Great video, Jon! That's really useful and helpful. Everything explained straight and simple. The best part is when you exposed the pick up unit and shown the priciple of finger work. I bet not every farmer who worked with these finger-type meters knew the exact way it runs (i didn't =D ). Best regards from Kazakhstan!)
Thanks a lot for this video. Last year I bought a two row John Deere planter with new precision meters and planted corn and sunflowers and pumpkins. Had issues with the pumpkins as I planted several varieties with seeds from small to very big. I have separate meters for corn sunflowers and pumpkins. I knew absolutely nothing about the meters this video was exactly what I needed
I watched a video a few years ago with the inventor, Eugene Keeton. He said he pitched it to international first but they were certain there cyclo was the way to go so he went to John Deere. He said he got the idea seeing corn kernels stuck in the corner of his combine grain tank.
You all probably dont give a shit but does any of you know a tool to get back into an instagram account..? I was stupid lost the password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me!
@Ezekiel Darian I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm in the hacking process now. I see it takes a while so I will reply here later with my results.
So, just kind of a dumb question. As someone who works at a precision dealership. How do you set the correct tension with the main nut if you don’t have a test stand. I’ve ran hundreds of finger meters and I know for a fact with out a test stand I could not get them set correctly. Often times I’ll even mark the nut and count revolutions when I tear them apart (for a good starting point once they’re back together.) an it could still be anywhere from 1/32 of a turn to 1/4 of a turn off. Which if you know anything about finger meters 1/4 of a turn is pretty substantial.
we never had meter test stands at the dealers. we tighten them by hand and feel sometimes use an inch pound torque wrench. yeah a 1/4 turn is huge. the last group I did I took and ran them on a stand. 6 out of 8 were "perfect" the other two were just a little off, technically a finger unit would be calibrated for each seed, go from small flat to large round. so just find that good spot to do a good job with all seeds.
I know nothing about finger type planters, I am used to plates. So I am looking to buy a 2 row JD unit with 7100 planters. What do you do if you wish to plant other things like sunflowers, green beans, or other type seeds.
For seeds other than corn/sunflowers/pumpkins, you can get Kinze Brush Meters... they fit onto the hopper bottom EXACTLY like the finger pickups do, with the same attachment bolt/nut and half-ring. They have a number of different seed disks that attach to the driveshaft plate that allows them to plant various sizes of seeds, and different numbers of pockets for high and low rates (the actual rate being set by the planter transmission, but for crops planted at very high seeding rates like soybeans or grain sorghum there are disks with up to 80 cells, and for low rate seeding like hill drop cotton, maybe only 8 cells IIRC (each catching several seeds at once though). This allows you to keep the meter and seed disk rotation speed in the 'sweet spot' for the rate your planting (the faster the seed disk turns, the less chance it has to properly fill each cell and the more likely it is to kick a seed out of the cell as it turns, same with a finger meter... they DO have a "sweet spot" or "do not exceed" speed to the meter itself in terms of RPM's-- that is why they recommend in the planter books on finger meters not to exceed 5-5.5 mph... the higher the rate your planting in terms of seeds/acre, the faster the meter has to turn to plant that rate, and the slower you should drive to keep the meter turning slow enough to properly get a seed under each finger and to properly eliminate doubles without the one seed that's SUPPOSED to be under the finger getting knocked out and getting a "skip". That's why some guys planted as slow as about 4-4.5 mph, particularly at higher populations... The brush meters work on a similar but simpler principle... there's seed pockets around the edge of the disk, with grooves leading down at an angle to each pocket. Seeds in the meter move down into the pockets where a tapered long brush tends to funnel them down to the pocket at the edge by forcing them along the groove (if gravity isn't sufficient) and the long brush then acts as a "cutoff" by pushing excess seeds out of the groove and keeping them in the meter seed pool