[AT] sickle grinder

[Indiana Robinson]

On 13 Mar 2005 at 23:39, Ronald L. Cook wrote:

> Farmer,
>  Then they become smooth sections, right? <vbg>


	Eventually.   :-)    I often touch them up a couple of times very lightly sometimes by 
hand with a crystalon (sp?) file. Sometimes I sharpen with a small disk grinder. A lot of 
guys get carried away with sharpening (a lot of guy get carried away with a lot of 
stuff).   :-)    A Tim Taylor overkill kind of guy thing I guess. I have always been too 
poor to develop the condition. Anyway, one should not try to grind away every nick all in 
one grinding. If there is a big nick I often sharpen the rest of the cutter edge then 
just sharpen that nick itself. It will cut fine... That cutting edge does not have to be 
straight as a die to work well. Sometimes they seem to cut even better with a "wave" 
edge. I have also often lightly ground the ledger plates a couple of times before 
replacing them. The angle of the grind is pretty important on those and the limiting 
factor. On combine guards where there is no replaceable ledger plate I sometimes grind 
the guard itself.
	It has been a lot of years since I was very good at making any money but I am very good 
at stretching the life of stuff.   :-)

	Somewhat in a similar vein, I used to have a Deere 3 blade gyro-mower that I had used 
for years without sharpening and I used it a lot for chopping corn stalks. I used to find 
a lot of rocks chopping stalks...   :-)   The front edge of the blades ended up curling 
up almost 3/4". I looked at them and said there is no way I am going to grind all of that 
off, it would eat several grinding wheels. I didn't even remove the blades, I just laid 
under it and cut the curled part off with the torch at the proper angle to leave a good 
cutting edge. They worked great and the wavy edge (sometimes I shake a lot)   :-)   
seemed to help it pull up mashed down grass better.


-- 
"farmer", Esquire
At Hewick Midwest
      Wealth beyond belief, just no money...

Paternal Robinson's here by way of Norway (Clan Gunn), Scottish Highlands,
Cleasby Yorkshire England, Virginia, Kentucky then Indiana. Here 100 years 
before the revolution.


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana USA
robinson at svs.net