New Holland 268 baler

[scrapironford]

A friend brought one over to me yesterday, it is in ok shape not good, what should I check ect. as I would like to use it next week to bale horse hay? No book, manual nothing. Started greasing & oiling chains today. How do you check the timing on it ? Slip clutch will be taken apart tomorrow and serviced, what about sharpening the knives ? Anything else ? thankyou scrapironford

[RickB]

If the baler is known to be in working condition, grease it, oil the chains and leave it alone. If you don't have baler experience and have no manual, don't start dicking around with it. You are asking for more problems than you will be able to cure. If it is not in working condition, get a manual, or find someone to work on it that has experience with balers.

[scrapironford]

The baler baled 500 bales last year. I have baled over 100,000 square bales myself , over the last 35 years, used mostly JD,massey balers. I have not used a NH baler in about 20 years. We sold our last square baler 5 years ago and have done nothing but rounds. This horse hay will be for a 4-H horse club. scrapironford

[DJ54]

If you have any of the round bales left, or.., a partial one, unroll some and make a few squares, and see if it works. That's better than having a field of hay ready to bale, then discover the baler won't tie.

I've baled some squares up from round bales to take horsecamping, when time was short to bale with both balers, when making hay.

[RickB]

If you understand the deere knotters, the NH are just about identical. Knife arm adjustment and knotter stack endplay are probably the two most problematic adjustments on older NH balers.
Timing. Rotate the flywheel in the direction of rotation until the plunger crank arm is between the two chisel marks on the LH flange of the slot the crank arm is sticking ( just about straight up) through. Go back to the rear of the feeder housing and open the door exposing the feeder chain. There are two larger chisel marks in the lower flange of the feeder housing frame, at the bottom of the door opening. The pin connecting the chain to the feeder bar should be between these marks. If so, the feeder is in time. Grab the needle operating rod close to the top and give it a yank rearwards towards you. This sets the knotter stack firmly in the home position. At the left side of the knotter stack, compart the two chisel marks or two sets of centerpunch marks on the two halves of the knotter clutch. If the marks on the two halves are within 1/4" or so, the knotters are in time.

[scrapironford]

RickB thanks : I needed the info to check the baler before I started to test it in hay. It has been so long that I didn't remember JD& NH knotters are about the same.Timing will probably take the longest to check.Sharpened the plunger knife late this evening. I will start checking everything just after daylight tomorrow, before I go out to fluff hay as I would like to start raking about 11 and round baling at 1 o'clock. We are donating hay for the kids to use at the county fair and 2,2day horse shows. All they have to do is get it from the field into the barn. Should be interesting next weekend if the weather cooperates. Thanks again scrapironfordl

[scrapironford]

JD54 Thanks that is what I was going to do. I have 9ac that I will be round rolling tomorrow and mowed 13-14ac today. Have plenty of hay to check it out with. scrapironford