Badass Lawnmower Blades

[jakeru]

Hey folks -

Anyone around here into yard maintenance?

I tuned up my neighbor's mower (just a 21" push behind craftsman) and was amazed how effortlessly it went through thick, tall grass (mulching, not bagging.) He put an aftermarket blade on it, I think made the difference in the performance. So I spend a little time tracking down the most badass blade I could find for my mower. Here is what I ended up with:
Attachment 2006
It's 1/4" thickness. It's made for a different mower, but AFAIK by studying the specifications, it should be compatible with mine, all I need to do is drill a couple holes off to the sides of the main hole (in just the right positions... and hope the heat treatment isn't "too good") to mount it to my machine's spindle. (I just fell into a similar, 21" push behind craftsman, but its blade is a worn OEM blade, so really bogged down through thick grass, poor mulching performance I'd say.)

My old mower (and MTD) had a "3 in 1" blade with some cutting surfaces higher up than others, which sounds good in theory, but I find it actually performs very poorly in a mulching application (it would bog down and not distribute clippings evenly, unless I pulled it backwards which actually seems to help a good deal, but kind of awkward to use it like that.) Also it is designed to not be sharpenable. Which is to say if you sharpen the blade, it raises the position of the cutting edge because the metal stock is angled downwards. So that stinks.

What do you guys think?

PS - sometimes I like to bag it as well. Never had any problems bagging it on my MTD (got good suction / lift.)

[Scooter]

I have been using the gator blades for 7 years now, they are a very good blade and stay sharp for a very long time. I also had a problem finding blades to fit my Kubota, I had to make a 1-1/8" OD X 7/8" ID bushing for each of the three blades. Here is a link to Oregon they make the Gator blades.
http://www.oregonchain.com/pro/products/oep/G6.htm

[geezer]

Never saw a blade like that,of course I don't mulch much anymore, use a pickup bag, great for picking up dog poo etc. I am seriously thinking of digging up most of the grassed areas and replacing it with a layer of filter cloth covered in nice coloured stones, (low maintenance). Man was not born to be a slave to grass cutting.

I could let you try it on my patch of dandylions, got some so big you need three wraps of chain and a pickup truck to pull them out.

[Tritium]

That looks like a de-thatching blade.

Thurmond

[jakeru]

Scooter, you've got it right, this is an Oregon Gator Mulcher "Magnum", I found it for a deal on Ebay. It's similar to the G6, but has no tungsten carbide particles in the metallurgy (they call "fusion"), and the blade was only 2.5" wide rather than the 3" width of the G6. However I kind of preferred the 2.5" width because it's already massively overkill for my push-behind mower anyway. I'll take a pic side by side of it next to the original blade, and you'll see what I mean.

Thurmond, those "teeth" actually stick up away from the grass, and are to provide upwards airflow / "suction". (Supposedly, they also blow air / clippings back towards the center of the blade, for subsequent repeat cutting / mulching and a more even clipping distribution.)

I tried drilling the extra holes, and holy smokes this metal is HARD! (Even without the tungsten carbide particles.) Smoked a cheap HF pilot drill bit in no time flat. (I am kind of new at drill press drilling though, maybe I should have been more aggressive with the feed pressure, I did set the speed according to the chart on front of my drill though, and it was REALLY whipping around fast.)

I think I will have to dig out my tungsten carbide drill bit to at least get a pilot hole started, (I have this it only one size and it's about 3/16") then maybe, in a pinch I can enlarge the hole to final 3/8" diameter using a 1/8" carbide burr I have with my air-powered "micro" pencil grinder. If I make the holes slightly oversize, it shouldn't really be a problem because the big center hole is the right diameter, and should already key the blade on my mower shaft.

It looks like the blade cutting surface will be a little bit lower than the original blade cutting height (which could be a problem); I'll see how it goes after I get the holes drilled and mounted. The way the original blade is mounted, it's recessed around the back and sides of the deck, but pretty close to flush in the front of the deck. If the blade sticks down too far, one possibility to fix it is to space the motor up a bit. But, I'll see how it goes after I get the blade mounted first.