at the bottom as the grooves turn past the brush. Once the pocket is filled with a seed, as it turns past the angled brush, another brush along the periphery of the meter (outer edge) traps the seed in the pocket as it turns vertically up over the top until it reaches a position directly over the seed tube, where the brush ends... once the disk pocket turns past the end of the curved brush, gravity causes the seed to fall out of the pocket and down the seed tube, one by one as each pocket turns past the end of the brush. They basically work on the same principle as a vacuum planter or air planter, only using a mechanical brush to hold the seed into the disk pockets instead of air presure or vacuum... when the air pressure or vacuum is cut off (usually by a wiper seal or rubber wheel covering the hole on the back of the disk, removing the source of vacuum sucking the seed into the pocket, or blocking the escape of air blowing out the hole holding the seed in the pocket, the seed drops out of the pocket by gravity. The periphery brush does the exact same thing mechanically without any need of air or vacuum to the meter. They will plant almost as good as a vacuum or air planter as well, with no worries about setting the air or vacuum levels or maintaining them correctly, or or vacuum hose or seal leaks, meter cover leaks, seed disk wear, singulator settings, etc. that can all screw up vacuum meter performance or cause a row to stop planting entirely. So long as the brushes are periodically changed to account for wear, (and I never had to replace mine, I did a planting test every year in the field when I started by tying the press wheels up like he said and counting seeds) and they just neve wore out. Seed disks similarly will last a VERY VERY long time. Guys have even installed Kinze brush meters onto drills and planted wheat with them, so you can get a wide variety of seed disks with different numbers and sizes of seed pockets on them (cells). If you want to plant corn, pumpkins, or sunflowers, you can change the finger meters back onto the bottom of the hoppers in a couple minutes per row... easy peasy! We used the brush meters planting cotton at 52,000 seeds/acre, grain sorghum at 80,000 seeds/acre, and soybeans at 110,000-120,000 seeds/acre and it planted all of them just like a sewing machine! Good as any vacuum planter I've ever seen...
Must be snowing out. I think your still running a White? I’m running a 6100, just didn’t feel this was year to upgrade. Like your videos. I’m starting to think you taking time off work extended winter...I’m sure your ready to roll when weather is fit.
Chad Fisher we got lucky with the snow missing us. only got several inches. south and east of us they got 20 inches. not quite ready but 100 times more ready then if i was still at work. last year i liked my 9000 series white. this spring getting it ready I loved it. inspect seed plate and brush and we are done!!!
You use a brush meter for soybeans (Kinze original or Deere's copy) or the old style "cup meters" in place of the finger meters for soybeans. A finger meter might plant soybeans, but it'd be at pretty low populations with only so many fingers and being perfectly round seeds, probably highly inaccurate as they're made for corn/sunflower/pumpkin shaped seeds (ovoid/pointed not spherical seed). The old cup meters were basically a copy of a double-run drill meter, not very accurate at all. I put Kinze brush meters on my Deere 7100 planter and it'd plant cotton at 52,000 seed/acre, grain sorghum at 80,000 seed/acre, and soybeans at 120,000 seed/acre just like a sewing machine, good as a vacuum planter! The fit on the bottom of the hopper in place of the finger meters, attach the exact same way, only takes a minute or two per hopper to swap them out.
My old planter had a corn seed meter assembly, and then you change that out for a soybean seed meter assembly. This white planter you use the same meter housing and everything there's just a different seed plate. So if you want to plant corn, soybeans, wheat, sugar beets. No matter what scene you want to plant it's the same meter housing you just have a different plate
@aarongoeppner413 maybe some of the confusion is that this video is older and since then I picked up a white planter, On my John deere I had the factory bean cups than later put E set precision meters on. Made a much better bean planter
On the new test stands you can get it to read perfect with medium rounds. But as soon as you change shape or size the opportunity of some skips and doubles can increase. They were good simple meters that did all seed sizes well!
