Combines Solid Cylinder w staggered bars in Deere book

[sdfarmer]

I was wondering if you use your combines in soybeans and especially corn. I am interested in doing this to one of our combines but am having trouble getting info on how it these cylinders work in corn. Thanks, Swede

 

[John_W]

Give Terry at St John Welding a call. He has been putting solid cylinders in US combines shelling corn for year. Buying from him will keep your dollars in the US too.

 

[tj]

John: Thanks for the good words -- also please excuse the website -- it needs to be upgraded with better photos, etc. but we have serious server uploading issues here on the cutting edge of civilization. I can email photos, however. There are 3 main differences between our cylinder and Sunnybrook's model. (A)-- 10 rows of cylinder bars on SJW as as opposed to 8 rows on SB if they were mounted in straight lines, (B)-- straight line mounting of cylinder bars as opposed to staggered mounting on SB, and (C)-- cylinder bar mounts which are open in the rear for access to mounting hardware as opposed to fully enclosed on SB. Explanations follow: (A) The configuration of concave crossbars on older JD combines (7720, 8820, etc. with 8 cylinder bars and 22" diameter) allow for what would be called aggressive thresh_separation on 7 concave crossbars underneath the cylinder. The 9K series combines (OEM with 10 cylinder bars and 26" diameter)have this aggressiveness on only 5 concave crossbars. 10 rows of bars on the larger diameter approximately maintain the proper correlation between the spacing of cylinder bars and number of concave crossbars. Wider spacing of only 8 rows does not. This requires tighter concave setting for thresh_separation, which in turn requires higher cylinder speeds for infeed and throughput, which in turn causes overthresh and loading of secondary separation components (walkers and shoe). In short, the SJW cylinder separates more grain more quickly thru the concave at lower cylinder speeds, leaving the components of MOG more whole with better separation at walkers and shoe. This especially applies in lighter loading conditions such as low producing or droughted crops. (B) We tried the staggered cylinder bar configuration on rotary Gleaners quite a few years ago. In small grains and beans, as long as loading was adequate, results were acceptable with plenty of power available. However, in corn, and especially in corn with higher moisture, we had quite a bit of cob breakage. At cylinder speeds slowed down for corn, quite a few ears would turn sideways on the corners of the bar mounts, snap in 1_2 and would be crushed. We could rectify this condition with considerably higher cylinder speeds, but then split cobs sideways and cracked grain. Straight line mounting virtually eliminates this issue -- ears which roll up the feeder house sideways will roll across the concave, as well. This is especially critical in conventional combines where feeding is straight thru and can't be reprocessed as with the Gleaner rotor_separating cage combo. (C) We know that ingestion of stones or other material which can cause damage will occur. in this case, the open-backed cylinder mounts which we use, although strong and substantial in ordinary usage, should collapse or break away, causing much less peripheral damage to other components. We've had this happen on a 6620, and it wasn't necessary to remove the cylinder for repair and though a couple of dings occurred on the concave, they were negligible. We use a version of the AGCO_Gleaner P3 processor cylinder bar most of which have threaded mounting holes and require installing the bolts from the bottom of the mount. In case of damage, instead of waiting to get a replacement bar from us, an operator can go to a Gleaner dealer for replacements. We try to build equipment which is easily repairable in case of mishap. The open-backed mounts will eventually gather dust, just as the backsides of OEM cylinder bar mounts will. However, this gathers evenly in operation, and balance won't be affected, since once these cylinders are balanced it requires quite a bit of weight swing to change characteristics. Hope this is all reasonably clear -- if more questions arise, I'll be glad to try to answer them. Terry Welch

 

[tj]

Forgot: Over the years I've found that John Deere has a tendency to charge different prices in different areas. I'd be curious to know what their cylinders cost in disparate locations. Depending upon the treatment of the bars we use, our costs for a 9600 model can range from about $3300.00 with standard, untreated black bars, up to about $5400.00 for chrome plated bars (we don't actually recommend these, but have to include them on the price list). Thanks for any info provided. Terry Welch