Riding mower mods

[redneck]

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Yup, that’s exactly what it looks like when sand & dirt start eating at the blade. Raising the deck a 1/2”-3/4” will cure most, if not all of that. The wings are necessary. If you grind the wings off, it will not produce lift or a satisfactory cut.

I know, I tried... 😐

Just buy new blades, raise the deck and you’ll be happy.


p.s.

I cut 6 acres.




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[oil pan 4]

Oh I always have spare blades on hand.
I'll try to weld them up, maybe get a little more use out out of them.

[freebeard]

The spare blades sound like an opportunity for cryonic tempering.

If you can do the tips one at a time, you'd only need to boil off maybe a quart of liquid nitrogen.

[oil pan 4]

Heat treatment doesn't really seem to help with abrasive wear.

[freebeard]

That's why you use cold treatment.

I did my brake drums and rotors based on reading about how it is popular with police department maintenance shops and racers. It can extend the parts service life 3 or 4x.

[oil pan 4]

I built up some blades with L56 wire, the L56 wires appears to be more resistant to wear than the 1040 alloy the blades are made from.
So my idea build up worn blades with L56, homogenize, forge and heat treat them.
Also I can smell the exhaust so I put a tractor style straight pipe that's about 5 feet long on the riding mower.
These 19.5Hp engines run a bit hot and the head gaskets are known to pop, warping the head. Not scavenging the exhaust can cause an engine to run hot, pop head gaskets and what not.

[freebeard]

So my idea build up worn blades with L56, homogenize, forge and heat treat them.

Damascus steel lawn mower blades?

[oil pan 4]

Damascus steel is overkill.
Plus I would have to get the length right, put holes in the right spots, plus Damascus would probably be too hard and would want to crack.

[Piotrsko]

How about adding The wrinkly welded on stuff found on earth moving equipment buckets and scoops added for anti-wear?

Hard edge or tack? I know you have the welding equipment.

[oil pan 4]

Originally Posted by Piotrsko

How about adding The wrinkly welded on stuff found on earth moving equipment buckets and scoops added for anti-wear?

Hard edge or tack? I know you have the welding equipment.

It's called hard facing and there's 2 types. Homogeneous and non-homogeneous.
Homogeneous uses high alloy with chromium, tungsten and manganese makes an incredibly hard weld for impact applications.
Non-homogeneous uses chonky chromium carbide crystals for maximum abrasion resistance but has terrible impact resistance.
I already tried that. It works superbly on brush shredder blades since they are like 5/8 of an inch thick and don't flex. And not so well on lawn mower blades. The homogeneous weld cracks under normal use on mower blades, the Crack propagates and breaks the blade.
But I have used laser-edge blades where the blades use chromium carbide brazed on the the blade before the blade is heat treated, those are awesome, but not available for my 48 inch mower.

See post 20
https://ecorenovator.org/forum/showt...+faster&page=2
I may try to recreate my own laser-edge blades.