Deck Design ??

[Chuter]

One of the techs at the John Deere Dealer I used to work for swore by using graphite spray to make the underside of the deck slicker, prevent/reduce build up. He encouraged its use as an annual thing, after cleaning the underside of the deck. Other techs pooh pooed it. Might be something to try.

 

[MyGrassHasCrabs]

I hesitate to chime in as I'm not a professional, but as a simple solution to caked-on grass on my mulching deck I've used graphite spray to good effect (as @Chuter said). It does help keep material from sticking and lasts for several cuts.

 

[cleverlever]

Gentlemen, I looking for a solution to prevent grass gathering on the back of the baffle between the blades. The first photo show an up skirt shot of the deck. View attachment 63788

Next is a paint sketch trying to show the problem I am addressing.
View attachment 63790

This is not perfect but I believe you can get my point, look at what would be the leading the leading edges of the small red circles, this is the back side of the front baffle between the blades. This area continually packs with grass clippings. I'm considering cutting out a block/spacer an attaching it to the deck to fill this space. It would have to be small enough to clear the blades but block the formation of a build up in this space. Has anyone else tried to correct this issue? thanks, Ray

Personally I don't like the design. I would propose that you try to operate the mower in a manner where the discharge is always blowing into prviously cut area and never into uncut area

 

[ukrkoz]

It's aggrevating, ain't it? Like as if it's done on purpose, to make you crawl underneaTH THE DECK AND CLEAN ALL THE AGGREGATING, MIXED WITH MUD AND ROCKS, CLIPPINGS, LITERALLY EATING DIRT SAME TIME.
Sorry, damn caps key always gets in my way.
Anyhow.
Remove the deck.
Set it so that baffles face up. Perfectly clean space between the deck skirt and the baffles. As in - perfectly. Even degrease it. Take rough sand paper and roughen the baffles walls and skirt . Get some two part rigid foam. Once I am used to hardens to pretty much firm condition. Seal off edges where mix can spill out, mix two parts and pour it into the space to seal. It has to be mixed very well. Foam I am used to has 7 times expansion ration, so be aware of that. It varies from foam to foam. Let it harden, shave off what's not needed. Done. If yo not constantly bombard it with rocks, it'll last you couple years.
This is what I am used to:

Cascade - Orthotic & Prosthetic Supplier

cascade-usa.com

Final product is very strong, we use it in prosthetics for shaping or, even, walking patients on trial legs. You can shape it with Sureform blade or any cutting tool that will cut wood. It's about solid wood hardness and is VERY light. Again, it expands a LOT.

 

[kjonxx]

Blades should be turning in the same direction not opposite. Worn blade wings or too short of blades will also cause this. High lift blades can help or weld your own extra high wings on .

 

[Steve Smith]

I can tell you from experience that removing the baffles results in a poor cut. I bought a nice older Cub Cadet that had the baffles removed. It would cut, but the grass never looked good. I fabricated new baffles and installed them. It now cuts good.

 

[TobyU]

Once again this is a MULCHING deck set of baffles
Thus the grass is running in a clockwise direction inside all of the blade circles
So as first posted at the intersections of the cutting circles the left side clippings are going down and the right side clippings are going up
Thus the clippings stop moving for a second because the air flow is going in opposite directions so just like in a flowing stream the clippings loose speed and in your case stick to the deck.
Now I personally would leave them there as they do not hinder the deck air flow, in fact they enhanse it .
They build up because there is too much volume of clippings or you are using the wrong blades .
That is is nothing more & nothing less
On my commercial customers who drop their mowers off on Friday for a weekend blade sharpen & deck clean, they all have build ups there and I leave it alone
The build up of grass clippings should not be a problem
Whrong blades, mowing too fast or cutting off too much grass is the problem
The deck build up is not a problem anywhere other than in your mind .

Gentlemen, I looking for a solution to prevent grass gathering on the back of the baffle between the blades. The first photo show an up skirt shot of the deck. View attachment 63788

Next is a paint sketch trying to show the problem I am addressing.
View attachment 63790

This is not perfect but I believe you can get my point, look at what would be the leading the leading edges of the small red circles, this is the back side of the front baffle between the blades. This area continually packs with grass clippings. I'm considering cutting out a block/spacer an attaching it to the deck to fill this space. It would have to be small enough to clear the blades but block the formation of a build up in this space. Has anyone else tried to correct this issue? thanks, Ray

I would either remove them if possible or just forget about it. It's really not worth messing with either way..
If you're not cutting super wet class then there's not much reason to worry about what the underside of your deck looks like until you get around to sharpening or changing out your blades.
A lot of people are way too OCD about stuff like this and even keeping their blade sharp or swapping them out.
It's not that big of a deal especially when you have a mower that has a good quality of cut which most of these larger commercial grade mowers do because of the blade speed.
My point is that some mowers completely clean underneath and with brand new or sharp blades won't cut as nicely as some old beat up Craftsman walk behind mower or whatever item you want to insert into the discussion with grass piled up like mad underneath it and blades that have been used all season and pretty dull.

