Miniature Straw Baler

Miniature straw baler AG WORLD Ag World 14-4-18 "I hooked a baler and thresher together like this in real life, too," says Joseph Balsam, Fayetteville, Penn., who attracts lots of attention at threshers' reunions with his mini thresher and straw baler, hooked together in tandem and driven by a mini steam-powered tractor. Balsam built all three functioning mini machines. The self-feeding thresher has a working 4-in. cylinder. Straw feeds out the back of the thresher into a hopper on a small square baler, which compacts it into 2 1/4 by 3 by 6-in. bales. Years ago when Balsam worked as a custom thresher, he used a similar set-up. "I was the only custom thresher around who left the farm with all the grain threshed and all the straw baled. Horsemen, in particular, liked the bales I made because there was no chaff in them. I blew it out," says Balsam. Balsam's mini steam tractor, which operates on 130 psi compressed air, belt-drives the thresher which in turn powers the baler. He built all three machines from scratch so they're virtually identical to the original machines. The double cylinder tractor has a 1 in. bore with a 21/2 in. stroke. It's 30 in. long, 14 in. wide., and 22 in. high. Weighs 120 lbs. The baler is 36 in. long, 15 in. wide, 12 in. high and weighs 40 lbs. The working cylinder in the thresher cylinder feeds grain to an 8-in. wide separator that's 48 in. long. A 22-in. long conveyor out the back carries straw to the baler. The thresher's also fitted with an automatic grain weigh hopper. Other mini machine projects include a sawmill that actually mills small logs and a scale model cider mill. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Joseph R. Balsam, 220 Bobwhite Trail, Fay- . etteville, Penn. 17222 (ph 717 352-7419).

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