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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2016 19:35:11 GMT
This will seem like a totally stupid question to most of you. But does it take a lot of strength to operate a sickle bar mower? What if there's a slope? I am asking because I'm thinking about buying an acre of land to make my own hay. Thank you!
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2016 19:45:08 GMT
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Post by graywolf on Feb 3, 2016 22:25:28 GMT
Just remember, rocks are not your friend. If a lot of rocks are sticking up out of the ground, you will become very good at blade changes, very fast, or else the neighbors may learn some new swear words. They may anyway....
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Post by Deleted on Feb 3, 2016 22:38:36 GMT
Thanks for the heads-up, graywolf. How often do the blades have to be sharpened? I will only use it for the one acre, two times a year.
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Post by graywolf on Feb 3, 2016 23:31:58 GMT
Ha! It depends.
I only know from using big swathers but.... If you never drop the head down into the dirt, once a year for you would be plenty. Or once every several years. If you mow a lot of dirt they will get dull faster If you mow rocks they will break or chip.
Now, to my question, back in the olden days, blades were cheaper than labor. We never sharpened them, just replaced them when they broke and did an occasional total replacement. They are made of a very hard and brittle steel that would be more like sharpening a good knife rather than a hoe or shovel. Are they worth sharpening?
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2016 7:34:56 GMT
Oh, ok, I will have to look into the price of the blades then. Over here, labor is even more expensive than in the U.S., so it's probably not worth having the blades sharpened if I can replace them myself.
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Post by graywolf on Feb 4, 2016 8:02:58 GMT
Take a look at how they are attached. We riveted ours on and used a cold chisel to take them off. Nice and fast.
If we got in a rocky spot and had a brain fart to leave the header down, we could break 10-20 teeth in the blink of an eye. A normal day would break or chip that many anyway. I was working for wages at the time and the owner supplied us with all the teeth we needed...all that mattered was getting the crops in. Using different machines, we cut peas, corn, alfalfa, and wheat with sickle-bar cutters. Many many hundreds of acres.
I've got no idea how yous work but the ease of replacement may be a factor. Also, we usually chipped or broke them before they got too dull to cut. (You can still cut with a pretty dull blade as long as the blade to tooth gap isn't too big.). Will you be cutting in rocky soil?
If you won't be doing the removal and sharpening yourself, I really doubt there will be any point to it. Check your mechanic skills and see if you can do it yourself. It's not hard. Good luck!
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Post by hermitjohn on Feb 4, 2016 15:42:54 GMT
I have no experience with the walk behind mini sickle mowers. But grew up when PTO powered sickle mower on back of tractor was way you cut hay. Low power tractor was fine as it didnt take much power and you didnt need live pto. I have multiple vivid memories of running it over a hidden bumble bee nest in hay field. Those suckers are hard to outrun even in high gear....
Anyway you always had spare sharp sickle. You knew when they were dull as mower would plug up more frequently as sickle got dull. Yes sickle sections were riveted on, though I suppose you could use small bolts?? I think the rivets just were less likely to loosen. The sickle guards had small replaceable hardened section in them. When the sickle went back and forth over this section, it acted sort of like scissors or hedge trimmers. Anyway they were riveted on too, and would come loose occasionally. They didnt have to be sharpened, usually they were serrated on edges, but if one came off and got lost, you had to put on new one. Getting old rivet out maybe hardest part. Oh and you wanted to occasionally grease the track the bar part of sickle traveled back and forth on. Back then you just got used to greasing everything possible each and every time before going out in the field. They could really hide some of those zerk fittings. But it was lot easier to grease than to replace bearings or whatever.
Oh and back then there were special V shape grindstones for your powered bench grinder that were right shape/angle to grind between two sections on the sickle. Made sharpening a sickle faster. Though sure you could sharpen them with an angle grinder. Or even a file if you had lot time for such things. On small walk behind with really short sickle sure a file would be sufficient, though want the sickle anchored in a vise or something. Oh and do not ever get your fingers in between the sharp parts when messing with sickle mower, or you may get nickname, stubby.... These are very efficient cutting machines, and fingers are no challenge for them.
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Post by Deleted on Feb 4, 2016 17:21:56 GMT
Yes on new mowers, sections are bolted on, all can be converted to bolts. We don't have rocks here but a T post can really tear them up. We use OVER serrated sections, not UNDER serrated or smooth sections. OVER serrated sections sharpen themselves as they wear. You can sharpen smooth and under serrated sections, no need to sharpen OVER serrated sections....James
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