@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Originally the big draw for the finger pickup was to replace plates... back in the old flat bottom horizontal edge-drop plate planter days, you had to size the plate to the seed, and buy specially graded and separated seed. You had to choose what size and shape seed you wanted, either small, medium, or large, and in either flats or rounds. Of course rounds, coming from the ends of the corn ears, are the shortest in supply, but were the most accurate to meter by edge drop horizontal plates, so long as they were graded well by size and had the proper size and type of plate. Back in the OLD days, plates were mostly cast iron or steel, with specific shapes and sizes of pockets, for rounds or flats, but as demands for accuracy in planting corn increased, seed companies started making plastic seed plates with literally dozens of sizes and shapes of seed pockets for specific seeds, and grading much more closely for size/shape. Of course no process is perfect, and you always had to have some leeway in the size/shape of the seed pocket... a slightly larger seed for the pocket might wedge in the cell of the plate, or split or crack going through the spring-loaded gate and kill the germination, or the seed "knocker wheel" that bumped them out of the pockets and down the tube to the (usually back then) sword opener (some used disks like the 71 Flexi planters, 400 series Deere, etc) would sometimes bust a seed... and small seeds would sometimes manage to drop two seeds into even a carefully fitted plate seed cell... Flat seeds were of course, since they make up most of the kernels on an ear of corn, even seed corn, (popcorn is all rounds) so that was the most plentiful type of seed, BUT it was harder to meter accurately through a seed plate... two small kernels at the bottom end of the size grade could and would sometimes drop into the same cell, maybe points-up or points down (or one up and one down) instead of dropping a single seed in lengthwise on its side in the seed cell pocket on the edge of the plate... so you got doubles or, again, if a big seed only partially dropped into the pocket cell and rotated past the spring-loaded gate toward the drop tube and "seed knocker" wheel, it could get scuffed or cracked or busted and kill the germination before it left the plate, resulting in a "skip" in the stand. SO plates had a LOT of drawbacks when it came to seeding accuracy, no matter how careful you were and how many dozens of different types, sizes, and kinds of plates you had and how carefully the seed company graded and sorted their seed corn... The HUGE advantage of the finger pickup was that it could plant "PLATELESS" seed corn-- seed that hadn't been particularly sorted for size or shape... the fingers could handle round seeds OR flats, and of various sizes, not limited to a very narrow size and shape to fit the cells (sort of) on a specific size/type of seed plate... this made it possible to buy cheaper "ungraded" "plateless" seed rather than more expensive graded seed which sold for a premium, if it was available at all, in specific sizes and shapes of seed that had gone through the extra expense of careful sizing and grading by the seed company... Only finger meters and early vacuum or air planters using vertical seed disks with holes or pockets with holes that the various sizes and shapes of seeds could be sucked or blown into and held there to be singulated and dropped at the appropriate time, either by the finger passing the "window" in the back of the meter, or the air or vacuum hole being covered to shut off airflow and allow the seed to drop from the pocket, could manage to effectively meter this "plateless" seed corn and do it better and more accurately than plates could plant carefully graded seed which was more expensive. Probably the pinnacle of plate technology was invented by Cole planters in the early-mid 70's-- the twin inclined plate planters... they used a pair of side-by-side seed plates, inclined at about a 45 degree angle at the front of the metal seed hopper, the plates were slightly "cup" shaped and the cells around the edges were nearly flat to the bottom of the hopper near the bottom, running in their cup-shaped cast-iron backing plate, where they filled each seed cell in the plate as it turned past the seed pool at the bottom. As the plate turned toward the top, only ONE seed could fit into the cell, and if there was a second one, it dropped out by gravity back to the seed pool. The cells were slightly tapered to the back to make sure that one seed would roll towards the back of each cell and the cell would keep one seed to be planted in each cell. Having TWO plates turning side by side in opposite directions, HALVED the speed that the planter plates turned, which ensured they had MORE time to fill each cell at the bottom, and turned slowly enough to give plenty of time for excess seeds to drop out by gravity force alone on the way to just past the top center of the plate where the seed fell through a hole in the backing plate and down the seed tube... Plus turning the plate more slowly ensured that the seed didn't get thrown out or bounce out of a faster-turning plate, so no or very few skips. The only problem was, having the TWO plates with two cutoff points meant that a "funnel" was needed to bring both seeds down together to a single seed tube guiding them down to the ground. This of course caused some bouncing/rolling of the seed as it dropped from the plate to the metal funnel and then transitioned to the plastic, actually hard rubber, seed tube. The seed hopper and metering plates were mounted separately from the opener unit below it, with the seed tube running vertically straight down from the hopper to a sword opener, with a "blackland type" planter gauge wheel in front, "buzzard" wing sweep behind it, sword opener behind that creating the furrow and placing the seed, and twin covering shovels following behind and to either side in back. This was the same basic type of opener setup used before the disk planter was invented, popular in the South but tons of drawbacks in drier climates and not very accurate at all; as the ground opener unit moved up and down on parallel arms, the seed tube got longer/shorter thus affecting spacing adversely, as well as the seed bounce in the funnel and tube. The other BIG advantage of the twin-plate system was, with the addition of a second sword opener, seed tube, and swapping the single funnel for dual funnels and an extra covering shovel and respacing them properly, the planter could plant double rows quite easily and effectively-- as both plates turned together on a common drive, the plates would drop seeds from right then left then right again back and forth to create a "zigzag" planting pattern and properly space and alternate seeds in twin rows... a first for the time! Unfortunately by the time Cole came out with this ingenious new plate system, which COULD have been improved upon and adapted to other makes, John Deere had already come out with the revolutionary new 7000 series planters with the gauge wheels on either side of the disk openers, covering wheels, and finger pickups for high accuracy corn planting. It became the standard everybody was seeking to copy, and plates fell by the wayside as new air planters like the IH Cyclo and White air planters came out roughly around the same time.
