# bc5060 knotter problems



## kevin_ (Aug 16, 2013)

Im trying to figure out a problem on a baler made by New Holland model bc5060. They have some pictures with broken bail string and what to do under the knotter cover but I'm not making any progress doing whats suggested on that sticker. When this baler was bought brand new a couple years ago the knotter would not work correctly and a person from the business that sold it to my dad came out and he and another guy fixed it. The replaced the knife and that didn't seam to work, so they called some other guy who came out and bent the knife a little and the baler has worked OK since then. I don't know if that's any significance to the problem we are having now with it. It seems like it ties good a lot of the time, for some reason it has started cutting the twine next to the knot. The distance is not always the same, sometimes its 2 inches sometimes its 1/2 inch. Sometimes it stays in the knotter after the incorrect cut and will get tied to the next bail. Its really hard to explain so I've attached some pictures. I attempted to adjust the pincer thing inside the knotter about half a turn but that made no difference so I just moved it back to original spot. Before I start adjusting the hell out of this thing and start taking it apart does anybody have any Idea what could cause this problem? On the sticker underneath the cover it said to check for gouges on the throat of the knife if the twine is cutting about 2 inches down, I was unsure what the throat was, I am assuming under the head with the razor in it, I went ahead and checked the entire thing and didn't feel any sharp edges. I have tried cheap thin twine, regular poly twine, and this thick pink twine. I dont remember if that tying to the bail behind the broken one started before or after I started adjusting that pincer tension.


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## 8350HiTech (Jul 26, 2013)

Don't look for a sharp edge. You're unlikely to find one. There is a decent chance you have merely a tiny burr or even just a place on your knife arm where the paint has worn off (especially if it had a new arm installed before, the paint on the replacement parts is different from the baler). Find the spot on the arm that had the paint off and file or emery it smooth(er).


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## kevin_ (Aug 16, 2013)

Funny you say that you say that about a burr being on the arm, I did notice one and showed my dad but we looked and didnt think it went near the string because it wasn't near the throat like that sticker said. We also noticed it looked dirty inside the burr so figured it was not new, but now that I think about it a burr can get dirty real quick being in a baler. Ill smooth that sucker down tomorrow and let you know what happens. I figured the burr was from where that old fella that fixed it had bent it prying on it. Here is a picture of the knife on the baler with a green dot with an arrow pointing where the burr is. I don't know if I'll be able to sleep now, I may have to drive out there in my underwear and sand it down.


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## Hayman1 (Jul 6, 2013)

Don't know if this is the same problem that I had with a 570 or not. I had 70-80 percent of my first 2 K bales cut right behind the knot. Turns out, some mangagement genius had chad suppliers for the knotted knife and it was made wrong. Once they figured it out we were fine-much field adjustment with the parts on the knotted knife with a hammer! Good luck!


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

I also would check to see if the knives that cut the string need replacing as it appears in the photos to not be a smooth cut and I would also check the twine tension as it may be wrong...your manual will tell the proper twine tension and adjusting.

Regards, Mike


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## mike10 (May 29, 2011)

Here is a link to a discussion from May. I post the link because of the discussion of how to check and adjust the knife arm.

http://www.haytalk.com/forums/topic/19633-nh-570-wont-tie-intermittently/

Judging from your photos I would guess the problem either is a dull knife on the knife arm or insufficient tension on the twine holder. You adjusted the billhook tension spring which is not what I am referring to. There is only one other bolt on the knotter assy which you can adjust. It is a 3/8 bolt set horizontally and goes through a flat piece of metal shaped like a tear drop. The flat metal is the spring for the twine holder. If you rotate the knotter assy up so it is setting level the bolt is the highest part of the knotter assy. Tighten the bolt a flat at a time, 1/6 turn, to apply more tension.

Unless you pulled the twine out from around the bale for the pictures I would say those knots also hung on the billhook and were torn instead of cut by a sharp edged.


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## kevin_ (Aug 16, 2013)

