Punch Press Tool Eases Sickle Section Replacement

Punch Press Tool Eases Sickle Section Replacement COMBINES Miscellaneous 27-6-39 Frustrated that replacing sickle sections on swather and combine cutterbars wasted a lot of time, Herb Hoffman came up with a tool that punches out the broken bolts and replaces them in a matter of just a couple of minutes. Hoffman and his family operate several thousand acres of grain and hay near Platte, South Dakota, and often have several swathers or combines in the field at once. "Invariably, we'd spend at least half an hour replacing a sickle section," he says. "Sometimes, though, we'd have someone operating a windrower who didn't have the skills to make the repair in the field and that meant the machine was down until we could get someone out there who could do it." One day last winter, he decided he was going to find a way to speed up the process. "I spent about a day making the original prototype," he says. "It worked, but we've made improvements in it that make it work even better." His invention, which he calls the Punch Press Tool, works so well he applied for a patent on it. The family now makes and sells the tool in their spare time. The price is $85. "After you remove the rock guard and the old section, you use this to press out the old bolt and then to put in the new one," he says. "It requires no special ability and, because of the leverage from the handle, even a youngster can do it." The Hoffmans carry one of the tools on every machine with a sickle cutterbar, and every one of them has been used. Contact: FARM SHOW Followup, Herb Hoffman or Rob Zwach, Punch Press Tools, Inc., Box 487, Platte, S. Dak. 57369 (ph 888 243-7311; fax 605 337-3180).

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