Sickle Bar / Knife Register for Opposed Guard Configuration?

[mstacy]

I am very curious to try setting my mower similar to the “EZ Cut” system with opposed guards and alternate pairs of knives (half the cutting edges on top). I like the concept of eliminating hold downs to eliminate unecessary friction … rather important with these 2hp solar tractors.

However, the only way I can see that working well is by lengthening or shortening the pitman arm by 1.5 inches so that the knives and guards are aligned at MIDSTROKE rather than at end of stroke. Otherwise the cutting edges (knife & ledger) only come together at one end at the stroke. At the other end the knife edge is at least a full knife thickness away from the ledger … like the world’s worst scissors.

However the offset register presents a different opening to the grass. I’m not sure whether this is inherently good or bad.

Has anyone ever experimented with offset register (knife/guard staggered at ends of stroke) on an otherwise conventional (all guards on bottom / all knife edges down) sickle bar? I’d like to hear about your experiences. More draft? Less?

Regards,

Matt Stacy
W. Topsham, VT

[Donn Hewes]

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

[Big Horses]

Don,
What don’t you like about the easy cut? I was thinking of going that way on a Big4 JD.
John

[Donn Hewes]

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.

[Big Horses]

Thanks Donn, makes all too much sense! I’m using the big4 on my runway this summer, for starters, and it’s got sodar streambank wheatgrass, which is really tough, so sounds like I better just get to fiddling and get it setup right to start with!
John

[near horse]

“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?

[Donn Hewes]

often your first hold down will be over the second or third guard to allow for the knife back travel. Some hold downs are tall enough to get closer to the inside and still not effect the knife. Stub guards that don’t have a close fit to the knife don’t mow as well as the regular guard, but remember most of the time one or two of them is out of the grass any way. My won preference is two stub guards and with that I have never needed to move any hold downs from their normal spots. I just finished a little mowing, nocking down a pasture and teaching intern to drive a mower. Tall and heavy and soaking wet, with no grass board and we still didn’t plug to much. Nice running machine with all new guards and hold downs. The knife is a mix of top serrated bottom serrated and super seven knife sections. They all seemed to work well today.

[J-L]

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.

[Donn Hewes]

I set up this knife as a little bit of a test, but I doubt it is a very good test. Three knives with different sections would be a better test. They all mowed well if very wet, heavy conditions yesterday. All the plugging was do to not having a grass board on and a new teamster.

I have used the serrated sections fro years, both top and bottom serrated, I have never sharpened the top serrated and they still mow good after many acres. I have touched up the bottom serated ones with the angle grinder and a thin cutting wheel. That has worked well too. I am only touching them once or twice a year. I believe these teeth are much harder steel than some of the older smooth sections, and that is why they need less sharpening.

The super sevens look cool, but will they really cut grass better than anything else? Stay sharp longer? Don’t know. One of these day I will make up a knife of them. On a side note I recently built a center cut mower (still working out some bugs) with all stub guards and smooth sections. Lots of hold downs, It seems to mow very well except where there isn’t enough room under the end of the push bar.

[Does’ Leap]

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

[Donn Hewes]

George, That is the kind of science we need! I will be interested to hear how it goes. So far it looks like another year for challenging mowing. The grass is growing like crazy and no where need dry enough to walk in the fields, much less make hay. Now all we need is some one with four different knives and we will really be getting some where.

[J-L]

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.

[Big Horses]

Great stuff here, folks! Thanks and let’s keep it going!
John

[near horse]

@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

[Donn Hewes]

Geoff, Those rivets are really a pain. Perhaps someone knows an easier way, but those inner and outer plates are well worth changing if they are really worn. You need to get the outer shoe up side down on an anvil or the like with a bolt sticking up or the like. If one person holds the rivet head on the bolt, another can work a ball peen hammer or hammer and punch. I have done it alone but find it much easier to do with two people. The inner shoe is even worse. Without taking the pins out there is no easy way to get pressure directed at the rivet head. On the under side there is little room to hit the rivet and I use a large punch. Those pins do sound tight, Odd because most pins are too loose. It must be rusted in there. For the raising and lowering mechanics to work right, plus to allow the bar to float lightly over the ground I think you shouldn’t need to pull it to the ground.

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