[drylandfarmer]

Having a few too many whitecaps in the hopper on Durum. Durum is real hard to thrash this year. Strongfield durum running 50bpa. I have the keysock APS grates in, disawning plates closed, ITS threshing segments in. 2 filler plates in the concave. Concave running at 800rpm, 7 to 10 mm. 9mm seems to be the best.
Cemos auto takes it from there, running it on highest grain quality. Usually cemos runs the bottom sieve 6 to 7mm, top 12 to 14,rotor doors closed in the heat of the day, then opens them when tough. Rotor speed about 880, one extra set rotor cover plates in. Fan a bit light at 1000 to 1200. Ive seen it as low as 850.

Returns are always running close to 70% full. Been trying to clean up the sample, some unthrashed heads and a lot of whitecaps.

The main cylinder is what ive been concentrating on making the difference. What are other guys running for concave filler plates? Cylinder speed? Opening? Any other tips would be appreciated.

I have Tm6 sieves. 780 Lexion.

 

[Don Boles]

Concave running at 800rpm, 7 to 10 mm. 9mm seems to be the best.
Cemos auto takes it from there, running it on highest grain quality.

Returns are always running close to 70% full. Been trying to clean up the sample, some unthrashed heads and a lot of whitecaps.

I always thought durum threshed easier than red spring wheat but looks like not always.

I only have one setting for RSW concave clearance and that's as tight as it will go. Usually.

You don't mention grain damage but I run the cylinder speed (I see you call it concave speed ) just below grain damage level.

If you do that and switch CA off highest grain quality that should lower return, can't fix a threshing issue with a high return anyway.

I'm still surprized durum's that hard to thresh.

 

[drylandfarmer]

I will tighten up the concave to max. Then give it more time to clean up. Was thinking it was too tight for durum at 7mm. Still kinda have the rotary mentality in me.

 

[kauppfarms]

Bumping this thread.

Durum is definitely harder threshing than spring wheat, knew that going in. We had a lot of whitecaps but with the rains coming we just had to roll with it. Basically just tried running cylinder as tight and fast as we could (this is what Cemos recommended) but still couldn't get to a point where we were happy with it. Also had the hard threshing segments in. Anyone do anything else? Wasn't real happy with flax that we custom combined, we tried manually tightening the cylinder on one unit past the factory setting of 7mm but it still wasn't great. I guess there are filler plates you can put in but not real crazy about spending more time installing them when time is so valuable ahead of rains.

 

[seedcleaner]

I assume you had APS closed, with small grain aps, ITS installed, and large or small wire concave?

Yes, there is a cover plate that can be installed from underneath, closing off the "preconcave". Not bad to do, three or four bolts iirc. It should be a factory installed hinge cover imo.

What was your limiting capacity?

 

[primer]

durum this year is threshing like crap here. On my CR i had to run the concave at 1/16th and rotors at 1350 with two filler plates on each concave. still had 5 to 10 % unthrashed. elevators werent docking for it though.

 

[Darcy]

Not sure about your area with durum but here strongfield is the worst to thresh. Always more butts compared to other varieties. Every neighbour complains about it no matter what the color of machine he has and this year seemed to be the worse

Off the top of my head this is what we used this year for the 570r's
Cyl 820 to 780. Normal yr 750
Rotors 880sh 1 door closed
Concave 7 to 9mm
Top sieve 13
Bottom 7 ( these aren't the tm6's)
Disawing plates open with narrow key stock (unless it was over 15% than we had to close them) We only close them as a last resort
Fan 1370 to 1400. For some reason we always seem to need to run more wind than most. Maybe a narrow body thing
The one with a stock cylinder had ITS bars in and the one with the sunnybrook cyl ran without them
At times we could not see the shaft on the return auger.
We had cracks and butts it wasn't a perfect job by far but I think it had a lot to do with the year.
I have never had anything to do with flax but we have used these machines on canary seed & they seem to do a okay job

 

[hector]

Having a few too many whitecaps in the hopper on Durum. Durum is real hard to thrash this year. Strongfield durum running 50bpa. I have the keysock APS grates in, disawning plates closed, ITS threshing segments in. 2 filler plates in the concave. Concave running at 800rpm, 7 to 10 mm. 9mm seems to be the best.
Cemos auto takes it from there, running it on highest grain quality. Usually cemos runs the bottom sieve 6 to 7mm, top 12 to 14,rotor doors closed in the heat of the day, then opens them when tough. Rotor speed about 880, one extra set rotor cover plates in. Fan a bit light at 1000 to 1200. Ive seen it as low as 850.

Returns are always running close to 70% full. Been trying to clean up the sample, some unthrashed heads and a lot of whitecaps.

The main cylinder is what ive been concentrating on making the difference. What are other guys running for concave filler plates? Cylinder speed? Opening? Any other tips would be appreciated.

