[Strawbale] Foot-operated baler, leever, pulling tight

["forum@lamaisonenpaille..." <forum@lamaisonenpaille...>]

Hello,

I really appreciated visiting the links that were provided.

Here are pictures of the 'foot'-baler we made in India in 2000.
There were no balers available in that part of India so we made our own. 
We started out with a leverage system (a bit long and cumbersome) and 
found out that it was easier and faster to just have someone walk on the 
straw in order to accomplish correct compression.
http://www.lamaisonenpaille.com//Galeries/Stages/Stage-Auroville.htm
While giving SB presentations I sometimes finish with these pictures 
because part of me believes that a post-industrial future might not be 
so far away from us and SB can also be of great value in such a context.

To improve the density of soft bales one can also just use a very simply 
leever (without the box) to apply extra compression on the top of the 
bale. Connect a beam to a tree (or whatever) in a way that the other end 
of the beam can move up and down. Screw a small board under the beam, 
about 2 meters away from the wall and put the bale upright under that 
board with the new loose strings in place. Have someone push on the far 
end of the beam, or hang a weight, and tighten the new strings. Then say 
(as we say in my région) "voila!" ;-)

You might also find that simply placing new strings arround the bale and 
pulling them as tight as you can while tying it can be sufficiant. Roll 
your string arround a piece of wood to be able to pull really hard and 
not hurt yourself.

Bale on,

André
France