couple 'a questions

Boy, it seems like a lifetime since I"ve been on the board. A friend of dad"s has just got an oliver 77 and is looking for manuals. After instructing dad to advertise my restoration skills to the gentleman, I told him I"d do some looking around for him. He"s looking for a shop manual for the tractor. I checked one good source and they sell parts and operators but no shop manual. I prefer to have all three when I work on a tractor but I can get by with just the shop manual. Anyone know of where I can find a good shop manual for the oliver 77? I"m not looking for I&T either. I"m not too satisfied with their product, unless they make a manual that is specifically for the 77. A lot of the manuals I"ve seen from them cover way too many models for one manual. I appreciate the help. Okay, second question. I"ve been reading a bit about old hay balers and came across a few pictures of early attempts at non-stationary balers. This was the in between step from stationary models to the regular old hay balers we know and love today. Often they were basically stationary balers with an engine mounted up front and a crude tilted platform that pulled the hay from windrow into the baling chamber (often with a rear standing platform set up for a hand to help push the hay into the chamber). Anyway, I was curious if any of you know have seen any balers like this or know of any pictures of such balers that folks still have. I"m just looking to see a few pictures. I am really interested in these machines and just think they"re pretty neat. One more question and I"ll sign off. Is there any kind of interest in home-built farm toys? I"ve been tinkering around with it for about 7 years now and have just finished building a farmall regular with full 4-row cultivators that raise and lower via a couple of hand levers (I can post a pic if you like). The thing is, they"re not metal. I don"t have the tools for that so I use wood, cardboard, and dow rods. I"d love to hear thoughts. Thanks and God bless.

--old fashioned farmer

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