts are more brittle and easier to break to start with than the rivets,that and when a rivet is pounded in it takes up all the space unlike a bolt that leaves space and then has
room to work around and eventually come loose
 
Have to agree with Traditional Farmer. Bolts look like an easy way to go, but rivets swell to fill the space. I run a 7 ft 25-V mower, which has been working on the farm since 1946. We always use rivets and failures are extremely rare.
SadFarmall
 
I'm gonna give up on bolting the ledger plates. I still have the bolts in the head ledger plate, but today I'm gonna pull the knife and replace them with rivets. I'm tired of wondering when they're gonna fail too.

Thank you for the comments. When everyone said they were using bolts, I thought they were also talking about bolting the ledger plates. I feel a whole lot smarter now, ha.
 
I didn't know about bolts for the ledger plates either. Was at Joe's Machinery, Willow Street, PA in earlier this month where I saw bolts along with the ledger plates. I picked up a set but am reluctant to try them now! I broke out the outer ledger plate on my 451 mower last year. Local machine shop drilled two holes in the cast iron outer shoe in order to firmly brad in the new rivets - it has worked good. From past experience on another outer shoe on a Dearborn mower, that is one hard place to tightly drive in a rivet! I had hoped the bolts might be a good alternative.
 
I used bolts in my combine. I would never go back to rivets.I never had a bit of trouble with the bolts. I bought them at the farm supply store.
 

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