Home made heavy weed/brush cutter

[Pumper54]

I have in mind a few ideas I have gathered from here and other sites on a couple of attachments I would like to build. First thing I need to de is learn how to weld. If nothing more then tack the parts together and carry them to a real welder for final welding. Would love to build a three blade gang mower to tow behind my riding mower that would have its own engine, that way I could rough cut with it and then finish cut with the rider. I have seen a rough cut pusher mower that mounts to the front of the rider and operates off the riders motor. Would like to fab up a collector system for the rider to collect some of the grass from the field. Last year we thought about offering it up for haying by our neighbors if they wanted the hay. Too much time and not enough talent or money.
Tom

 

[bertsmobile1]

You need to go over to the tin man https://www.tinmantech.com if you really want to learn to weld.
Hire some gas gear, find some scrap and have a play.
Electric welding is actually easier to do but gas welding is a lot more forgiving to the novice and will help you understand the whole weld pool / puddle thing.. The worst thing you can do with gas is melt a hole or wack in too much heat and end up with a very soft weld.
I weld about 80 decks a year, oft repairing some one elses repair of some one elses repair & I do them all with gas so I know there is nice deep penetration and the weld is a bit soft so it will not crack again.
For the novice electric welding just happens way too quick for you to understand what is going on and gain control over the process.
Gas welding is nice and slow, you get to see the metal melting and the way the filler stick chills the puddle and how fast or slow to go as you watch the melt wet the surrounding metal and become one.
Once you have got the feel and learned to own the weld pool then you are ready to graduate to arc.
While I have both a stick welder & two sets of torches I usually do most repairs with the Dillon torch ( now called Cobra ).
If you really hae a lot of time then troll around Tin mans site & buy a couple of his DVD's.
He flogs some really good gear and it is not that expensive, not Harbour Freight prices but then it is a lot better than Harbour Freight as well.

In no time flat you will be convering all those busted mowers into obj'd'art and flogging them off left right & centre.
Office workers seem facinated with any htng that relates to manual work ( some thing they can not relate to ) and seem to like filling their houses with reminders of what manual work was all about, tastefully modified.

 

[Pumper54]

I can burn metal pretty good (using a gas ax) but can't join it. Spent almost 20 years fighting fires till I got hurt to many times and had to give it up. Not afraid to get my hands dirty and really do respect a craftsman's work. I have done a bit of construction and remodeling of mine and other houses. Have worked on my own motorcycles for the past 40+ years and have figured out a few things in my time so I think I can learn to weld. May not be MilSpec or NASA quality but good enough for me or to drag it to someone else. Thanks for the suggestion of learning gas first. I did try years ago with a friend but could never get the puddle right. Practice is what I need.
Tom

 

[bertsmobile1]

100% Tom,
it is all hand eye co-ordination and muscle memory.
So that means lots & lots of practice.
I used to run a courier company with a fleet of motorcycles equipped with a combined top box-pannier rplacing the rear 1/2 of the seat.
This required me to make a custom frame for it to sit on.
I very quickly learned to start withthe welds on the underside that no one could see & finish with the ones on the outside top.'
Despite having made about 30 of them over 5 years every time the first few welds all looked horrid while the latter ones looked like they were done by a pro.
At tech they stressed things like torch angles & rod angles & dipping/ dropping heights & positions.
In use all of it becomes some what irrelevant.
Initial heat up torch square on to job.
Once pool starts to form angle the torch & start dropping in filler.
the low pressure torches such as my Dillion seem to work better forehand while the full pressure torches work better back hand.

 

[rosey65]

I nailed this find after cleaning out a building. A little work to get the mower running and it is a beast. I am more of a Deere guy.

 

[Pumper54]

Roesy65
How that looks like it could be fun to run around my farm on, I know lots of brush that I would go after. Any chance of getting a full side view of the mower from front to rear?
Tom

 

[rosey65]

Roesy65
How that looks like it could be fun to run around my farm on, I know lots of brush that I would go after. Any chance of getting a full side view of the mower from front to rear?
Tom

Yeah. I will take one in the morning. It is for sale. Or going to be.