Great video, Jon! That's really useful and helpful. Everything explained straight and simple. The best part is when you exposed the pick up unit and shown the priciple of finger work. I bet not every farmer who worked with these finger-type meters knew the exact way it runs (i didn't =D ). Best regards from Kazakhstan!)
Oh wow you really had to travel to get here. Thank you for the kind words. How are things in your part of the world
Thanks a lot for this video. Last year I bought a two row John Deere planter with new precision meters and planted corn and sunflowers and pumpkins. Had issues with the pumpkins as I planted several varieties with seeds from small to very big. I have separate meters for corn sunflowers and pumpkins. I knew absolutely nothing about the meters this video was exactly what I needed
I've farmed for 10 years and I learned from you today, Thank you!
Lol. Thanks. Good luck this spring!
This was very helpful Jon. Thank you kindly!👍👍👍
Gladly! Thanks.
I watched a video a few years ago with the inventor, Eugene Keeton. He said he pitched it to international first but they were certain there cyclo was the way to go so he went to John Deere. He said he got the idea seeing corn kernels stuck in the corner of his combine grain tank.
ua-cam.com/video/5DdmzkjaGng/v-deo.html
You all probably dont give a shit but does any of you know a tool to get back into an instagram account..?
I was stupid lost the password. I would appreciate any tricks you can offer me!
@Gianni Edgar instablaster :)
@Ezekiel Darian I really appreciate your reply. I got to the site on google and I'm in the hacking process now.
I see it takes a while so I will reply here later with my results.
@Ezekiel Darian It did the trick and I finally got access to my account again. I'm so happy!
Thanks so much, you saved my account !
Great Video!! Well done and informative
Thanks
So, just kind of a dumb question. As someone who works at a precision dealership. How do you set the correct tension with the main nut if you don’t have a test stand. I’ve ran hundreds of finger meters and I know for a fact with out a test stand I could not get them set correctly. Often times I’ll even mark the nut and count revolutions when I tear them apart (for a good starting point once they’re back together.) an it could still be anywhere from 1/32 of a turn to 1/4 of a turn off. Which if you know anything about finger meters 1/4 of a turn is pretty substantial.
we never had meter test stands at the dealers. we tighten them by hand and feel sometimes use an inch pound torque wrench. yeah a 1/4 turn is huge. the last group I did I took and ran them on a stand. 6 out of 8 were "perfect" the other two were just a little off, technically a finger unit would be calibrated for each seed, go from small flat to large round. so just find that good spot to do a good job with all seeds.
I know nothing about finger type planters, I am used to plates. So I am looking to buy a 2 row JD unit with 7100 planters. What do you do if you wish to plant other things like sunflowers, green beans, or other type seeds.
Any seed large like corn, beans,peas,, sunflowers...is ok, tiny seeds is tough.
