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978-368-3325
Balers · Baler · B-4

The Bale Won't Eject From the Chamber

A bale that will not leave the chamber is normally too dense, too tall for the opening, or being gripped by chamber walls that have bulged outward over years of service. Less often it is the ejection mechanism itself. What matters most is what happens next, because a stuck bale is a loaded machine with people standing in front of it.
Get It Cleared Safely — 978-368-3325
All Baler Symptoms
Tier 2 at most. Never climb into the chamber, and never pry against a loaded bale.
First

Before You Touch It

The instinct with a stuck bale is to get a bar and lever it out. That is how people get hurt on this machine.

Stop the machine and lock it out.

Before anyone stands in front of an open chamber with a loaded bale in it.

Do not climb into the chamber.

Not to push it, not to kick it loose, not for a second. This is the specific act that kills people on balers.

Do not pry against a loaded bale.

A compressed bale is stored energy. When it releases it moves fast and it takes whatever is levering it with it.

Do not cut the ties to relieve it.

A tied bale under compression that is suddenly untied does exactly what you would expect.

Photograph it and call.

How the bale is sitting, how far out it came, and the chamber around it.

Why this one gets its own warning

Every other fault on this site is a machine that will not do its job. This one is a machine holding a several-hundred-pound compressed load in a partly open position, with the thing that is holding it being friction rather than a designed restraint. Treat it the way you would treat a suspended load.
Narrowing It

Four Causes

  • Bale over-dense — Filled past the line and compressed harder than the chamber releases. The most common cause and the one most within your control.
  • Bale over-height — Taller than the chamber opening, so it cannot physically clear. Usually the same root cause as above.
  • Chamber sides bulged — Years of over-dense bales spread the walls, and the bale is now wider at the middle than at the opening. The machine is gripping its own bale.
  • Ejection mechanism fault — Tip-out, ejector or door mechanism not working through its full travel. The least common of the four on a vertical baler.
What to Check

From Outside the Machine, Locked Out

  • Is the door fully open and latched back, or is it partly closing under its own weight?
  • Is the bale visibly wider in the middle than at the top and bottom? That is a bulged chamber.
  • Did it move at all before it stopped, or did it never start moving?
  • Has this machine been making heavier bales lately, or been filled past the line?
  • Are the chamber walls scored or shiny in a band? That shows where the bale is dragging.
The Repair

What Fixes It, Short and Long

Short term

Controlled release of the bale by someone who does this for a living, then the machine back in service the same visit in most cases.

Medium term

A fill line marked on the chamber and used, so bales stop being made over-dense. This is the fix for most recurring cases.

Long term

If the chamber walls have bulged, they need straightening or panel replacement. Until that is done the machine will keep gripping bales no matter how carefully it is filled.
Before You Call

What Tells Us What You Have

A vertical baler is identified by make, model and serial off the plate, and that is usually enough for us to know the chamber size, the chain, the ties and the cylinder before we leave.
  • Make, model and serial — Off the data plate. A 3400HD and a V63HD are different machines and take different parts.
  • Bale size the machine makes — Nominal chamber width and depth, and typical bale weight.
  • Tie type and count — Wire, strapping or baling twine, how many per bale, and whether you supply them.
  • What it bales — Cardboard only, or mixed with film, shrink wrap or foam. It changes the wear pattern.
  • Bales per day — Duty is what decides whether a wear part is due or failing early.
  • Photos — The full machine, the chamber with the platen up, the data plate, and whatever is broken.

If the plate is unreadable

Retail balers spend years being pressure-washed and painted around. If the plate is gone, photograph the machine from the front and one side and we can usually identify it from the frame and the control layout.
Safety

Where Your Checking Stops

Tier 1 · Site check

Looking, photographing, and keeping people away from the chamber with the machine locked out.

Tier 3 · Service technician

Releasing the bale, any work inside the chamber, chamber wall repair, and ejection mechanism repair.

Do not crack a fitting to check for pressure

Stored hydraulic energy is the hazard that makes this Tier 3 no matter how simple the repair looks. Loosening a fitting “to see if there’s still pressure in it” is how people get injection injuries — which do not look serious for the first hour and are a surgical emergency. Pressure gets relieved deliberately and confirmed at the gauge.
Questions We Get

Stuck Bales, Answered

Can we push it out with a forklift?
No. A forklift applies far more force than the machine was designed to take in that direction, and it moves the risk from the bale to the chamber and the frame. It also puts the operator right in front of the load.
It is more dangerous, not less. A partly ejected bale is unsupported at one end and the chamber is holding the rest by friction. Keep people clear of the front of the machine.
As long as it takes to get someone there, provided the machine is locked out and people are kept away from the chamber. There is no mechanical urgency — the urgency is entirely about keeping hands away from it in the meantime.
Repeat jams on the same machine almost always mean either bales are being made too dense, or the chamber has bulged. The first is a fill-line and process fix. The second is a repair, and until it is done the first one will not be enough.
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978-368-3325

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T&T Weber Hydraulic Inc.
184 Stone St, Unit 5
Clinton, MA 01510

Where we go

Onsite compactor and baler service throughout New England — Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. Cylinder reseal and replacement, domestic replacement cylinders, hydraulic, electrical and controls, and full mechanical repair.