Mini Baler Works Like The Real Thing

Mini Baler Works Like The Real Thing BALERS Balers 25-2-23 Cliff Brandenburger, Beecher City, Illinois, needed something to take to an annual steam engine show. He decided to make a miniature stationary baler. "It works pretty much like the old-time stationary balers," he says. "But the bales are just 3 by 5 by 8 in. long." Like the old balers, it has a "grasshopper" to pull hay into the bale chamber and a plunger to pack it tight. But instead of gears to operate them, the grasshopper and plunger run off of two 7-in. concentric cam wheels that he made in his shop. The cam wheels are set on the same shaft, 6 in. off center. One wheel runs the plunger and the other runs the grasshopper. "Getting the timing right was a bit of a trick," Brandenburger says. "I put hubs on the wheels and fastened them to the shaft with set screws. Then I could move them around until the timing was just right. Once I had them timed, I welded them in place so the baler will never get out of time." Brandenburger mounted his baler on a wooden handcart frame and powers it with V-belt from a 3 hp horizontal shaft Briggs & Stratton gas engine under the cart. The engine itself has a 2-in. pulley. The belt from that runs to an 11-in. pulley he took off an old clothes dryer. A second belt from that pulley drives a 20-in. pulley he salvaged from an old combine. The step-down from the engine rpm gives him plenty of torque for the baler, but lets it operate at a slow speed. A lever-operated belt tightener on the second belt allows him to stop the baler without shutting off the engine. Like the old stationary balers, Brandenburger's machine requires that bales be hand tied with wire. "I made 3 by 5-in. spacing blocks to insert between the bales, and cut grooves in them to thread the wire through," he says. He didn't put knives in the baler to cut the hay as it's baled, so the bales come out a little ragged. "I use hedge clippers to trim the edges," he says. Brandenburger says it takes about 4 minutes to make a bale, and he gets about 60 miniature bales from one standard sized square bale of straw. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Cliff Brandenburger, RR 2, Box 42, Beecher City, Ill. 62414 (ph 618 487-5247).

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