September/October 2000
Joe Steinhagen
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The binders in the lean-to.
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11980 Kluver Addn. Rd. SE Alexandria, Minnesota 56308
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My name is Joe Steinhagen and I want to tell you a short story
about a couple of Case grain binders that I managed to acquire.
It all started when a friend of mine at work (we'll call him
Rick because I don't want anybody pestering him for further
items that aren't for sale) told me that that he was moving
onto his deceased grandfather's farm and there was a lot of old
machinery there that he needed to get rid of. He knew of my
interest in old machinery, steam engines, threshing machines, and
such, and wondered if I wanted to look at it before the junk man
arrived. I have heard of these types of stories before, so I
didn't put too much stock into anything coming out of it.
Well, about a year after he had mentioned it to me, to my
surprise, he said that he was moved in and living at his
grandfather's farm. All the relatives had come and taken
whatever they wanted and there were two things with beaters on them
in the lean-to on the granary that he wanted to get rid of. Rick,
not being a farm boy and having no interest in old equipment,
didn't have any idea what kind of machines these were.
Arrangements were made for my collector friend Jim Pospisil
(unfortunately, John Deere) and me to come out and have a look on
the following weekend.
This took place in February 1999, so we dressed appropriately
and took snow shovels with us, because you never know how deep the
snow will be.
After receiving directions, we drove to Rick's place. He
lives on the flat, fertile prairies of western Minnesota, and there
was a lot of snow. After I introduced Rick to Jim, Rick led us to
the lean-to attached to the granary where the machines were stored,
and we had to shovel some snow to get the door open. We then peeked
inside and determined that a flashlight would be needed to see
anything, because the lean-to was much deeper and darker than we
had thought it would be. The light from the flashlight revealed a
lot of miscellaneous junk piled in front of what were definitely
two grain binders way in the back. Now I've always kind of
wanted to own a grain binder, because the only way to figure out
what makes them work is to work on them.
It was very dark inside as I worked my way to the back, and I
couldn't determine what brand they were. I would have been
happy if they were IHC, but after climbing over the junk that was
piled in front of them and finally finding a name stamped on them,
I couldn't believe that they were Case binders. That was the
first time I had ever seen a Case binder! Closer examination
revealed that they were both 10' power binders. One had steel
wheels and the other was on rubber, but they both had forward
controls. They looked to be pretty much complete, but they had been
in the shed so long that they'd settled into the soft black
dirt so that the platforms and sickles were on the ground and the
transport wheels were down to the hubs in the dirt. I asked Rick if
he had the canvasses and he said he didn't know what a canvas
was. I described what a canvas looked like and he said sure, they
were piled up in the attic of the house, did I want to see
them?
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