Running the Knotters

Added: 2026-05-09

[00:00:00]On another note, just so you know before I do that operation, that's the plunger sitting on the floor.

[00:00:09]The plunger will not be in when I do this. Okay, it won't be in there. Uh there's a few things that need to be done to this plunger before I put her all back together again. It's getting all new bearings.

[00:00:24]All new bearings. There's six of this size and two of this size. This bearing here is actually okay, but the one where is that guy? This one down here is not okay.

[00:00:38]And this one is definitely not okay.

[00:00:43]So, I'll show you what it looks like in here. And I'll show you that it it will be okay to do this because there's not it's not going to change the timing.

[00:00:53]Nothing's going to change. It's just going to be this guy right here. the arm that runs the plunger here off of the gearbox. This guy right here, it'll just go around and around and around and the balor will actually run a [ __ ] ton smoother because we won't be having any uh motion from the weight of that plunger going back and forth. Uh so don't worry yourselves. We've got you covered.

[00:01:23]All right, I got it running pretty smooth. That noise you're hearing, I'm not entirely sure what it is. That clanking noise is consistent, so I wouldn't really worry too much about it.

[00:01:36]But here we go.

[00:01:41]All right. So, we'll do it again.

[00:01:44]You can see it come up and everything is kind of where it needs to be.

[00:01:53]Okay.

[00:01:56]So, let me shut everything off. Let's see if I remember which way that turns.

[00:02:09]So, they turn that way. Both of them.

[00:02:14]They both turn counterclockwise.

[00:02:18]All right. That clunkin is in that shaft that runs the full length to run the thrower. That's a model 70 thrower. And I use those for a lot of years. I mean, a lot of years. So, first things first, you got to Oh my gosh. You got to loosen that up first. You got to turn it the right direction.

[00:02:38]Let me get you in the right spot here.

[00:02:40]You got to loosen these up, right? Yay.

[00:02:43]We're loosening it up. You want it to be flush with the bottom so you don't mar the threads. And then, uh, let me Let me pull that up.

[00:02:59]This pin is actually out of the old 315 bor, believe it or not.

[00:03:07]I don't like how close that is. It's catching that thing.

[00:03:13]Okay, pretty simple. I think that's bent a little bit. I do believe somebody has bent that to meet their needs. Pretty certain they have.

[00:03:28]Yep, that's exactly what they've done.

[00:03:33]Okay, couple of adjustments here. You just kind of want to boom, smack that sucker. Smack that so that she's down.

[00:03:41]And then you check to make sure your wheel is turning freely.

[00:03:46]Then put her back down.

[00:03:49]All right.

[00:03:50]Because it turns that way, you want to always tighten it that way. So, let me that pin go. Put the pin back in.

[00:03:59]Well, before I do that, I really hate that it's that close.

[00:04:08]Let me put you down for a second. Uh, I don't know. Can they flip you around?

[00:04:16]We'll flip you around. Come on, [ __ ] There.

[00:04:42]That's not too terribly bad.

[00:04:44]Oh, the tucker fingers are going to have to be dealt with.

[00:04:48]Now, that means that this spring has to get put back on where it was. Um, okay, let's put the pin back in.

[00:05:10]Much better.

[00:05:12]All right.

[00:05:17]You want to do what is you want to push that back. We want that.

[00:05:36]Okay.

[00:06:07]Okay, good.

[00:06:11]We're going to loosen the spring up here.

[00:06:14]The reason I'm loosening this uh leaf spring up is so that I can turn the twine discs without too much issue.

[00:06:22]And again, that that has been bent. So, the previous owner, he bent that he bent those things in. I don't know why he would have bent them in. Maybe he thought that they should have been closer to the N frame. I don't know. And you kind of want them a little distance away. If you go to a brand new BOR, they're not touching it or hugging it or whatever you want to call it.

[00:06:47]Kind of do this. I'm going to move this thing back. I can see that it's bent.

[00:06:55]That should doubt. Now, that should work.

[00:07:00]That pin should fit right through there.

[00:07:03]It does. That's correct.

