JD 336 Baler.

[AKfish]

When do you bale hay if you spend a month roaming around down here?

I got back home on the 21st of April. Didn't even have leaves here around the place until the last week in May..

Won't be baling hay up here until mid-July at the earliest. If it's on the wet side of summer... might not be until the 1st week in August.

And we only get ONE cutting! One chance at the dance... if you don't get a weather break and all the other variables fall into place - well, you'll be paying for pellets and/or compressed hay shipped from the lower 48.

I'm working over the mower and baler right now to be sure everything is OK for the party!

AKfish

 

[Duffster]

I got back home on the 21st of April. Didn't even have leaves here around the place until the last week in May..

Won't be baling hay up here until mid-July at the earliest. If it's on the wet side of summer... might not be until the 1st week in August.

And we only get ONE cutting! One chance at the dance... if you don't get a weather break and all the other variables fall into place - well, you'll be paying for pellets and/or compressed hay shipped from the lower 48.

I'm working over the mower and baler right now to be sure everything is OK for the party!

AKfish

Interesting. Some guys are making 5 crops here.

What kind of livestock do you have?

 

[AKfish]

A couple of quarter horses, Rhode Island red chickens and honeybees, right now.

My youngest son had a couple of Hampshire X Duroc barrows year before last. (My wife has since DEMANDED that the pen/waste disposal MUST be resolved before the next batch of pigs!)

We've been lookin' at raising Lowline cattle but there are problems up here with USDA inspection and slaughter facilities. There is currently only ONE slaughter plant in the entire state!

I'm now on the board for the Soil, Water, Conservation District and hope to generate some area support for a mobile processing facility. Time will tell.

AKfish

 

[angel in ME]

Was wondering if anyone may know what causes the needles to breack on one of these JD 336 balers....

 

[zzvyb6]

That's easy !

They almost always are smacked by the plunger. The crunching usually occurs during the needle retraction portion of the knotter cycle. There are plunger stops that jump in to restrain the plunger on the insertion portion if a chain jumps or the bale case gets impacted or it gets a wad that the knives can't cut. But, if there is wet hay, too much hay, or the trip dog clutch breaks loose, then the needles won't/don't retract. This almost always involves a needle lift link problem too: A shear pin breaks, the link separates from the cam drive, a Woodruff key cracks or the needles get misaligned within the knotter frame area.

If its a light break (just one location), you can weld or braze them back into shape. Use a nickle rod for welding them.

But the reason they break is defined by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in Relativistic Physics (which I have a Masters Degree in, BTW): 2 objects may not occupy the same space and time in the same universe. This is usually applied to electrons, protons, and neutrons, but is a generally accepted law of physics in hayfields, too.

 

[AKfish]

If its a light break (just one location), you can weld or braze them back into shape. Use a nickle rod for welding them.

But the reason they break is defined by the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle in Relativistic Physics (which I have a Masters Degree in, BTW): 2 objects may not occupy the same space and time in the same universe. This is usually applied to electrons, protons, and neutrons, but is a generally accepted law of physics in hayfields, too.

Nickle rod, eh? Thanks. Back in 1975.. the last time I actually baled hay - the MF baler I was running at the time, broke a needle. My uncle tried to braze it (2-3 times..) with no success.

You know.... there have been times when I've had that funny feeling that something.. something wasn't just right!

Now, I know -- I must have been occupying the same space as an inumerable number of atomic particles.. There was discomfort and general malaise but I got better with time... You know; continuum!

AKfish

 

[zzvyb6]

BTW: If any of you ever think you might be wanting or needing to weld the baler needles back together, it helps to have a template to work from. I suggest you remove one of the needles now and spray paint its shape onto a piece of thick plywood. The outline left by this painting will serve to set its shape when the time comes to piece it/them back together.

Most of the time, the big crunch alters the shape of the needle (especially at the break point), such that the curvature of the needle is NFG when its time to put it back in. By having the overall shape on the painted board, you'll get it lookin' like new. Use finish nails to tack the pieces in place and when you get them out of the preheat oven (or campfire, or Mom's stove, or the firepit, they'll plug right in and hit it with the A/C and cast iron (nickel) rod.