[GSBN] Baling from rounds

[Graeme North]

I presume the use of large round bales - or very large rectangular bales  - is either because of their availability and /or cheapness when smaller rectangular bales are not available?
 I had a client try rebelling large round bales in a large shed as the round bales were cheap and he owned a baler - and yes he got his bales together but the quality was not really that of rectangular  bales made in the field.  The straw ended up with fairly short fibre lengths laid up in a random pattern within the bale which would not compact as much ideal  -  but the bales still proved useable.  It was a very messy exercise though, and afterward he wished that he has simply purchased rectangular bales at slightly greater cost.

Then I have a client who wanted to build a huge house using giant rectangular bales - the walls would have been around 1.8m thick  - window and door recesses would have ended up being nearly the size of a whole room if you wanted to be able to reach the window latches or door handles, and so it went on  -  but fortunately he proved to be mad and the project went no further than a few initial and difficult discussions -  sometimes you get lucky and don't get too caught up with silly projects.

Graeme 



On 28/09/2013, at 12:32 PM, John Swearingen <jswearingen at skillful-means.com> wrote:

> ok, ok...I won't say anything about square pegs, really, I won't.
> 
> 
> On Fri, Sep 27, 2013 at 3:12 PM, Lance Kairl <sabale at bigpond.com> wrote:
> Hi Chris and all,
> 
> The way I see it is most people want to "Pull Apart" a round bale and " feed
> it into" a small square baler.
> ROLL OUT the round bale and then re bale in the standard baling method. That
> is move the small square baler over the windrow ( rolled out bale) similar
> to as it would be in the field.
> Yes you need a long straight piece of ground to do this, and if you are
> wanting to do it inside a shed in winter, then get a big shed.
> 
> Another option is to opt for large rectangle bales rather than rounds.
> Machines to slice and resize large rectangle 4ft x 4 ft x 8 ft bales are
> readily available, but may be cost restrictive. The bales remade form large
> rectangles are denser than std small square, and can be made into some
> interesting configurations.
> Eg 1200 long 600 high 400 wide ( yes it's metric, sorry). Weight was getting
> to the point of needing to be a 2 person lift approx 40 kg.
> The machines that do the  baling can be adjusted to create a bale of less
> density, as they are baled for farm convenience not for best building bales.
> The resizing machine we have here ( not me , near by)reties using heavy poly
> twine but also ties it around the bale at approx 150mm intervals, making
> resizing the length a breeze.
> I will try and find the photos I have of some of I put into a test rig to
> ascertain what creep may occur in these bales.
> 
> Cheers Lance.
> 
> PS; The bad news is that I think the resizing machine had a price tag
>      with 6 zero's on it.
> 
> Cheers lance
> House of Bales.
> South Australia
> 
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> 
> -- 
> John Swearingen
> Skillful Means Design & Construction
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> 
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