Sickle Bar / Knife Register for Opposed Guard Configuration?

I hate to say this but I was really confused by what you wrote. No hold downs – like an easy cut? Half out of time? I am sorry but I really don’t see what you are trying to do. Short of actually putting an easy cut system on your mower, which is not my own personnal favorite, your best option by far is to use a good knife (or new) with good guards (or new) that are properly timed and adjusted to be close without undue friction. That mower will take a little work to set up, but it will make the ultimate in horse and farmer satisfaction.

A traditional knife will not turn over and bolt on upside down and still line up with the right side up ones. At least I don’t believe they will

I have to say I have never used one. George has the most experience with them. So my opinion comes from talking to folks, looking at the equipment and just my gut feeling. I think it is a compromise set. No knives too loose but no knives set against the cutting surface the way they really should. It’s success will depend on what you want to cut. Tall stemmy grasses or grain type cover crops will always mow easy and would be easy for the easy cut. Short, wet, green, and heavy (also setting your mower to mow high) is the hardest thing to mow. This often involves mowing second cutting hay, or pasture clipping. When you challenge a mower to this extent I feel (my opinion) that good guards with good knives that are in time, with good lead, and good contact between knifes and guards, but not too much drag will make the best mower. The draw back of this plan is that it takes a lot of work (fiddling) and practice to set these machines up well enough to really perform.

“sodar streambank wheatgrass” – Good turf – tough and resilient.

I just received my mower parts shipment complete w/ stub guards and a visiting neighbor said that you have to run hold downs over each stub guard or else hay will push up btw the knife and the guard. I’ve never heard that before – true or not?

Let’s talk sections for a minute. What do you prefer for types of sections? On my tractor powered mowers and swathers I’ve gone completely to over serrated and was wondering if they will cut good enough (in grass hay) with my horses and we could forego the sharpening?
The super sevens you refer to must be the aggresive over serrated sections I saw in some of your mower shop pictures Donn, what do you think of them?

P.S. I’m using the new double swather guards by the way.

I have been using an “easy cut” system for the past two years. It mowed well on year 1. Last year, we applied 1-2 tons/acre composted poultry manure to address a P deficit on our meadows. Those added nutrients (especially the N) combined with a wet summer led to cutting hay later than I wanted and the “easy cut” struggled in the wet, semi-rotten under-layer of orchard grass and clover. I will be replacing the inside an outside ledgers on this mower (which are tired and worn) as well as the the mechanism which tilts the knife. I expect these two repairs to make a big difference. Additionally I am setting up a new mower with haybine guards (with stubs) and a new knife (per Donn’s recommendation) on another MD#9. I will be pulling this with a smaller team and will be using side by side with the “easy cut”. I will give the full report after we put up this summer’s first cut.

George

Please do keep us posted George. You folks will be cutting well ahead of me (grass hay is ready 15-24th of July here) and I will have time to try another set up with your input. I will use the new/rebuilt knife I already have with smooth sections in one machine and try either the over or under serrated sections with the other machine and compare.
I got to thinking about the aggressive sections and remembered rebuilding my 9′ New Holland mower with them about 7 or 8 years ago. I thought they caused me a lot more side draft. Enough so that I could notice it on the 45 hp John Deere tractor I was mowing with. Granted 9′ is a long bar.

@Does’ Leap 27132 wrote:

I will be replacing the inside an outside ledgers on this mower (which are tired and worn) as well as the the mechanism which tilts the knife….. setting up a new mower with haybine guards (with stubs) and a new knife (per Donn’s recommendation) on another MD#9.
George

I guess this is a good place to jump in with another mower question. I highlighted George’s comments because I’m in the midst of servicing my #9 and, like George, replacing the inner and outer ledgers, new haybine guards and stubs for the inner 3. My questions –

1) I have the beveled head rivets for the inner and outer ledgers but it looks difficult – if not impossible to “set” these with a normal field rivet press (like one uses on swathers/combines). How do you do it?

2) With all the lift attachments removed and only the 2 pins holding the bar on my bar still will “hang” at any position I place it at – like it’s binding on the pins. I thought about removing the pins but those suckers are in there pretty tight. I have to pull the bar down all the way to the ground by hand (pull on the end of the bar). What do you all think? Too tight? Worth fussing with? If so, how do you get those pins out without dynamite?

There’s more but that’s the gist.

Geoff