There are some people out there who flip their mower up after every single mow and clean it off and even those who power wash it off after every time which is really a terrible idea because you should actually keep the water hose and pressure washer and every other source of water far, far away from your mowing equipment. It's simply not necessary. If you are going to clean something off it should be done with a scraper, leaf blower, or like a high pressure blowgun from your air compressor and then wiped off with a rag with WD-40 on it or something like that or maybe some of those grease cleaning wipes first and then use some silicon or WD-40 on it after that and then do a final buff with a clean towel so it's not sticky and wet.

I have no idea what the blades on my grasshopper look like. I'm assuming there's still three blades down there because it cuts the full width of the deck but I haven't seen them in over five or six years!
It still cuts fine so I'm simply not going to worry about them.

 

[TobyU]

Once again this is a MULCHING deck set of baffles
Thus the grass is running in a clockwise direction inside all of the blade circles
So as first posted at the intersections of the cutting circles the left side clippings are going down and the right side clippings are going up
Thus the clippings stop moving for a second because the air flow is going in opposite directions so just like in a flowing stream the clippings loose speed and in your case stick to the deck.
Now I personally would leave them there as they do not hinder the deck air flow, in fact they enhanse it .
They build up because there is too much volume of clippings or you are using the wrong blades .
That is is nothing more & nothing less
On my commercial customers who drop their mowers off on Friday for a weekend blade sharpen & deck clean, they all have build ups there and I leave it alone
The build up of grass clippings should not be a problem
Whrong blades, mowing too fast or cutting off too much grass is the problem
The deck build up is not a problem anywhere other than in your mind .

I can't imagine commercial customers bringing in their mower every weekend for this.
Is this what you're saying they do or you just mean when they do get around to it they drop it off on a weekend.
I'm going to have to weigh in on that with my cheapslate(ness).
I find that to be ridiculous and I can't imagine a shop would have enough time to bother with these people and plus most shops don't work on the weekend.
The only shops that have any concern to keep their commercial customers happy are the ones who sell them expensive equipment but still, they're closed on the weekends so they're going to have to drop one off and use the other one until it's done during the week.
As I say with everything and with with my other businesses that aren't power equipment... Everything is relative to your market but in my market and mini markets if not most, you don't have to be nice to anybody to get their business because there are a hundred times more equipment that needs to be fixed and serviced then there are shops to do the work.
All you have to be is competent or better priced than other people.
Being nice will get you nowhere at least eventually if you're not competent.
You can't be overpriced if you're feeling nice and some people will still deal with you but again you still have to be competent or good.
I heard this about a certain person in my area many times from customers calling me.
They really like the guy personally but after he's made two or three attempts to work on their stuff and they just keep having problems, they give up and move on.
On the other hand we had a shop in business for 68 years who had a lot of terrible reviews from people because they couldn't stand the place because they did it one way and one way only and they were often called gruff, rude, standoffish etc but they had the best selection of Parts and equipment in the area and they were quite competent I would say even good at the repairs and service so most people were just fine with them.

But I don't really get prioritizing people and stuff like that at least I'm just not going to do it.
When I've got 50 lawn mowers here another shops have over a hundred... Nobody is going to drop anything off just for a simple blade touch up and get it back anytime soon because they can just keep cutting for a while..

Frankly, it irks me the entitlement of people today.
Had one call today that asked if they dropped it off what, they could pick it up like Monday or Tuesday??
Right there I know I didn't want this person for a customer. I chuckled and said I don't think that's possible anywhere. Most shops are 3 to 4 weeks to do anything.

It brings me back to a statement I've heard before and I always think of it in my head.
Poor planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on mine.

But then again, I could be a little hateful. Sometimes I'm a lot hateful! I've already thrown my phone once last week and when we get further into the peak season I'll probably have several more outbursts, conniption fits, Earth cursing rants etc.

This is why I tried to cut back on my volume over the past few years because that's what makes the stress worse and this isn't what it was meant to be.
I often joke with customers and say this was a hobby....turned into a business...turned into a nightmare.

 

[bertsmobile1]

Blades should be turning in the same direction not opposite. Worn blade wings or too short of blades will also cause this. High lift blades can help or weld your own extra high wings on .

Stop and have a think about what you have just posted
Blades are ROTATING in the same direction
THis means that the ENDS of the blades on OPPOSITE sides of the cutting circle are going in OPPOSITE directions
The front one will be going down ( or to the read if you like ) and the right blade will be going up or forward if you like
SO if the middle blade tip is going down & the one next door is going up then when they pass each other they are going in opposite directions.
IF you can not visualise this then lay 2 watches / clocks next to each other and watch the movement of the sweep hands

As for modifing a blade only an idiot would think they know better than the engineers who designed the deck
Welding the blades will seriously change the structire of the baldes and the flutes need to be absolutely identical or the blade will be out of balance
And of course it must be weight balanced left rignt AND front back.

The OP's problem is he is using THROWING / BAGGING blades in a mulching deck
Also he is INVENTING a problem.
If the mower deck cuts properly with the build up then leave it there

 

[MParr]

@RayMcD
Tell us something about your deck. Are those baffles part of the mulching kit? If they are, where are the standard baffles?
If that is the mulching kit baffles, you will need mulching blades and not high lift blades.
If you want to side discharge, you will need the side discharge baffles and high lift blades.