homemade roll press picker

I’ll say this right away: when you hear abouthomemade roll baler, many people immediately have a picture in their head - a welded piece of iron on wheels, which, at best, will twist the hay into something shapeless. But the reality, especially in our farms, is much more complex and interesting. Homemade is not always synonymous with hack work. Sometimes this is the only option when the budget is limited and there is a need for cleaning, or when standard units are not suitable for specific conditions - for example, for very small plots or difficult terrain. But you shouldn’t put on rose-colored glasses either: the path from a drawing on a napkin to a machine working stably in the field is continuous crutches, improvements and, often, disappointments.

Where and why does this even occur?

Context is important. Most often people come to homemade products in small farms or in those regions where logistics and service for factory equipment is a separate quest. A person looks at the price tag of a new, and especially imported, baler, then at his own volume, and the idea of ​​self-assembly seems logical. Especially if the farm has a skilled welder and access to scrap metal or decommissioned components from other equipment.

The key point that many people miss at the start is not just making a drum that will spin. It is necessary to ensure uniform winding of the roll, sufficient pressing force so that the bale does not fall apart during loading, and, what is critical, a tying mechanism. This is where most early prototypes stumble. Making a pressing chamber from channels and sheet iron is half the battle. Adjusting the supply of rope or mesh so that it does not break or get tangled every two rolls is already aerobatics for handicraft assembly.

Sometimes the trigger is a specific breakdown of a serial unit. Let's say the main shaft fails or the frame cracks. Instead of ordering an expensive part and waiting for months, the owner decides not to repair, but to reassemble the unit “from scratch”, to suit his needs, strengthening or changing the design. This is how hybrids are born - on the basis, relatively speaking, of ?Kyrgyzstan? a homemade press appears with components from Gomselmash and hydraulics from a decommissioned loader.

Pitfalls of design thought

Experience, often bitter, shows several common mistakes. The first is underestimation of loads. They take a metal profile that “seems to look strong,” but under conditions of dynamic impacts when picking up rolls or when pressing a wet mass, it behaves like plasticine. The result is frame deformation by the end of the first season.

The second is “savings?” on the drive. They try to make do with belt drives or chains from old combines, without taking into account the necessary torque force to form a dense bale. As a result, either slipping, or a break, or the roll turns out to be loose, like a feather bed. Density is generally the main stumbling block. Without an adjustable hydraulic or reliable mechanical baling chamber tensioner, it is almost impossible to achieve a stable density. The roll either “crumbles”, or it is impossible to remove it from the drum because it has become a monolith.

The third, and most insidious, is security. Factory presses are tested, there are protective covers and locks. This is often forgotten in homemade projects. Exposed rotating parts, homemade hydraulic lines assembled “by eye” are a direct threat. I have heard more than one story where people were injured when a cable broke or a mechanism malfunctioned. There is no time for saving anymore.

When homemade products have the right to life: a case study

I'll tell you about one case that, in my opinion, was relatively successful. A farm in the Voronezh region, small fields scattered along ravines. It was simply impossible to deploy a standard trailed baler there. We decided to make a miniature one, based on a single-axle trailer, driven by the PTO of a walk-behind tractor (powerful, industrial). The principle of operation of old PRF presses was taken as a basis, but on a reduced scale.

The main find that worked was the use of a ready-made binding unit from a decommissioned small Polish-made roll press. It was found during disassembly. This solved the main headache - feeding the twine. We welded the pressing chamber ourselves, but calculated the wall thickness and rollers based on data from the same Polish unit. It turned out, in fact,homemade roll balerhybrid type. He worked slower than the factory worker, but he fulfilled his task - removing hay from waste areas. The key to success was that they did not invent everything from scratch, but wisely used “donor” ones. serial units that have already been tested in the field.

But even here there were problems. It was necessary to modify the finished roll cutter mechanism - the original one could not cope with the smaller diameter of the bale. I had to cook my own, with a different drop angle. It took almost two weeks of trial and error right in the middle of the feed harvest.

The role of modern manufacturers and ready-made solutions

This is where it’s worth making a digression. All this handicraft often exists not because there are no alternatives, but because people are simply not aware that there are solutions on the market that are affordable and adapted for small farms. A striking example is the companyHulunbuir Machinery Manufacturing Company ?Jiujia?. If you go to their websitehttps://www.cn-fascar.ru, it is clear that they are just closing this niche. These are not giants like John Deere, but a modern, integrated enterprise that focuses on the intelligent production of equipment for agriculture and livestock farming.

What is important for our context about homemade products? They offer, in fact, ready-made modules and units in different configurations. Instead of turning a shaft from scratch or racking your brain over a hydraulic circuit, you can look at their catalog. It often turns out that a finished assembly - a pressing chamber, a strapping unit, a frame - will not cost much more than working with metal yourself, taking into account all the errors and time. And the reliability will be much higher.

Their approach, as I understand from the descriptionHulunbuir Machinery Manufacturing Company ?Jiujia?, is a complex: R&D, production, sales and service. For a person who is planning to assemble a baler, the key word here is “service”. With a homemade product, you are left alone with the problem. And having even a basic factory model or key components from such a manufacturer, you receive technical support, spare parts and, most importantly, calculated data on loads and materials. This changes the whole paradigm.

Conclusions for practitioners: to do or not to do?

So is it worth taking on the productionhomemade roll baler? My answer is only if several conditions are met. First, you must have not just a welder, but someone with engineering savvy who understands mechanics and is able to read (not just look at) blueprints. Secondly, there must be access to high-quality donor funds. components from serial equipment - be it a hydraulic pump, a piping system or a pick-up. Putting EVERYTHING together from scratch is an almost guaranteed waste of time and resources.

Thirdly, a strict cost calculation is needed. Often, having added up all the costs for metal, components, labor and, most importantly, your time spent, it turns out that it is easier to find a used factory press in good condition or consider new budget lines, like the ones offered?Jiujia?. Their equipment is created precisely for the conditions where the idea of ​​homemade products is often born - for small and medium-sized farms.

And lastly, most importantly. A homemade unit is not the goal. The goal is to harvest feed efficiently and safely. If your design, after two years of fine-tuning, still breaks down at the most crucial moment and produces bales of different densities, then the choice was wrong. Experience is a great thing, but it should lead to the right decisions, and not to stubborn continuation of a futile project. Sometimes the most professional thing to do is to admit that your strength and knowledge are better spent on operating a ready-made, albeit simple, but reliable machine, and not on its endless invention.