I have Tm6 sieves. 780 Lexion.

we had same problem cemos wanted to open bottom sieve, strange thing it was cps wheat we found the hard red easier this year, we tried everything, we had roughly the same settings, we only had one concave cover plate in we are going to put another one in. We started to get rotor losses because we beat the crap out of the straw and the rotor had a hard time sorting,than you get all those returns not good, last year we had 760s and they had 2 concave plates in we had no problem in fact we ran the cylinder at 750 and the concave at 10mm . talking to claas they recommended blanking plates in the #2 and 3 position

 

[ShinyNewFarmer]

Wasn't real happy with flax that we custom combined, we tried manually tightening the cylinder on one unit past the factory setting of 7mm but it still wasn't great. I guess there are filler plates you can put in but not real crazy about spending more time installing them when time is so valuable ahead of rains.

I helped cut some flax this year, and I couldn't get a clean sample at first with the concave set at 7. I adjusted the concave manually to where it was just above clicking at the back, and it was at 4 mm at the front. This helped considerably. I still had a few bolls in the tank, but it was quite clean overall. The problem I had was I was cutting with an S88, and he had to actually open his sieves up more because his sample was perfectly clean. I don't know what else I could have done to make my sample that clean! However, I was happy with the sample I had, and I just made sure to keep the machine full all the time. It was fun as I hadn't cut flax with my machine since I've owned it.

 

[drylandfarmer]

Have the 780 in dealer shop for yearly inspection. Concave is out of adjustment a bit. This may help with durum thrashing. Also going to try 4 filler plates in the concave next year on the durum. The whitecaps and unthrashed heads in durum are probably more unsightly than a real problem. Have hauled quite a bit of it to the elevator and dockage was 3%. Do want to get it better for next year though as there were times when looking back in the grain tank would give you that face like you just drank some scotch, and not good scotch.

Wheat was very clean and canola looks like it came out of a seed bag. Durum was the only issue.

 

[bussard]

Our strong field thrashed hard, but not harder than the spring wheat... Had to be tight, and rotor fast, veins in slow and sample looked good

 

[SouthernSK]

Dryland if you are having problem threshing dururm I would close the concave tighter and close the bottom sieve tighter till you get the white caps out of the grain tank. I would run the concave as tight as it will go and make sure it is level. Check the clearance at the front and the back. As you tighten the concave you may need to slow the cylinder if it starts to crack. The problem with the automatic settings is that it will be looking at loss but likely cn not tell how many white caps are in the tank.

 

[seedcleaner]

Also, many companies claim a cylinder that isn't true...has a bar higher than the others, can cause threshing problems.

How does one adjust the concave tighter than the factory 7mm setting and what do you do with the potentiometer setting?

 

[stsdavew]

Also, many companies claim a cylinder that isn't true...has a bar higher than the others, can cause threshing problems.

How does one adjust the concave tighter than the factory 7mm setting and what do you do with the potentiometer setting?

On 500 series If your concave is level all you need to do is loosen 4 bolts on the left side of the machine and turn the set screw in or out to adjust your clearance. The bolts and set screw are at the back of the all that concave linkage stuff.
Now this is a dumb question but what do you guys call white caps??

 

[SouthernSK]

White caps are partially threshed wheat heads.

 

[offroadnt]

Now this is a dumb question but what do you guys call white caps??

I looked it up this year, I always thought it was broken kernels, turns out it is kernels with the husks on them.

The problem of separating material other than grain from clean grain is exacerbated in small grain cereal crop, especially wheat. Under certain climatic conditions, there is a tendency for the husk surrounding the grain to be tightly held to the kernel. This causes a condition known as "white caps" in the grain sample. These are grains that did not get thoroughly threshed in the separating apparatus, but did manage to fall into the clean grain portion of the harvester.

 

[joesixpack]

On 500 series If your concave is level all you need to do is loosen 4 bolts on the left side of the machine and turn the set screw in or out to adjust your clearance. The bolts and set screw are at the back of the all that concave linkage stuff.
Now this is a dumb question but what do you guys call white caps??

That ONLY adjusts the left side. You have to adjust the right hand side with the hex head eccentric.


We run zero clearance on back of the concave when its set in its tightest position.

Sometimes depending on conditions you have to sieve out the white caps and will set as tight as 5, other times it seems you have to get it with wind and will be quite a bit more open. A good view of the returns sure helps.

 

[stsdavew]

I looked it up this year, I always thought it was broken kernels, turns out it is kernels with the husks on them.

The problem of separating material other than grain from clean grain is exacerbated in small grain cereal crop, especially wheat. Under certain climatic conditions, there is a tendency for the husk surrounding the grain to be tightly held to the kernel. This causes a condition known as "white caps" in the grain sample. These are grains that did not get thoroughly threshed in the separating apparatus, but did manage to fall into the clean grain portion of the harvester.

AHHH. I see. Thanks for clearing that up!

 

[stsdavew]

That ONLY adjusts the left side. You have to adjust the right hand side with the hex head eccentric.

That eccentic is for leveling the rear of the concave side to side (dimension M3)... once everything is level you can adjust your concave clearance (M2)tighter or looser by that set screw without touching anything else...

The concave can be adjusted in three ways.​

•

​

​

Concave Readjust Central Part​

• ​

Concave – Readjust Left Side
• Basic Concave Setting​

​

​

 

[joesixpack]

Right, except that's on the right hand side of the machine. You stated left so figured you meant the rear concave setting.

Thing is to tighten up the rear of the concave where it matter's you have to use both the left and right adjusters as that main adjustment will not get you there. At least on every machine I've done.

M3 is what your after.