As you know, with husbandry, there comes hay, and if you don't have a huge barn you don't mind filling to the roof with loose hay - which is also dangerous, for several reasons - you need some more efficient way of storage.
This is how a bale press would look like if you don't have any machines to drive it.
I'm writing this how-to for maybe some people have rabbits or other animals at home, and might want to make their own hay.
In my case, I don't want to put the acre of yard to waste by using a normal lawn-mower (as my horses like hay very much), and no one comes with the tractor and the baler for the few dozen bales it puts out. It's fun and less expensive, too.
Feel free to put it in the Maximizing Your Personal Resources / Surviving the Future thread, but I think it deserves it's own.
Front:
Side:
As you see, it has a rudimentary similarity to a potato/garlic press, we just don't want the stuff pour out of holes in the bottom.
The plate needs to be a stiff connection, I made it pivoting at first, didn't work at all. The plate fits with an quarter to half-inch air on all sides, you actually need to push the hay a bit clear of the back to insert it properly, or it might stick. No problem, as the press being filled to that mark is the point you should start compressing, anyway. I might mark that fill level for easier working, later.
See the string ends dangling on the front? Those are needed later, I usually secure them by putting them under the belt...
Let's take a look at the inside:
The string is inserted, and runs out in the back. See the four nail pairs holding the string in position on the base plate.
The slits on the back side are important, the front ones not so, but I put them in so I can view progress better - I'll draw a line across them later as a mark, so I can have equal sized bales. But they also turned out to come handy in keeping the string from being pushed down along with the hay...
Now, we close the hatch, secure it with the belt and start putting loose hay in and push it down a bit with a rake, so the bottom is well covered (or the string might slip when tying, I found out about that after the first two or three bales.)
Repeat that stuff-push cycle until the press is full to the brim...
Then you insert the press and push down.
Fill again and repeat until you think it's compressed enough.
Remember the string ends on the front? Put them over the hay so they stick out through the top of the back slits, and put the press back in.
Then, place an (in my case attractive) counterweight on the lever
Pull the strings under the belt, tighten them and tie the ends.
Best practice is to tie the lower end around the upper with a loop first, and then tension the string by pulling the lower end up before tying it, too. Although the expansion of the hay will tighten the string even more, the tighter you tie the knot, the better it will hold up.
Gently remove your counterweight.
Open hatch and marvel at your creation:
before pulling it out
and putting another string in to start over again.
With as little practice as we have, we are able to make ~10 bales an hour, which roughly equals ~1000m² of our lawn. YMMV, depending on grass length.
Bales are tough, 30x45x90 cm(12x18x36 inches) - standard size - and weight about 10 kg, depending of pressure. With my wife and the 4:1 lever, we could theoretically put a final pressure of 200kg on them, we are still experimenting with how much more we can stuff in, but 15kg would be possible, I guess.
Also, these bales are much better for horses, as they are completely dust-free, since most of the dust in hay comes from the machines making them (They rake the stuff up pretty brutal, and lot's of earth and stuff gets in), and much better quality, as the machines loose much of the finer hay structure, leaves and blossoms in the violent process. As we don't need the turning machines, just a relatively gentle rake, as well, once a day for the three days of drying, we get the full package. It smells just like herbal tea, instead of the 'dusty' smell of 'industrial' hay.
And, just to say it again, it actually makes a lot of fun.
I'll sure have to tell this to my wife the next time she complains about wasp nests.
