cutter bar bend

[Donn Hewes]

All the cutter bars I have worked with have a little bow to them. They seem to vary slightly as to how much bow from almost straight to a couple inches. These bows have all ways faced the same way. When right side up on the ground the tip and head end will be up (cup facing up). I am not sure what they were like brand new, but I suspect they had a little bow. Bent this way, the bow would actually be trying to straighten when the bar is held to float over the ground. This would have a slight truss effect. Here is the question. I just found a good looking seven foot bar in an Amish barn. he owed me some money and was happy to give me the bar. It has plenty of this bow but is clearly bent the other way. These bars are very hard to bend by the way. By working very slowly back and forth with a press I have made slight adjustments to a bar that had a more pronounced kink. I am not sure what I will do with this bar. I might just put it together and see how it runs.

Added later: In talking to Norm Macknair today I will definitely need to bend this bar back the other way. He suggested setting up some blocks of wood and driving over it with the tractor. I might actually try this.

[jac]

Donn it might be worth trying to find a spring maker who could heat the bar up and pass it thru a roller to re shape it , then re temper back to give it the right spring… Id be wary of the tractor idea.. … John

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