[Strawbale] Hand operated baler

[Caï van Hoboken]

Hi Thomas,
This press we constructed at ecotopia 1999 in Romania. We had over 200
strawbales with metalwire strings that had nearly no compression at all,
real fluffy or sponge like.
The tamper is connected to a y- shaped branch we specially selected from the
forrest.It  embraces  a pinetree and provides the pivotting point for this
lever-beam that presses the tamper onto the lid of the press.
We had to connnect the tamper semie hinged as well because the angle between
the lid and tamper changes during the pressing process.
The two light coloured planks fixed to the box are also fixed to the
pinetree and keep the box in place.
We put strings around the bales before putting them into the box , we could
reach these strings through the spacing between the planks the box was made
of. We could enhance the pressure by inviting participants with a higher
bodyweight to sit in the sling.
It took the crew about two weeks to repress all the bales but that was
mainly because the metalwire was hard to tie.
Good luck,
Caï

2011/3/21 Thomas Simkevicius <t_shimkus at yahoo...>

> Hello,
>
> My name is Tomas. I have been following this mailing list for at least 2
> years. It has very usefull info.
>
> Could anybody share pictures or drawings of hand operated straw baler. I
> would like to make one for compacting loose bales. I had the tractor
> compacting bales last year, but since  the tactor attached balers in the
> area are very old, it did not compress bales very well. The strings are
> loose, so I'm thinking about recompacting those bales (about 800 pcs.). I
> know its tremendous work, but it has to be done if I want to have warm house
> :)  I have found some pictures online and  understand how to make the box
> and the handle, but do not understand how/where to attache strings so they
> wouldn't be in the way when loading loose bales. Can  one person operate one
> hand baler, or it has to be another tieyng the strings?
>
> Thank you!
>
> Tomas
> http://www.siaudinesodyba.blogspot.com/
>
>
>
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