No till and grain drill

[Radar]

I found a good deal on a John Deere B grain drill with fertilizer box attachment. I like the idea of the fertilizer box and have thought that a grain drill would be more efficient than a broadcaster. I have been told that the seed gates will open up enough to drop pea seeds as well.
I have a couple of questions for y'all.
1. What maintenance or repair conditions do I look for on a grain drill?
2. Can I use a seed mix such cow peas,lab lab,sunflower and sorghum in the drill? Will the heavier seed dump first and produce patches of one type of seed?
3. Can I use this type of grain drill for no-till?
Thanks

[gingib]

Used a no till drill this year for the first time and best plots we have ever had

[More Liberty]

I found a good deal on a John Deere B grain drill with fertilizer box attachment. I like the idea of the fertilizer box and have thought that a grain drill would be more efficient than a broadcaster. I have been told that the seed gates will open up enough to drop pea seeds as well.
I have a couple of questions for y'all.
1. What maintenance or repair conditions do I look for on a grain drill?
2. Can I use a seed mix such cow peas,lab lab,sunflower and sorghum in the drill? Will the heavier seed dump first and produce patches of one type of seed?
3. Can I use this type of grain drill for no-till?
Thanks

What's a good deal price wise?

[Radar]

1000.00 and its in really nice shape. Been stored inside

[Old Bald Guy]

1. Keep it under roof and clean it thoroughly after use. I open everything up and blow mine out with air cause leaving seed in it leads to problems. Keep the chains oiled and bearings greased. You may have to replace a rubber drop tube every so often but they are cheap.
2. IDK
3. If you catch the ground just right you can drill without disking first.

[texashunter56]

Main things to check are the seed cups, the seed gates on the cups to make sure none are corroded, the chains, and the bearings in each disc to see if the discs spin freely. Check the scrapers on the discs. Is it a single or double drop. I bought an older worn out mechanical lift one that I use for parts on my good one with hydraulics. Parts are still available for seed cups, gates and bearings. I bought the used one for the drops, discs, springs, sprockets and chains. You can adjust down to plant smaller seeds to larger seeds. You can find an owners manual on Ebay also. I mix seeds quite often just have to realize milo will sift down when planting and it will not stayed as mixed like the larger seeds.

[Poncho]

I have a 7B. Excellent little drills. Yes you can use the bigger seeds but you have to open the seed gates all the way. This will screw up your seeding rate and it will crush some seed passing through. I have always over seeded by 10-15% to make sure I still get good coverage. If you can catch the soil just perfect you can no till with it but not deep enough for the bigger seeds. You'll likely end up chipping and breaking your disks trying unless you have very loose loam or sandy soil. They are good drills but you can't be rough with them

[Radar]

Single drop. I asked some of my customers today about this particular model and some said the fertilizer box is a joke, as the fertilizer will pack in the hopper and not fall thru. Some say that a seed mix would need to be matched up with seeds of the same size because sorghum seed and cow pea seed will not drop at the same rate.
The guys at John Deere did say that was a good deal though.