kbuegel
Member
I just bought a Sickle Bar mower - I'm pretty sure its a NH 450. Its fairly rusty, but I hooked it up and it works. So I want to rebuild it and clean it up so it will be reliable for Spring hay cutting in a couple weeks.
Thankfully, the pully and PTO parts seem in good condition, so just greasing them and blowing out debris will do there. But, there is a lot of rust on the bar and cutter blade sections. I have a "new" blade I can put in, but its just as rusty. The mower works but clogs up within 10 feet of cutting heavy grass. I assume this is because everything is rusty and the cut grass is sticking to the rust. I've seen recommendations to pour motor oil over the bar, but I think it will need more than that.
Also the cutter sections look fine except for the rust (no nicks or broken rivets) but sections do not sit down agaist the bar very well. I think it may have been sitting in a field for a long time and grass grew up and bowed up the blade between each of the "keepers" on the bar (not sure what all these parts are called). Or maybe there is debris under the cutter bar that is lifting it up. But it seems like the sections need to ride right on the bar for it to scissor correctly, and in some cases they sitting up about an 1/8 of an inch or more.
Lastly, I'm a bit unsure on the operating speed when using a sickle. I can run it at 540 rpm and it slides back and forth so fast that only the tips of the cutter sections are doing all the work. And they seem to push and hold torn grass into the spaces under the guards. There are scerated edges further down the sections, but the Grass never really makes it back that far (you can tell from the moisture left behind). So I might assume that I should drive faster through the grass, but that seems to flatten the grass down. So if I drive slow, and lower my RPM's to run the cutter slow, is that a good idea? Or should I always use it at 540 RPM?
Thanks in advance for everyone's advice on this. I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to get a finicky sickle mower to work well.
Thankfully, the pully and PTO parts seem in good condition, so just greasing them and blowing out debris will do there. But, there is a lot of rust on the bar and cutter blade sections. I have a "new" blade I can put in, but its just as rusty. The mower works but clogs up within 10 feet of cutting heavy grass. I assume this is because everything is rusty and the cut grass is sticking to the rust. I've seen recommendations to pour motor oil over the bar, but I think it will need more than that.
Also the cutter sections look fine except for the rust (no nicks or broken rivets) but sections do not sit down agaist the bar very well. I think it may have been sitting in a field for a long time and grass grew up and bowed up the blade between each of the "keepers" on the bar (not sure what all these parts are called). Or maybe there is debris under the cutter bar that is lifting it up. But it seems like the sections need to ride right on the bar for it to scissor correctly, and in some cases they sitting up about an 1/8 of an inch or more.
Lastly, I'm a bit unsure on the operating speed when using a sickle. I can run it at 540 rpm and it slides back and forth so fast that only the tips of the cutter sections are doing all the work. And they seem to push and hold torn grass into the spaces under the guards. There are scerated edges further down the sections, but the Grass never really makes it back that far (you can tell from the moisture left behind). So I might assume that I should drive faster through the grass, but that seems to flatten the grass down. So if I drive slow, and lower my RPM's to run the cutter slow, is that a good idea? Or should I always use it at 540 RPM?
Thanks in advance for everyone's advice on this. I'm sure I'm not the only one trying to get a finicky sickle mower to work well.