Leaf blades

JimP2014

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Or the other idea I had was to keep your existing blades on the machine and then you have this two-piece fan blade system that mounts to the existing mower deck blades + basically creates a blade that looks perpendicular to the existing mower deck blade so you would retrofit each blade with this bolt-on system.
I was hoping rivets can design this
 

StarTech

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If not cutting grass you could weld a pair of high lift blades for each spindle at 90 degrees of each other. Welding would insure the blades stay at 90 degrees and not slip. Noting blades with stars would need blade's star removed. That would be the blade farthermost from the spindle mount. This should double the lift and exit pressures. Now gator blades would be a better choice as you need to reduce the leaf sizes making easier to blow out.

Any combination should work. 2 hi lift, 1 hi lift and 1 Gator, or 2 Gators. Some Honda walk behinds already have Ninja blades which are double tip blades. Just note you can't run these blades for cutting grass as it would too much of load for the engine; unless, a higher HP engine is installed. Either it is going to cost more than $30 for a complete set.

Example would be my 42" MTD mower where I went 16.5 hp to 21 hp. There was one drawback in doing this as I was burning up the deck belt and had to upgrade the 1/2" belt to a 5/8" belt but now I can cut 12"+ heavy grass without a problem. Just have slow a little to allow the deck to clear the cuttings. Before I had crawl at the lowest speed to even 6" over grown grass.
 

JimP2014

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If not cutting grass you could weld a pair of high lift blades for each spindle at 90 degrees of each other. Welding would insure the blades stay at 90 degrees and not slip. Noting blades with stars would need blade's star removed. That would be the blade farthermost from the spindle mount. This should double the lift and exit pressures. Now gator blades would be a better choice as you need to reduce the leaf sizes making easier to blow out.

Any combination should work. 2 hi lift, 1 hi lift and 1 Gator, or 2 Gators. Some Honda walk behinds already have Ninja blades which are double tip blades. Just note you can't run these blades for cutting grass as it would too much of load for the engine; unless, a higher HP engine is installed. Either it is going to cost more than $30 for a complete set.

Example would be my 42" MTD mower where I went 16.5 hp to 21 hp. There was one drawback in doing this as I was burning up the deck belt and had to upgrade the 1/2" belt to a 5/8" belt but now I can cut 12"+ heavy grass without a problem. Just have slow a little to allow the deck to clear the cuttings. Before I had crawl at the lowest speed to even 6" over grown grass.
What you wrote is a good analysis of the design. My idea was first off you need to be in late fall and the lawn needs to be a very low height already. Only dry leaves should on the lawn. Also do this in batches, do not wait until all leaves have fallen, I don't think you could plow thru say 4" high of leaves - this would most likely put alot of strain on the engine. I"Now gator blades would be a better choice as you need to reduce the leaf sizes making easier to blow out". <-- you don't think full size leaves would make it past the chute or would clog up the other side where is no chute?

Your idea to weld seems great. The leaf blade design is already built for you ( the old mower blade ), just weld it. My idea was and without removing any current blades, was to jack up the machine and attach and possibly only a bottom blade perpendicular. The distance between the mower deck and the top side of a regular blade might not be enough. But DO use a clamping mechanism around both sides of existing blades and only have the lower side of the existing blade do the sweeping. This is where something like carbon fiber might be used, but it might break too. Your idea of an existing old deck blade would not break. You would have to make sure nothing goes wrong and starts digging into the dirt on some terrain change. So a blade that is mostly stiff but can bend and not break.

But for your idea just keep the existing blade on the machine and weld 2 sides of another blade cut in half and much shorter. So the 21" blade full length ( leave as is )and then weld say 8" of another blade on one side and the other 8" on the other side. Or these two, 8" pieces could be bolted to the existing blade and only on one side of the existing blade.


Jim
 

StarTech

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Using only a half on one side is going throw everything out balance. Back during the Summer I was restoring a mower that was given back after 10 yrs. While was cutting one blade broke exactly in half leaving one half still attached. I thought the mower was going come out from under the mower; vibrating like heck. The noise even woke up my neighbor that has a hearing problem.

In 16 yrs of repairs it was first time I ever seen a blade to break in half.
 

JimP2014

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Using only a half on one side is going throw everything out balance. Back during the Summer I was restoring a mower that was given back after 10 yrs. While was cutting one blade broke exactly in half leaving one half still attached. I thought the mower was going come out from under the mower; vibrating like heck. The noise even woke up my neighbor that has a hearing problem.

In 16 yrs of repairs it was first time I ever seen a blade to break in half.
Yeah I got you on that you need to keep balance.
 

JimP2014

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Yeah I got you on that you need to keep balance.
Wait maybe what I'm saying is different I'm saying for a single blade that's already on the machine you would weld an 8-in piece on one side say the far left and then an 8-in piece on the other side say the far right and they both point straight down towards the ground that's what I'm saying is this what you read?
 

JimP2014

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Wait maybe what I'm saying is different I'm saying for a single blade that's already on the machine you would weld an 8-in piece on one side say the far left and then an 8-in piece on the other side say the far right and they both point straight down towards the ground that's what I'm saying is this what you read?
Just to be clear on what I think would work is take an existing blade off the machine which is perfectly balanced + put it in a vise so that the star is in the middle of the vise and then heat both ends very hot and then rotate the blade because it's melted and twist it 90° and let it cool I'm not saying you can do this but it would be like that so you're not adding any more material to it you just reshaping the blade.
 

Auto Doc's

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A pull behind leaf sweeper with a hopper works wonders.

Deck blades spin to fast (even at low idle) to gently pick up fallen leaves.
 

JimP2014

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A pull behind leaf sweeper with a hopper works wonders.

Deck blades spin to fast (even at low idle) to gently pick up fallen leaves.
Auto dock I do appreciate your comment but I was thinking like a $30 solution to try and move leaves a lot better than typical mower deck blades.

For years I have used the typical riding mower with just regular high lift blades that if you make a pass say going north to south you can push everything to the West and you keep making that north to south pass it does work but it takes forever the only thing I'm suggesting is somehow getting the blade so that the angle's different so when you make a pass the actual leaves get blown like 20 ft instead of 3 or 4 ft I'm not against chopping up leaves, but once they get chopped because they have smaller surface area you can't throw them as far out of a typical mower deck but you did give me an idea is to remove the discharge chute that plastic thing and see if that actually can throw them farther without needing any kind of modification to the existing blades maybe not completely remove the discharge chute but kind of like raising it up somehow so it still protects your feet.

Jim
 
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