For seeds other than corn/sunflowers/pumpkins, you can get Kinze Brush Meters... they fit onto the hopper bottom EXACTLY like the finger pickups do, with the same attachment bolt/nut and half-ring. They have a number of different seed disks that attach to the driveshaft plate that allows them to plant various sizes of seeds, and different numbers of pockets for high and low rates (the actual rate being set by the planter transmission, but for crops planted at very high seeding rates like soybeans or grain sorghum there are disks with up to 80 cells, and for low rate seeding like hill drop cotton, maybe only 8 cells IIRC (each catching several seeds at once though). This allows you to keep the meter and seed disk rotation speed in the 'sweet spot' for the rate your planting (the faster the seed disk turns, the less chance it has to properly fill each cell and the more likely it is to kick a seed out of the cell as it turns, same with a finger meter... they DO have a "sweet spot" or "do not exceed" speed to the meter itself in terms of RPM's-- that is why they recommend in the planter books on finger meters not to exceed 5-5.5 mph... the higher the rate your planting in terms of seeds/acre, the faster the meter has to turn to plant that rate, and the slower you should drive to keep the meter turning slow enough to properly get a seed under each finger and to properly eliminate doubles without the one seed that's SUPPOSED to be under the finger getting knocked out and getting a "skip". That's why some guys planted as slow as about 4-4.5 mph, particularly at higher populations...
The brush meters work on a similar but simpler principle... there's seed pockets around the edge of the disk, with grooves leading down at an angle to each pocket. Seeds in the meter move down into the pockets where a tapered long brush tends to funnel them down to the pocket at the edge by forcing them along the groove (if gravity isn't sufficient) and the long brush then acts as a "cutoff" by pushing excess seeds out of the groove and keeping them in the meter seed pool at the bottom as the grooves turn past the brush. Once the pocket is filled with a seed, as it turns past the angled brush, another brush along the periphery of the meter (outer edge) traps the seed in the pocket as it turns vertically up over the top until it reaches a position directly over the seed tube, where the brush ends... once the disk pocket turns past the end of the curved brush, gravity causes the seed to fall out of the pocket and down the seed tube, one by one as each pocket turns past the end of the brush. They basically work on the same principle as a vacuum planter or air planter, only using a mechanical brush to hold the seed into the disk pockets instead of air presure or vacuum... when the air pressure or vacuum is cut off (usually by a wiper seal or rubber wheel covering the hole on the back of the disk, removing the source of vacuum sucking the seed into the pocket, or blocking the escape of air blowing out the hole holding the seed in the pocket, the seed drops out of the pocket by gravity. The periphery brush does the exact same thing mechanically without any need of air or vacuum to the meter. They will plant almost as good as a vacuum or air planter as well, with no worries about setting the air or vacuum levels or maintaining them correctly, or or vacuum hose or seal leaks, meter cover leaks, seed disk wear, singulator settings, etc. that can all screw up vacuum meter performance or cause a row to stop planting entirely. So long as the brushes are periodically changed to account for wear, (and I never had to replace mine, I did a planting test every year in the field when I started by tying the press wheels up like he said and counting seeds) and they just neve wore out. Seed disks similarly will last a VERY VERY long time. Guys have even installed Kinze brush meters onto drills and planted wheat with them, so you can get a wide variety of seed disks with different numbers and sizes of seed pockets on them (cells).
If you want to plant corn, pumpkins, or sunflowers, you can change the finger meters back onto the bottom of the hoppers in a couple minutes per row... easy peasy! We used the brush meters planting cotton at 52,000 seeds/acre, grain sorghum at 80,000 seeds/acre, and soybeans at 110,000-120,000 seeds/acre and it planted all of them just like a sewing machine! Good as any vacuum planter I've ever seen...
Great video. I have a 1240 John Deere planter. Where can I find new finger pick up units for it?
Good question. Can you get them from deere or shoup?
@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 I was hoping you would be able to tell us lol
Must be snowing out. I think your still running a White? I’m running a 6100, just didn’t feel this was year to upgrade. Like your videos. I’m starting to think you taking time off work extended winter...I’m sure your ready to roll when weather is fit.
