I'm writing a scene where someone gets their hands trapped around the blade under a walk behind, and someone else tries to start the mower.
Is there someone who could answer a couple of question on machine know-how.
Thanks
Greg
#2
Boudreaux In Eunice La.
It depends on where their hands are trapped at.....and how they are trapped...... If their arms are tangled up in there then the machine won't engage the blades if the blades are belt driven........ If just their hands are at the edge inwards a bit then it's possible to engage the blades......
If it was on a diesel tractor with a PTO driven shaft then yes those blades will turn and do some serious fatal damage.......
My niece is a screen writer in Hollywood and she wrote the movie Urban Country and Race to win, Starred in both of those and was the costume designer for Quail Hollow. Played in the TV series Clunkers, played in all the Queen Sugar episodes....
Also played in the TV movie Home by Spring..... also starring 2 more movies still in filming and production......
Hope the info helps you Mon Ami ...... If you need more just ask ........
Naw I don't think he's trolling, just a guy that's looking for help like he said..... When a novel or movie is written there are questions that need answering to certain aspects of the book or the film......
Remember watching a movie and you caught a error in it ???? Like a movie about gangsters in the 20's and you see a 34 Ford in it.... ETC ETC.....
I don't mind at all Like I said my niece is a screen writer..........
I'm definitely not trolling. I really want your help. If you can suggest any places where I might get an answer, please say.
I did a similar thing for my first novel – I joined a police forum to get some info from serving police officers on police procedure.
I'll tell you what I have in mind for this scene and you can tell me how ludicrous or plausible it is.
The setting is a closed environment, like a prison. Someone is instructed to mow a lawn using a walk behind. He has been set up for this. Halfway through, he turns the mower upside down. He wants to see if he can remove the blade and keep it as a weapon. So he has a feel around and manages to get his fingers behind the blade to see if he can remove it.
This means his wrists are touching the blade. Then the mower starts up by the people who control the place he's in. But the motor can't pick up speed because his arms are in the way. I want the blade to jam against his wrists and cut into the skin but not cut off his hands.
He's trapped, unable to remove his fingers from the 'safe' space above the jammed blade. Then I need him to ease his fingers out, perhaps fingers bent, to protect his fingertips, but expose his knuckles.
Could he get his fingers out in time? Or would he lose his hands as he pulls away?
I'm hoping he only gets slashed or severed fingers that can be stitched and bandaged up, and that he can go on to cause havoc in later scenes using his hands.
Ok now that you have explained it a bit more on the situation ........... I can give some insight on what you might want.......
Say that the guy is going to take the blade or one of the blades off, Someone or two someones walk up behind him and drops the grass guard, which is made of heavy metal not plastic on his hand or hands and steps on it... Keeping his hand in there..... When the trapped guy sees the other guy trying to start the mower, the trapped guy tries to grab the blade to hold it and the mower does start and gashes his hand, but the belt smokes from the friction of the non moving pulley and moving belt, since the guy is still holding the blade... All this belt smoking will be about 15 to 20 seconds cutting in from the camera or a persons thinking from the running engine back to the pulley and smoking belt... Then the belt breaks and the guards come into the scene and the 2 or 3 guys run off while the guards or guard tends to the guy under the mower deck ....
His hand is gashed but intact .... and goes on to live to avenge himself... Hows that sound ????
The instant a push mower turns upside down, the engine will stop from oil flooding, and if it is turned upside down not running, it will not start until the oil is purged from the cylinder and muffler, so this is not a plausible scenario.
While that was exactly what I didn't want to hear, it was exactly what I needed to hear. Invaluable.
But it's my book, my imaginary world, and I need certain things to happen. So he has to turn it on its side. And when it's on its side, somehow the people who set him up have to be able to make it start up again.
So how can that happen? Don't we have battery mowers or electric ones? This novel is set in the near future.
[as you can see, I'm totally ignorant about these things. :smile:]