[00:07:06]Excel length. We got that. All right.

[00:07:10]So, now that we've done that, um, have I loosened it? I don't think I loosened that, did I? Nope.

[00:07:20]We're going to loosen that up.

[00:07:24]Like I said, you want that nut to be flush or a little bit out so you don't mar the threads on the on the shaft.

[00:07:32]That shaft is not cheap, dude. Not cheap.

[00:07:36]All right. So, we make sure that she's loose. Going to do this one slightly different.

[00:07:42]I'm actually going to put it all back together.

[00:07:50]And there it is. See? Limits the limits the movement.

[00:07:55]You don't want it to be so sloppy in there that it it's everywhere. So, with that being done, I'm going to go ahead and I'm going to move the gear.

[00:08:04]All right. And I'll put that gear where it's supposed to be.

[00:08:08]Right about there.

[00:08:12]Right about there.

[00:08:14]Okay.

[00:08:16]Now that we've got that part, we're going to go ahead and Oh, too much.

[00:08:27]We're going to go ahead and tighten it up.

[00:08:31]And this should be set.

[00:08:35]to where it should be. It should be set where it should be.

[00:08:58]And then what we'll do is we will cycle it again. Make sure that they are where they're both supposed to be.

[00:09:12]I think we are.

[00:09:18]Okay.

[00:09:22]All right. Let me start this up.

[00:09:27]Woo. It's going all over the place.

[00:09:28]Where are you going?

[00:09:36]All right, here we go.

[00:09:41]Put that on so that you actually see me do it.

[00:09:46]One, two, three.

[00:09:48]Turn you around.

[00:09:50]Walk all the way around. You notice everything is not moving. plunger is still on the ground if you didn't believe me.

[00:10:00]Do not stick your leg anywhere near where that thing can get you.

[00:10:07]See where they're set at?

[00:10:14]That is where they're supposed to be.

[00:10:16]Both of them are set correctly now. And uh do it again just forget some shingles.

[00:10:27]Why not do it again?

[00:10:31]Excellent.

[00:10:34]Everything's holding where it's supposed to be.

[00:10:37]Uh we'll shut that tractor off completely and then we'll put it all back together again so you can hear me.

[00:10:57]Yeah. So, you can hear me. All right.

[00:11:00]There's just a few things we're doing to this balor. And she should run really she should run really good and efficient right now. Uh the way it is the way it is set up.

[00:11:12]So, yeah. What do we have to do yet?

[00:11:15]Well, you got to remember. Let me flip you around.

[00:11:19]Got to remember that I loosened up the leaf springs for the keepers or the twine holders.

[00:11:28]Depends on who you're dealing with, whether it's a crone, a H, or a New Holland what they call them. Um, it's it's good to tighten them all the way up. Just tighten those leaf springs all the way up.

[00:11:44]Um, I think if it's Cecil, you can crack it back a little bit, but for the most part, tighten them all the way up. And we're good there. Looks good. Now, for the next thing to do, uh, where you at here? You looking stupid there. Okay, so I got Tucker fingers. Now, this model BOR, this spring, this Tucker finger spring goes right there on the frame, right? So, let me uh goes right there on the frame. The model 570, they changed it, but that's it.

[00:12:30]Right. So, that Tucker finger spring is set now. And that'll hold that that'll hold that frame in position. Everything is pretty smooth. Uh I haven't greased it yet. I have not greased it yet. All right. I know I've showed how to do this in the past.

[00:12:50]Yeah. You see how that thing comes around? Watch that. That's a brand new gear, brand new bill hook.

[00:12:57]And see how that roller just grabs that thing, the the the grabber, and then that closes it down. Then the wiper comes across.

[00:13:08]You want that thing to sit right in the center of the bill hook. This is the bill hook.

[00:13:17]That's the center. You're going to take your hammer. You're going to go right here.

[00:13:23]Let's see if I can. You're going to go right there. And hopefully you can see what I'm about to do. And it's going to make people nervous, but I'm going to take this thing here. You want to hold this because it's going to want to flop. You're going to hit this.

