New Stihl Chainsaw

[Harry K]

Mine nit pick. They are called "combines' not "combiners'.

Further pedantry. Modern haying equipment began as usualy with horse drawn mowers followed by rakes of various sorts to gather the hay into windrows. That was 'combined' into a "swather' that cut, conditioned, and layed a swath of hay ready for the 'baler' to compress it into bales, either round or oblong after the hay dried a couple days. Then somehow the term "swather" disappeared, at least in some araes and "haybine" took over.

Yes, it is Saturday morning, I am retired and I am bored :)

Harry K

[Tony]

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LOL! Yes I know they are combines, I was just goofing with this and the other thread.

I just thought about something. In todays world, well actually in the past 40+ years, when harvesting corn, was the same combine used to harvest wheat and soy beans? Did they just change the front end of the machine to match the job? Or was it two completely separate machines. I can picture the front end giant fork like thing for corn, and the... water wheel looking front end for soybeans and probably wheat.

[Harry K]

Now there is a good question. Part one: Changing the head is a simple few minute job. Just drive up, pull a few pins and hydraulic connecters and back away to drop one head, reverse the procedure to pick up the next "header". Never having been involved with corn, I don't know if any internal changes are needed. I would expect that the shoes and concave(s) would at least have to adjusted to allow for the larger kernels.

Harry K

[Harry K]

Here is a 12 footer

[IMG] And, I think, the same heads used on a shorter bar on an Alaskan mill.

[IMG]

Of interest is that every one of the few I found are all 'homebuilt. I had thought that there were commercially produced ones. Guess I was wrong.

Harry K

[Harry K]

Well shucks, you asked about soy beans and I talked about corn. As for soybeans - yes same machine used, different head, minor adjustments internally.

Harry K

[Harry K]

Was no picture there. He was taling aobut "flying a two chainsaw (engined airplane) back" but the plane turned out to be a Catalien flying boat.

Harry K

[Tony]

Well that's close enough to satisfy my curiosity. I just like to know how different mechanical things work. It's in my blood.

[Tony]

You got it right the first time, I was just generalizing between corn, and smaller things, like soybeans and wheat.

[Harry K]

Same here. Even as a kid I would dismantle things to see how they worked...mostly unsuccessfully and somehow the genie running them escaped as they wouldn't work afterward.

Harry K

[Tony]

I did the same but I was successful quite often. Fixed moms washing machine at around age 12. The guy that sold her the part that I told him was bad didn't want to believe I was 12. He told mom that they use a special tool to compress a spring to get it together again, and if I need it they will let me use it. She went back to tell them I laid it down on its face, the top against a wall, and my back against the opposite wall, and used my feet to compress the spring enough to get a few bolts in it. It wasn't easy but I did it.

[Steve Barker]

Sometimes, i would let out the secret smoke, and then you're really screwed.

[Harry K]

Ah! That might explain it. I always thought that a "smoke test" was a mandatory part of the operation.

Harry K