![]() ![]() Overall, maintenance is mostly just a case of keeping things well greased and straight. Since the guard provided the mounting base for the opposing cutting edge the clearance was pretty tight and if you didn't get it just right you'd find yourself knocking off more teeth. We found that it was only a good idea to straighten a guard if it was just slightly bent. If I remember correctly we had guards that could be straightened-probably made of malleable iron. I don't do much riveting these days but the skills I learned back then have helped me out on the odd occasion I've need to use rivets on a job. ![]() Once in a while you'd have a problem with a rivet that hung up in the hole but most were easy to punch out. The rancher I worked for had a little anvil that mounted off the drawbar so you had something (relatively) solid to set the rivets against. Once in a while-usually bad conditions-we'd mess up all the spares and then you had to replace teeth in the field. The spares were usually enough to get you through the day-you made all the repairs at the end of the day after it got too damp to cut. If you lost a tooth you just swapped out the whole bar. We always had 2-3 spare bars when we went out for a day of cutting. I cut thousands of acres in my youth when I worked on a ranch in B.C.'s Cariboo country during the mid-60s. Pretty much obsolete in today's high-power, high-production world but when conditions are right you can still put a lot of hay on the ground with an old bar mower. I was going to quiz my dealer on Monday, just wondered if we have hay experts. One I have left has curve in knife plate, probably should get new. The original owner had 4 blades over the years, one was broke off a foot, one bent, took the arms off and tossed. ![]() A couple ujoints are oem and have a bit of play but minor considering it took 40 yrs of regular use to get that way, still serviceable and the minor easy hours I put on will be insignificant but I figure a sharp knife cant hurt. Rest of the thing looks in good shape, washed a ton of grease off the drive side, will check/change lube and maybe a new belt. I see you can sharp the knives but am going to replace them on one bar, the use/load I have is minimal, mostly a day or 2 a year but its got to go. Have one that is about serviceable but want to make a spare. I knocked the knives off of one bar I had, stole a pitman arm end off of another. I know nothing about hay tools, seems I seen someone straighten guards on the cutter bar, I need to buy a couple spare, wonder where on the net there was info, the manual doesn't go in to detail about servicing blades beyond sharpening. ![]()
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March 2023
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