[00:13:44]Why is that not God? That doesn't feel like it's wiping it off like it should.

[00:14:06]Yeah, I guess it is.

[00:14:08]That's it.

[00:14:11]It's a little bit weird. So, what I'm going to do is I'm going to hit it here.

[00:14:26]Yeah, it don't take much to take that off of there. Now, we're going to hit it again.

[00:14:37]Yeah. Okay.

[00:14:39]Now, you just smack it here.

[00:14:42]Get it right to the center of that bill hook. You can do this many times. This is malleable steel. It's designed to do that to it.

[00:14:52]All right, there it is. I think we're good on that one.

[00:15:07]Come on. There it goes. All right, Will, you're going to run the camera.

[00:15:12]>> Yeah.

[00:15:14]So, second of all, um, >> hold that.

[00:15:16]>> What? You're going to point it at me.

[00:15:18]Hold the camera. You're running the camera, remember?

[00:15:20]>> Yeah.

[00:15:21]>> Okay. All right. Here we go. This is the fun part because I've already got half of it done. We are changing the bearings on the plunger before we go ahead and weld anything on it.

[00:15:35]And it's kind of these are easy, the upper ones, but these ones here, these are not so easy. There's they're they're in a blind area.

[00:15:47]So, that's what we're doing. We got two more to do after I get this one here tightened up. I'm going to save the hardest one for last because I can there's no room to do anything here.

[00:16:06]Tighten tighten twine >> in the center.

[00:16:12]>> 96210. That's exact. Huh. or rats nest in the centers.

[00:16:16]>> Oh, is that what it how bad?

[00:16:18]>> Um, pretty bad. Did they chew it up?

[00:16:24]Pull it out.

[00:16:28]There's no bipod. There's no tripod. I lost it.

[00:16:31]>> Really?

[00:16:32]>> Yes.

[00:16:33]>> I wouldn't want to.

[00:16:35]>> Okay.

[00:16:36]Well, I have to put this somewhere because my >> because you got lazy bones. No, just hold on.

[00:16:44]You got a poop? No. Be careful. It's all right.

[00:16:49]We're trying to break a crafting ratchet here real quick.

[00:16:53]>> There you go, Dad.

[00:16:54]>> You think so? Huh?

[00:16:56]>> Mhm.

[00:16:56]>> So, I'm trying to make this house like a shredder, which I don't know how.

[00:17:00]>> What?

[00:17:01]>> I'm trying to make this house like a real shredder, but I don't know how else.

[00:17:07]>> Is that what you wanted to be here for?

[00:17:08]>> No, that's not what he wanted me here for. I want to use you to make me >> what we need to do.

[00:17:18]Oh, shoot.

[00:17:25]Is get that thing cleaned out enough. It might be okay. It might not be okay. I don't know.

[00:17:32]These are just toast junk.

[00:17:37]Oh no.

[00:17:42]Yeah, that's okay.

[00:17:44]Uh, I don't know.

[00:17:48]Well, whatever. There's supposed to be a disc on this, a brake pad on that, and it is not there. So, that's going to have to get replaced because if I don't, this will actually droop the needles, break the shear bolt, and life is not good. Uh, this does have the locking mechanism here, which it works. You know, it works. Let's see. Does it work?

[00:18:09]Yeah, that works just fine. Um, so the plunger is all back in. We've run it. Uh, we do have to put the plunger dogs back in. I've got new belts on it.

[00:18:21]Obviously, we just finished putting the new springs on for that. Uh, what that does is when a bail comes up through there, it allows it to go up and come down. every time it does that. Uh, those springs break. Here's what they looked like before. This one here is actually okay. It's not broken, that one. Um, but I bought them for this BOR and the other BOR because the other bailers uh were broke, too. So, we have that. Uh, what else did we do to it?

[00:18:56]Well, obviously the plungers back in.

[00:18:59]Uh, oh, all new bearings. I didn't Did I show them? Yeah, you guys saw that.