[Tritium]

Thurmond, those "teeth" actually stick up away from the grass, and are to provide upwards airflow / "suction". (Supposedly, they also blow air / clippings back towards the center of the blade, for subsequent repeat cutting / mulching and a more even clipping distribution.)

I should have looked at the full sized picture. I see it is a mulching blade now. No lawnmower blade I have ever had would drill easily. Use lots of cutting fluid and very good bits and you may get it done.

Thurmond

[jakeru]

I got it done! I didn't end up needing any fancy bits either (just quality-made, old school high speed steel. The crappy harbor freight "high speed steel" bit was clearly lacking metallurgy, or good heat treatment, (or both) because it dulled before any WD-40 even started smoking (so didn't appear to even get that hot before it dulled.)

I used a 3/16" split point (which I had sharped on my drill doctor! And made nice long curled shavings) followed by 3/8" (which wasn't as sharp, but was sharp enough), both at 400 RPM (the lowest setting my drill press allowed.)
Attachment 2007
I learned by the sound what a good feed rate was. (Nice "shhh" sound was best, shrieking / squealing like a pig = not as good.)

The holes needed just a touch of tuning with a rat-tail hand file, and then when it went together, I found it doesn't seem to sit too low in my mower either. Although it is slightly lower than the original blade, it's still comfortably recessed from the deck at the rear and sides.
Attachment 2009

Here are some comparative shots of the new vs original blade:
Attachment 2010

Can't wait until the next chance to mow my lawn and try this out! (Shouldn't be too long, this time of year.)

[m j mauer]

In my opinion

agrisupply.com any type of blade you want.

good pricing and delivery.

Regards M J Mauer Andover, Ohio

[jakeru]

I have tried the new lawnmower blade on some fairly tall grass recently. It works great! Clippings don't "clump" like with the old mower.

I think I will space it up a bit however, as it's pretty close to the bottom of the deck. I'm considering doing it by making a spacer to put between the deck and the engine. At the same time I may plug some air holes between engine and deck, which are an annoying path for grass pieces to come up, and get sucked into the engine's air intake (I see the air filter getting clogged much more quickly as a result.)

[DaveO]

Anyone around here into yard maintenance?

Yes, but not by choice!

That blade looks like it was invented by a Klingon. A nasty looking piece of work. The Ebay seller says "send us your model number and we'll send you the blade for your machine", so I may give that a try.

[performance]

Those things have been around GA and FL for years. They help in cutting Bahaia grass. The sand eats out the back of the blades though. They work great while they last.

One of the original Agri Supply stores is close to me. Walk in and pick up any blade you want...any style.

[aaxiss]

we had the gardener over for 2 days straight cutting the grass down almost to the dirt. took 3 truckloads to get it all removed, the mower they were using primarily was a modified beast of a mower with a similar blade. had a 13 hp vertical shaft engine on it and a blade that looked very similar. I dont know what type of grass my parents have but the stuff was about 4 in thick and about 3" of that was just brown root looking stuff. Funny thing is after cutting and removing all that the grass was nice and green and even looking a week later ~shrug

[worntorn]

I think one of these would be pretty nice, don't know what it uses for blades. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SzNDBYYSBUA

The discharge is in the rear so there is no piping hanging out on the side. This allows you to mow right up to things from either side, also makes the mower narrower overall for fitting into tight places, going thru gates etc.

It has a big very powerful impeller built into the top of the deck. The impeller packs the grass into the bags such that an 8.5 bushel bag holds about 200lbs of grass clippings when full. This is about twice what an regular bagger mower would load into this size bag.

Then it dumps from the seat, pretty handy.

The impeller suction is great enough to lift the uncut grass that gets flattened by the front wheels. With conventional mowers the strips under the front wheels don't get cut as cleanly as the main area. With this 300R the wheel lines are invisible after cutting.

This would also be a great rig for picking up leaves in the fall, something that I usually don't get around to since it is all hand work at the moment. The result of not picking them up is the deposit of about 1/2" of black gunk laid on top of the shop driveway.

Maybe when my 23year old MTD wreck finally dies I might get serious about one of these.