Another more time consuming, but much better angle, is to reduce the diameter of the finger type pick-up reel to enable the lowest part of the reel to be brought right back over the knife. On the later model reels, the spider arms can be cut,over-lapped and welded so that the fingers miss the centre tube by less than an inch. New sheet steel end plates need to be made to run the cranks on the right diameter. The modified reel is only a couple of feet, front to back and can really get down to shift material off of the knife in very short crops. We are going to hang an air-manifold out in front to cut losses even more. Use on a flex-front usually means an expensive haircut on the fingers!