[00:19:04]These things are all shot except for one and that one had been replaced. So, somebody replaced this one. You can tell because it's got the plastic uh uh plastic seal in it. All the other ones are the metal seals and they are shot.

[00:19:19]This one is so shot.

[00:19:22]I don't know how long they ran that like that. But the next thing that we have to do to the balor and that will be probably tomorrow's job or something like that. Um, depends on what I get into. There's a couple of different jobs that need to be done. One is right here.

[00:19:40]It's called the pickup times. I got a whole bunch of new pickup times here enough to do it. That there. And I got ones from the old 315 BOR, which are the same. They're up there. And this is the knife kit. So, that plunger will get a brand new knife on it, which Tim's favorite job. It sucks, actually. Um, yeah.

[00:20:01]So, we're pretty good there, I think.

[00:20:03]So, but she turns good. Go ahead. I will be changing all the oils in this thing as well. So, that'll be good. I did not need to change the bearing in that. It's just fine. But stop right there because I want to put grease up on that plunger.

[00:20:20]>> I already did.

[00:20:20]>> I know, but I want you to do it again.

[00:20:23]Um because that grease that came out of there was kind of black.

[00:20:27]and uh he'll put the grease on there and that'll grease that plunger up. There's another grease zerk right here.

[00:20:34]>> Yeah, >> that needs to be done because that's for the uh that's for the the plunger stop.

[00:20:40]And if that is not good, then there's a problem.

[00:20:45]Uh yeah, so I think we're almost ready to run with this balor. Uh bor maintenance is something you really need to do if you're going to be in any kind of production. Um, I know these are idiot block builders. I wasn't going to go back into idiot blocks, but sometimes the markets are so obscured that you have to actually do this. I do have some brokers that will be buying this hay.

[00:21:09]Um, I don't know that I will be selling privately. I may, may not, who knows?

[00:21:14]Um, I really am not looking forward to dealing with John Q public. Um, just for the simple reason I really dislike horse people. I'm sorry. They're just jerkoffs. They're jerkoffs. And that's just the way it works. Not all of them, but and the reason I call them jerkoffs is because they are. They they they want more. They think that they're worth more than your product. When you give them a quote on a piece on a ton of hay, I sell by the ton. I don't sell by the bail. It's a ton. Um you can weigh it if you want. I will sell you per ton for the alpha alpha, per ton for the Timothy, per ton for the orchard grass, per ton for the fescue, per ton for first and second cut. That's how I sell it. And when I say per ton, I get what I get per ton. And I will tell you what it is per bail because I pack a pretty tight bail. Um, a ton is a ton. A bail is not a bail. A bail can weigh 30 lbs.

[00:22:14]A bail can weigh 50 lbs. Uh, a ton is 2,000 lb. So, there's that. Uh, but anyway, yeah. Uh, what else was I going to do this damn thing? I guess that's it for tonight other than those pickup times and the plunger knife cuz I've been going all day. But yeah.

[00:22:36]Yeah. You want to start it up and run it? Start it up. Let's see if this thing runs. Dad was telling me that this thing went to the side. And I know that it did because um this it went to the side because we had it lifted up before we put the uh new the new uh springs on there. So when he starts this up, there we go. Let's see if it works its way across.

[00:23:05]It's kind of weird.

[00:23:10]It's where it should fit.

[00:23:17]Well, I'll just have to make an adjustment right here.

[00:23:21]So, if I do that.

[00:23:26]Yeah, we'll have to make an adjustment on that.

[00:23:31]So, what we need to put in are the plunger dogs yet.

[00:23:35]Heat up here.

[00:24:05]Heat.

[00:24:23]Heat.

[00:24:42]That's good.

[00:24:44]All right.

[00:24:46]I think we got it pretty good.

[00:24:49]Everything's working here. If you were to run that up a little faster, you'd see how fast that son of a [ __ ] go.

[00:24:57]Not too fast.

[00:25:20]That's really not much.

[00:25:29]That is so fast.

[00:25:54]Yeah, I'm going to have to adjust that.

[00:26:01]All right.

[00:26:04]Turn it off.