Chad Fisher we got lucky with the snow missing us. only got several inches. south and east of us they got 20 inches.
not quite ready but 100 times more ready then if i was still at work.
last year i liked my 9000 series white. this spring getting it ready I loved it. inspect seed plate and brush and we are done!!!
👌👍
Im from South Africa 🇿🇦 can where can i order the precision finger meters? On a jhon deer N7200 planter
Shoupparts.com?
Any chance you'd have a picture of the soybean population and sprocket setup from the manual? Thanks
I do not
You use a brush meter for soybeans (Kinze original or Deere's copy) or the old style "cup meters" in place of the finger meters for soybeans. A finger meter might plant soybeans, but it'd be at pretty low populations with only so many fingers and being perfectly round seeds, probably highly inaccurate as they're made for corn/sunflower/pumpkin shaped seeds (ovoid/pointed not spherical seed). The old cup meters were basically a copy of a double-run drill meter, not very accurate at all. I put Kinze brush meters on my Deere 7100 planter and it'd plant cotton at 52,000 seed/acre, grain sorghum at 80,000 seed/acre, and soybeans at 120,000 seed/acre just like a sewing machine, good as a vacuum planter! The fit on the bottom of the hopper in place of the finger meters, attach the exact same way, only takes a minute or two per hopper to swap them out.
@lukestrawwalker good to hear!
I used the dribble cups for a while, then went to v set.
where would a person be able to order these units?
Shoupparts.com
Do you have bean meters for your planter??
No, the white uses a different seed plate for each type of seed,
@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754what do you mean by that??
My old planter had a corn seed meter assembly, and then you change that out for a soybean seed meter assembly. This white planter you use the same meter housing and everything there's just a different seed plate. So if you want to plant corn, soybeans, wheat, sugar beets. No matter what scene you want to plant it's the same meter housing you just have a different plate
@aarongoeppner413 maybe some of the confusion is that this video is older and since then I picked up a white planter,
On my John deere I had the factory bean cups than later put E set precision meters on. Made a much better bean planter
@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 thanks!!!
Very interesting
How many acres can you do before it needs to be recalibrated?
When I was at deere we did them each spring for guys. Some guys got 50 aces and some got 200 per row.
On the new test stands you can get it to read perfect with medium rounds. But as soon as you change shape or size the opportunity of some skips and doubles can increase. They were good simple meters that did all seed sizes well!
@@jonstevensmaplegrovefarms3754 Originally the big draw for the finger pickup was to replace plates... back in the old flat bottom horizontal edge-drop plate planter days, you had to size the plate to the seed, and buy specially graded and separated seed. You had to choose what size and shape seed you wanted, either small, medium, or large, and in either flats or rounds. Of course rounds, coming from the ends of the corn ears, are the shortest in supply, but were the most accurate to meter by edge drop horizontal plates, so long as they were graded well by size and had the proper size and type of plate. Back in the OLD days, plates were mostly cast iron or steel, with specific shapes and sizes of pockets, for rounds or flats, but as demands for accuracy in planting corn increased, seed companies started making plastic seed plates with literally dozens of sizes and shapes of seed pockets for specific seeds, and grading much more closely for size/shape. Of course no process is perfect, and you always had to have some leeway in the size/shape of the seed pocket... a slightly larger seed for the pocket might wedge in the cell of the plate, or split or crack going through the spring-loaded gate and kill the germination, or the seed "knocker wheel" that bumped them out of the pockets and down the tube to the (usually back then) sword opener (some used disks like the 71 Flexi planters, 400 series Deere, etc) would sometimes bust a seed... and small seeds would sometimes manage to drop two seeds into even a carefully fitted plate seed cell... Flat seeds were of course, since they make up most of the kernels on an ear of corn, even seed corn, (popcorn is all rounds) so that was the most plentiful type of seed, BUT it was harder to meter accurately through a seed plate... two small kernels at the bottom end of the size grade could and would sometimes drop into the same cell, maybe points-up or points down (or one up and one down) instead of dropping a single seed in lengthwise on its side in the seed cell pocket on the edge of the plate... so you got doubles or, again, if a big seed only partially dropped into the pocket cell and rotated past the spring-loaded gate toward the drop tube and "seed knocker" wheel, it could get scuffed or cracked or busted and kill the germination