Saturday, August 27, 2022

Second hay cut. Roller wrapped

Once I fixed the twisted belt on the baler I went back to baling after 6 pm.  I successfully made and net-wrapped two bales.  The third bale - the net-wrap wouldn't stop.  So I turned off the PTO and then restarted the PTO.  The net-wrapping stopped. I unloaded the bale. 

The fourth bale - the net-wrapping also would not stop, even after I stopped and restarted the PTO a number of times.  So I unloaded the bale.  I then used a knife to cut the net-wrap at the bale.  Two times now the net-wrap didn't automatically stop. On the baler I noticed the cutting 'bar' and net-wrap's roll didn't seem to be in position.  I looked in the baler's manual to see if they talked about this.  I couldn't find anything.  So I decided to try to make another bale.

When the bale was getting close to half the size the baler's belts were having trouble turning and the tractor's PTO would struggle to turn the belts.  Initially I thought the windrow was too thick and coming in too fast as that can slow the baler.  I tried a couple of times then quit.  I tried to select for the bale to be net-wrapped but the baler couldn't turn fast enough to net-wrap the bale.  So I unloaded the bale.  Still the baler didn't want to turn the belts when the baler was empty.  I drove back to near my house.

When I was back near my house I noticed the irrigation has stopped again.  That was the second time this day the pump stopped.  It was after 7 pm.  I went and moved the irrigation lines to the next valves and restarted the irrigation pump.

Back home it was getting dark so I quit for the day.   That evening I google searched about this problem.  I found a mention and an image from the baler's manual about how to extend or retract the actuator.  The manual mentioned the actuator was for the twine wrapping, but I found it also affects how the net-wrap is cut.  The next morning I looked at the actuator and it didn't seem to be in the correct position.  I used the baler's monitor to test and extend and retract the actuator and got the actuator to where it looked like it should be.

Then I noticed net-wrap was coming off the net-wrap roll and across the belts at the bottom of the baler.


I better cut the net-wrap of the belts and remove the net-wrap.  I struggled to pull the net-wrap off the baler so I opened the baler.  Then I noticed the top roller was wrapped with net-wrap.  I got a ladder and climbed up to look.  


The roller was so thick with net-wrap that the small space around the roller for two of the eight belts was completely filled and this was what caused all the belts from turning.

Oh boy.


The net-wrap was between the belts and the roller.  Ideally I could unlace the belts so I could then cut the net-wrap off, but I couldn't turn the belts so the lacing would be in a position where I could remove the lacing pin from the belt.  This is bad.

I could wiggle and pull on a belt to move it over onto the next belt.  Then I could cut the net-wrap on the roller.  I had various knives, a saw and a hacksaw.  The net-wrap was several inches thick and harder to cut that one would think. I cut the net-wrap to find the roller and so I could 'split' it to remove it from the roller. But then I had to cut the net-wrap from around the roller next to the next belt, so I could pull the net-wrap off the roller.    And the net-wrap would expand after I cut it.


Late Friday Donna suggested that maybe using an extra curling iron she had may help me burn the net-wrap.  I asked Curtis if he had a tool to burn things.  He did.  An old tool - made in West Germany.  That old.   Curtis said he got the tool from a friend who would burn/melt styrofoam when the styrofoam was used in a building build project.  


Even using Curtis's tool at the end to burn/melt the net-wrap from around the roller next to the next belt, it took me Friday to cut the net-wrap from one belt location.  


I had 7 more belts to the cut the net-wrap from. Saturday I should get more net-wrap removed from my tractor.  But then Saturday I had another major disaster that took a good part of the day away from fixing my baler.

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