cutting hay question???

YES, go clockwise into the field till its all cut, then go counter clockwise to get the swath at the edge of the field.

James, sounds like when dad would clip the pasture with my 41 M and his #5 JD mower, and would occasionally get a gueine hen that jumped off the next to late. Never killed one, but clipped the feet off of a few

As I mentioned in another thread, we've had flooding of epic proportions here, all my hay is under water, pushed down into silt, or on slimy wet ground I can't drive on. I was able to cut 3 acres of alfalfa on a sand hill, but the ground is so wet and it is so humid I doubt I'll get it baled.

The forecast for this Saturday has a bullseye 20 miles from me of 2-3 inch rain on Saturday. The national weather service 7 day forecast is predicting 4.2 inches of rain for me over the next 7 days.

Oh boy.

Anyhow, this is a pic of one of those special sickle ends, the far hole doesn't need to be riveted. It really does help a lot. Note there are left and right hand versions, you almost always want one like this.

Mowing with a sickle, you always drive clockwise, first time is driving on the standing hay, after that you drive on the hay you just mowed. If your wind board is set right it makes a tiny windrow on the end, your right wheels follow that and so you only drive on laying hay with the right wheels. When done or you feel like it, you go counterclockwise cutting that outside round that you started out driving on.

Paul

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Yup, I mentioned one of those in an earlier posting. Mine has 3 sections, from standard to SMALL.

sorry,I misspoke,,I meant clockwise is the direction I go,,all right turns,

rambler,I have some of those so I will put one on if the problem persist.

as far as what I am cutting,,not sure,,I know one area is canary grass only,,the other 2 areas are a mixture of timothy,brome,clover,wild strawberrys and some assorted weeds,as it gets closer to the swamp it has really tall 3 or 4 ft canary grass and cat tails,,,but I don't cut there I stop just before it,my neighbor also has a field of winter wheat next to me,,I'm sure the cows would love that

__________________
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

IF you don't have one of those on your sickle NOPW, the problem WILL continue.

Ill tell you the way dad taught me to replace sections. Get someone to hold one end while you hold the other end against the flat end of a anvil. Put the bar of the sickle above the anvil with the section resting flat against the back of the anvil. The section is around 1/16th above the bar. Hit the section hard with a hammer and that will shear the rivets. Take a punch or nail to punch them out of the holes.
To replace, lay the sickle on top the anvil with the 2 new rivets in the bar and the new section in the rivets. hit flat say 4 times. Then hit at a slant all around the rivet to round it. IF it is still loose, hit it flat on top again.

They used to make bars that you could hold that had an indention in them. You would place the bar with that indention onto the rivet, then hit the top of the bar to get a well rounded rivet head. I havnt seen one of those in 50yrs. Dad never had one.

Just throttle up and try higher gears till you don't cut well.
If your mower is set up correctly mid to low upper range of gears will usually work well unless your stuff is really lodged or terribly thick.

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Deja Moo; The feeling I've heard this bull before.

and/or wet

and it's STILL wet here today,tinkered and set up sickle,put the special end section on,visually checked the lead,looked ok but I need to buy a manual to do it right,,then poof,,10 minute rain shower,,,,maybe another day or 2,,I called into work for nothing

__________________
Go confidently in the direction of your dreams. Live the life you have imagined.
Henry David Thoreau

IF your lead is bad/off, and you have the sickle professionally sharpened, it wont matter.