K Effective
Well-known Member
Thanks to all who made suggestions. I dove deep into my manual and studied the mystery that is a knotter. With suggestions to check the wiper gap and knife sharpness, I followed the instructions and removed the carriage bolt, allowing the knotter to rotate up and over. I've never done that before, literally, I just greased the zerks every year and nothing more. Knives are sharp and wipers tight.
So, I wanted to check my duckbill release pressure, and found the arm that closes it and it's spring. I opened it up, and checked the bottom jaw of the duckbill, and to my surprise, found the deep groove in there of a sisal duckbill. I was told that by the early 1990's all the balers came with the universal duckbill to handle either sisal or plastic twine. This one definitely has the sisal one, which would explain the two rolls of old sisal that came with it.
I had swapped over to new plastic right away, figuring I wanted no part of 30 year old twine messing up my new baler. Sure enough, when I spliced in the old sisal and gave it a shot, it made 20 straight perfect knots. My help showed up and we finished with 498 bales from five acres, not one single missed knot of any kind.
Thanks again, for your help and directions, I learned something new and now have much more confidence to repair future issues myself! AND, my baler works GREAT!!
So, I wanted to check my duckbill release pressure, and found the arm that closes it and it's spring. I opened it up, and checked the bottom jaw of the duckbill, and to my surprise, found the deep groove in there of a sisal duckbill. I was told that by the early 1990's all the balers came with the universal duckbill to handle either sisal or plastic twine. This one definitely has the sisal one, which would explain the two rolls of old sisal that came with it.
I had swapped over to new plastic right away, figuring I wanted no part of 30 year old twine messing up my new baler. Sure enough, when I spliced in the old sisal and gave it a shot, it made 20 straight perfect knots. My help showed up and we finished with 498 bales from five acres, not one single missed knot of any kind.
Thanks again, for your help and directions, I learned something new and now have much more confidence to repair future issues myself! AND, my baler works GREAT!!