Unbelievable how good the information you guys have gave me, I have a decent understanding of how this knotter works now which makes all the difference trying to figure out what to do when something breaks. I knew right when hitech8350 said something about the paint on that replacement part and burrs on the knife that was going to be the problem. I remember that burr but it didn't feel sharp (the picture said look for sharp edges in throat). I almost filed it down the other day just because it was the only thing I noticed on the knife but figured there was no way that little burr was causing so much trouble. I went out today and was able to file down the knife and sanded some other spots where that black paint looked a little funny. The more I filed and sanded I knocked the paint off in places exposing more tiny burrs, I don't know if these are tooling marks or what, Ive seen holes and burrs in crappy cast iron molds but this knife is steel so I dont know how its got all these marks under the paint. I noticed its a really soft paint also, seemed a little too easy to sand off. I would imagine that as I'm sanding the paint off in spots, just like the rope has been, its uncovering these burrs that once had a little mountain of paint hiding them keeping them smooth. Anyways I got it all buttoned up and ready to go and my dad pulled up and he can drive me bat shit crazy when I'm trying to fix something. As I'm climbing into the tractor he yells at me to stop because he wants to put another type of damn string in it, So I told him to leave the string alone and he was too excited about his new magic string to listen. I told him its not the stupid string, and now we won't know for a long time whether its fixed or not. After bitching for about 30 minutes of the green string running perfect he agreed to let my old red string have another try. It missed the first bail because it was changing rolls and you can see it got caught in the knotter and broke different from how it ever has. So he bitched at me a little about my red string and tried to put his green string back in, and thank god that crap didn't tie on the first bale either so I didn't have to listen to the story of the magic green string again. It wasnt tying on the first bail because he was tying them way to fast and leaving too much tag ends. After that he went under it and just tied it off instead of hooking it to the old string to pull through. I cranked out a whole bunch of bails before I had to be at work and it didnt miss a bail. My dad still thinks its the string but next cut this year im going to sneak a couple rolls into the machine and run it because he round bails/rakes/teds when I'm running the square baler. Ill have a whole trailer of that pink/red twine all tied perfect waiting for him. Ill come back and write down for sure what the outcome is just incase someone else runs into it.


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## hay king (Feb 6, 2011)

I hate too be a bother But i have had string problems in the past. when I first started bailing hay i bought cheap string it was 110 lb knot strength it worked ok but bales kept breaking both in the baler and buy the hay crew. The knotters were working and tieing the bales but they kept breaking same as yours. so after the shop looked at the knotters 3 time they said nothing wrong ??? why the broken bails ??? so out of chance while whining at the local coffee shop an old time farmer said ( you know this might sound stupid but have you tried a stronger twine )

ok what the hell why not, nothing else has worked. So I bought some 170 lb knot strength twine and guess what, it worked don't really know how but have broken way less bales now i'll bale 1000 bales and only mabe break 1-2 when the balls change and the knot gets stuck in the bill hook.

This happened to another guy in this area as well he had me look at his baler go through it and check it out again nothing wrong so I gave him a ball of heave string and it worked however he is cheap as soon as that ball ran out he didn't buy more just went bake to the weaker stuff back to breaking bales then he phones me saying he baled 300+ bales fine and its stopped working again I tried to tell him its the cheap string but some ppl are so cheap that nothing else matters. So I gave him another ball back to baling worked great now he gets his string at the same place.

This may not have been your problem but it is possible. Hope fully you got it fixed ether way and good luck in the future let me know what the problem was ether way thanks


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

I was going to say you were breaking bales because of a the pink twine.  Where do you find pink twine? Or your dad's green twine? I've only ever baled with orange or yellow. Never even looked for other colors.


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## kevin_ (Aug 16, 2013)

Teslan said:


> I was going to say you were breaking bales because of a the pink twine.  Where do you find pink twine? Or your dad's green twine? I've only ever baled with orange or yellow. Never even looked for other colors.


LOL, he calls it red twine, but he is full of it, thats pink twine. I never call it pink around him because I fear he will lecture me about how its red. Kind of like when I was young and would call the brown cows brown and he would inform me that they was red and not technically cows. So the brown cows was to be called red cattle unless you wanted an 10 minute lesson on the use of the words cow, heifer, steer, bull and cattle. Enforcement of the rules is dependent on his mood.


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## NDVA HAYMAN (Nov 24, 2009)

I buy all pink twine. It is easier for me to see as the bales are going up the chute on the Kuhn accumulator and the female buyers love it. I support breast cancer awareness. I also keep a pair of sharp scissors tethered to a piece of pink twine in the twine box that I use to cut the tag ends. That way, I never have to go looking for a knife if not in my pocket. Mike


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## kevin_ (Aug 16, 2013)

NDVA HAYMAN said:


> I buy all pink twine. It is easier for me to see as the bales are going up the chute on the Kuhn accumulator and the female buyers love it. I support breast cancer awareness. I also keep a pair of sharp scissors tethered to a piece of pink twine in the twine box that I use to cut the tag ends. That way, I never have to go looking for a knife if not in my pocket. Mike


Funny you say that, I use an kuhn accumulator too. You only have to miss a couple bails going up that accumulator to get a real mess on your hands. Nothing like climbing up that thing to clear out a bunch of busted bails. After climbing up that thing and screwing around in almost 100 degree heat you really learn to watch them strings. I remember I took a important phone call from my wife for a couple rows and had one of hell of a mess. One day Im going to go out and the baler will work perfect and the accumulators gate will open perfect every time, seems like I'm always fighting with one, pretty sure we got the accumulator straightened out, and now I believe the baler is OK. I even got the Ac in the tractor going so I'm not sure what I'm gonna do with cold air and not having to get out every row to tie a broken bail or open the gate on the accumulator


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