 

[Pumper54]

You selling the whole rig or just the brush cutter part? Long ways from Texas to Illinois but might be worth a drive if the price is right.
Tom

 

[Pumper54]

Added a "snorkel" to the intake on the brush mower to try to keep the filter clean. Used it the past few days cutting very tall grass and weeds at the farm and I must say it worked like a charm.



Tom

 

[turbofiat124]

The deck in the photo is of course a side discharge unit but it is a really old design where the height adjustment is on the deck via a pair of jockey wheels like a push mower.
So the boys have cut the front off & welded up the side discharge hole then run some 1' angle back to mount it to the mower.

Some popped an electric PTO on the end of the engine shaft.
Most use it for a roughing mower. We get a lot of tussock grass around here and if it gets better than 6" tall only a full commercial or flail mower will touch it as most decks will simply ride over the tussocks.
I would imagine the USA is somewhat the same here where blokes see deck size like like a phalis ( Mine is bigger than yours ) so the small mowers with small decks end up as toys for the grandkids or tossed out onto clean up. Back in the 60's & 70's the mower companies came upon the perfect mower for blocks up to 1 acre, the 8/30 and if you though you needed more power the 10/30.
For some strange reason the average Joe with a 1/4 acre block now seems to think they need a 20/42 plus a 21" self propelled for places the 42" deck can not fit and then a 16" push for the places the 21" wont fit & finally a line trimmer.

I have the parts listing for that particular slasher if you would like me to post it

Sounds like me!

For years we used a '79 Snapper high vac with a 12hp 32" deck. It seemed to do the job. Even the grass catcher worked well. Then one day Mom ran the engine out of oil. Bottom seal leaked so I just added used oil to it before mowing. Well she did not know this and the engine locked up.

I was too cheap to buy a B&S so I opted for an 8 hp Tecumseh engine. This engine "worked" but did not have the balls to mow grass more than 4". Otherwise I would have to overlap what I had mowed and what I was trying to mow to prevent the engine from stalling which took twice as long. I used it at my house but constantly had to tinker with it to get it to mow. The rear wheel bearings were shot. Eventually the chain in the rear axle broke and the rear end locked up. It's been sitting at my scrap metal pile for about 7 years now.

The last Snapper I bought came with a B&S 14 hp engine. That engine threw a rod after about 4 years. It appeared the connecting rod nuts vibrated loose. Or they did not install Lock-Tite at the factory. I replaced with a Kohler 14hp engine until I sold it a couple of years ago.

So where is this going? I decided to buy a new mower about 6 years ago. I ended up buying a Husqvarna built riding mower from Sears (Craftsman). This mower has a 48" cut and a 21 hp engine. I really wanted a 42" cut because the doors on my yard barn are 48" and I have almost ripped the walls off the floor getting this thing in and out. But they marked the mower down a few hundred bucks so I got a good deal on it.

But by going from a 32" deck to a 48" deck, I have knocked about 1 hours off my mowing time. I mow about 3 acres of land.

Like you mention, now I have a mower with a larger deck but cannot get it in places where I could get my Snapper. Plus the Husqvarna has terrible traction on hills. So I have to use my self propelled push mower to mow on some banks and tight places.

I have Zoysia grass in my yard my grandfather plugged about 40 years ago. I always thought it was a week like Kudzu because it chokes out any other type of grass. It even seems to choke out Bermuda grass.

I just looked it up and it says its found in Asia and Australia. That explains allot. People wonder why I don't start mowing until late April. Well this stuff turns brown through the winter and does not green up until it hits 85 F for several weeks. No matter how much rain we get, it grows much slower than other grasses. Which is good because I only have to mow my yard about every 2 weeks where other people have to mow twice a week.