Civil Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
of your baling needle. It helps to thread
them from opposite sides to each other so
that a short end of twine sticks out in either
direction from each hole.
the two ends of string that go round one of
the halves, and tie a loop in the end of one
of them (not a slip knot). Thread the other
end of the twine through this and pull tight,
but only to measure about a hand's width,
(225mm or 9”) back from where the twine
passes through the loop. Make another
loop at this point, in the twine that doesn't
already have a loop in it. Now you can tie a
sort of trucker's hitch by threading the end
through the first loop and back through the
loop in itself and pulling tight.
Ask your partner to steady the bale from
the opposite side of the bale from the one
you are about to work on, making sure they
are not too close so you don't unexpectedly
perform body piercing! Measure halfway
along the bale, place your threaded needle
by the original string at this point and push
it into the bale about 25mm (1”) to steady it
while you sort your strings out. Here comes
the tricky part - you need to push the needle
all the way through the bale, at right angles
to the face, to come out on the opposite
side where the string is and exactly halfway
along the bale length
without twisting the
strings together!
So keep your fingers
between the strings as you push the needle
through the bale and don't let go until your
partner has carefully pulled the ends out
of the needle the other side. Because you
threaded the strings through in opposite
directions, it should be easy to tell which
string belongs to which side of the bale. Take
By pulling on the string between the two
loops you can get the string even tighter. It
needs to be at least as tight as the original
string, and if you can get it tighter than that
then it means the original strings could have
been put on tighter and the bale would have
been more dense. Your partner will have
been tying an identical knot on the other half
of the bale. Now flip the bale over on to its
other side and repeat the whole process
where the second original string lies, ending
up with two tied parcels and (hopefully)
slacker original strings ready to be removed.
Don't just cut the strings at random, but look
for where the original knots are. These are
always close to the corners, one above the
other. Cut by the knot and pull off the original
strings, then you have two more strings to
reuse next time. All being well, you should be
able to gently pull the half bales apart from
each other, and trim the ends as necessary. If
the worst happens and you do get the