before it left the plate, resulting in a "skip" in the stand. SO plates had a LOT of drawbacks when it came to seeding accuracy, no matter how careful you were and how many dozens of different types, sizes, and kinds of plates you had and how carefully the seed company graded and sorted their seed corn... The HUGE advantage of the finger pickup was that it could plant "PLATELESS" seed corn-- seed that hadn't been particularly sorted for size or shape... the fingers could handle round seeds OR flats, and of various sizes, not limited to a very narrow size and shape to fit the cells (sort of) on a specific size/type of seed plate... this made it possible to buy cheaper "ungraded" "plateless" seed rather than more expensive graded seed which sold for a premium, if it was available at all, in specific sizes and shapes of seed that had gone through the extra expense of careful sizing and grading by the seed company... Only finger meters and early vacuum or air planters using vertical seed disks with holes or pockets with holes that the various sizes and shapes of seeds could be sucked or blown into and held there to be singulated and dropped at the appropriate time, either by the finger passing the "window" in the back of the meter, or the air or vacuum hole being covered to shut off airflow and allow the seed to drop from the pocket, could manage to effectively meter this "plateless" seed corn and do it better and more accurately than plates could plant carefully graded seed which was more expensive.
Probably the pinnacle of plate technology was invented by Cole planters in the early-mid 70's-- the twin inclined plate planters... they used a pair of side-by-side seed plates, inclined at about a 45 degree angle at the front of the metal seed hopper, the plates were slightly "cup" shaped and the cells around the edges were nearly flat to the bottom of the hopper near the bottom, running in their cup-shaped cast-iron backing plate, where they filled each seed cell in the plate as it turned past the seed pool at the bottom. As the plate turned toward the top, only ONE seed could fit into the cell, and if there was a second one, it dropped out by gravity back to the seed pool. The cells were slightly tapered to the back to make sure that one seed would roll towards the back of each cell and the cell would keep one seed to be planted in each cell. Having TWO plates turning side by side in opposite directions, HALVED the speed that the planter plates turned, which ensured they had MORE time to fill each cell at the bottom, and turned slowly enough to give plenty of time for excess seeds to drop out by gravity force alone on the way to just past the top center of the plate where the seed fell through a hole in the backing plate and down the seed tube... Plus turning the plate more slowly ensured that the seed didn't get thrown out or bounce out of a faster-turning plate, so no or very few skips. The only problem was, having the TWO plates with two cutoff points meant that a "funnel" was needed to bring both seeds down together to a single seed tube guiding them down to the ground. This of course caused some bouncing/rolling of the seed as it dropped from the plate to the metal funnel and then transitioned to the plastic, actually hard rubber, seed tube. The seed hopper and metering plates were mounted separately from the opener unit below it, with the seed tube running vertically straight down from the hopper to a sword opener, with a "blackland type" planter gauge wheel in front, "buzzard" wing sweep behind it, sword opener behind that creating the furrow and placing the seed, and twin covering shovels following behind and to either side in back. This was the same basic type of opener setup used before the disk planter was invented, popular in the South but tons of drawbacks in drier climates and not very accurate at all; as the ground opener unit moved up and down on parallel arms, the seed tube got longer/shorter thus affecting spacing adversely, as well as the seed bounce in the funnel and tube. The other BIG advantage of the twin-plate system was, with the addition of a second sword opener, seed tube, and swapping the single funnel for dual funnels and an extra covering shovel and respacing them properly, the planter could plant double rows quite easily and effectively-- as both plates turned together on a common drive, the plates would drop seeds from right then left then right again back and forth to create a "zigzag" planting pattern and properly space and alternate seeds in twin rows... a first for the time!
Unfortunately by the time Cole came out with this ingenious new plate system, which COULD have been improved upon and adapted to other makes, John Deere had already come out with the revolutionary new 7000 series planters with the gauge wheels on either side of the disk openers, covering wheels, and finger pickups for high accuracy corn planting. It became the standard everybody was seeking to copy, and plates fell by the wayside as new air planters like the IH Cyclo and White air planters came out roughly around the same time.
just bought a 1240