How do I adjust a Discbine | Roll Gap vs Roll Tension

Neil: Neil from Messick's here to talk to you a little bit about some details on a discbine. There is actually some things that I misunderstood on this machine. The possibility is some of you might look at some of these things the same way that I do, and that's why my cousin Brian is here to help me today. Brian, tell me about the rolls on a discbine.
Brian: We're going to talk about the conditioning and what rolls do versus flails. Here, we have a roll machine. These are our rubber roll. It's a chevron pattern that intermeshes the lugs. The big common misconception, Neil, we get all the time is people say, "I need to adjust my roll gap. I need my roll gap." We're not necessarily adjusting the roll gap. We want to adjust the tension on the roll. We want to adjust how much down force we're putting on the top roll to keep the product smushed down.
Neil: This is what got us here today.
Brian: Yes.
Neil: I actually came over to you and asked, "How do I adjust the roll gap?" because I knew it was a thing and understood it wrong.
Brian: You will notice on a machine like this the roll tension, meaning how much pressure we're putting down, is adjusted by hand crank, and the actual gap is adjusted by lock nuts where you would need tools to get that done. It's a setting done at the manufacturer's base, and it's something they actually do not want you to touch.
Neil: You don't mess with the gap, you mess with the tension.
Brian: Mess with the tension. Absolutely. Normally, we would show how a roll works in conditioning and show you the crimps and the crushing action, and we would use a piece of aluminum foil. We looked all over our kitchen and we could not find any aluminum foil. Neil was out and this is what he found.
Neil: An aluminum can.
Brian: Perfect. We're going to show you how the crushing action on a chevron conditioning roll in a New Holland discbine works. Let's check it out.
Brian: Okay, as you can see, we ran this can through the conditioning rolls and what we want to look at here is the crimp action. We have a crimp up here in the top corner, a crimp in the bottom corner, then you have your lug, and then another crimp, and another crimp on top. Each one of those four crimps is what lets the moisture come away from the stem and the stalk and to dry out better. This is where we see the accelerated dry time in a conditioning roll which makes this far superior than a lot of other conditioning systems on. You can see it very well in this can right here.
We sell all types of conditioning systems whether that be rubber rolls, steel rolls, flails. In our general area, rubber rolls seem to be the most preferred. This is a flail machine here. You can see its individual fingers. They take the crop, they rake it across this hood. You do not get any crimping action in a flail. All you're getting is the flail wiping the waxy layer off of the stem. That's why we feel with the rubber rolls you get the crimp and the break that lets the moisture escape better.
Neil: That's a little bit on different types of conditioning systems and my misunderstanding, too. Like I said, it's good to go through and question these kinds of things. I have roll gap burned into my brain and here's something we're not supposed to mess with.
Brian: Not roll gap, roll tension is what we want to mess with.
Neil: Roll tension. If you're shopping for a piece of equipment and we can help, or if you got parts and service needs for a machine you've already got, give us a call at Messick's. We're available at 800-222-3373 or online at messicks.com.