A tip of the hat to "Old", other 276 knotter adven

So,

I gave our NH 276 its pre-season once over.

To setup this story, I have to say... I have to store mine outside for the winter. It has a built in knotter cover...but I don't tarp it or add any other shelter. Before I did, last fall, I cleaned everything thoroughly, let it dry for a day or two of dry weather; and then sprayed down all of the knotter assembly with penetrating oil ...and then WD-40.

This spring, before I got it going. I again sprayed the knotter assembly with penetrating oil.

Mostly because I had stuck grease fittings last year.

This turned out to be a blessing and a curse.

Blessing: All of my grease fittings took grease this year during spring tuneup. That's a first for me.

Curse: The penetrating oil did its thing and penetrated the twine holding disks. Slippery twine holding disks are not a fun thing to have.

They spin great. But...between slick poly twine and a little oil between the disks.... it took about twenty bales of usage through the baler to get the knotter on the right to reliably hold the twine.

Otherwise, it would pull out during the wiper arm cut.

When I looked at the end that pulled out, it was soaked with oil.

After a enough twine had been put through to soak up the oil...we baled today without incident.

But not before taking Old's common advice of sharpening up the wiper arm knife. I noticed that it was a little dull, and probably "knot" helping my situation with the twine coming loose.



********* Here is a related question *************

Is there a way to easily get the wiper arms out of the 276 knotters by undoing the knotter hold-down bolts and rotating the knotter up?

I couldn't manage to get mine out, and I decided it was more expedient to sharpen the wiper arm knife with a file; while it was still in the knotter.

It worked, but it would be a heck of a lot easier to sharpen that knife with the wiper arm out.
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Thanks

When I sharpen the knifes in my NH271 I use a small wet stone I have. It is maybe a 1/4 inch thick and an inch wide and about 3 inch long. You can slip it right in and sharpen them with out even having to flip the knotter up. I keep one in my car which I use when going on a fix it call just in case I need to sharpen knifes on a baler I maybe servicing.

As for your oil problem a shot of brake cleaner spray or carb cleaner spay would have fixed that in seconds

I actually WAS thinking about a solvent to clean up the oil. As it is, the twine soaked it up. Just took a few bales and a few expletives on my part...

I'm thinking that next year, if I oil everything down for storage, I'll clean the knotters with something like easy off or foamy engine brite to ensure that any rogue oil is removed.

Then I can grease and lubricate for the season.

My NH271 sit out side year round and I never do any thing other then grease it up in the spring if I am going to use it. I'd have to use one of the loader tractor right now to get it out since it has been at least 2 years since I have used it. The black berries sort of have it hidden right now and would be a real pain to get to. And when I say pain I mean it since them things have some nasty thrones.

One other thing I do is make sure the plunger safety stop works before I even hook it up to a tractor. Learned the hard way what can happen if it does not work

They come out by taking the holddown bolt out. You have to move them in the right position of the brass roller track while lifting the knotter. Theres only one way it will come out or go back. You can also see how your wiper arm is doing while lifting the stack.

why not just cover the knotters with an old car hood or something, as that is the most important part to keep from rusting. even a sheet of plywood and drill holes in each corner for ropes and tie it down on the baler. that little cover is not much to keep weather out.

(quoted from post at 18:52:00 06/12/18) why not just cover the knotters with an old car hood or something, as that is the most important part to keep from rusting. even a sheet of plywood and drill holes in each corner for ropes and tie it down on the baler. that little cover is not much to keep weather out.

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Yes, before next winter, I want to do something better.

Even with cover, I"m still debating if the penetrating oil soak would still be a good idea. I like what it did for my grease fittings. It seemed to soak down all of those pinion shafts over time and loosen up that mix of chaff and dried up grease that plugs the grease fittings. I've never had all of my grease fittings take grease without a fight before.

So, I may still do the penetrating oil soak, even if it's under cover next winter.

Which would mean that I need to figure out a good way of removing excess before operating next spring.

Back in my collage when I was working for the Deere dealer I would go with the baler mechanic on service calls. Many times they were newer balers with the multi luber system and someone would pump the heck out of it filling the knotter with grease. The old guy would grab a hand full of chaff from the baler shoot an throw on the knotter and they would start tying fine.

(quoted from post at 03:48:00 06/13/18) Back in my collage when I was working for the Deere dealer I would go with the baler mechanic on service calls. Many times they were newer balers with the multi luber system and someone would pump the heck out of it filling the knotter with grease. The old guy would grab a hand full of chaff from the baler shoot an throw on the knotter and they would start tying fine.

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