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The original Craftsman rotory mower

#1

unclelee

unclelee



1948 Craftsman, manufactured by the Rotory Power Mower company, which was purchased by OMMC in 1952 and went on to become Lawnboy


#2

M

mechanic mark

Good post!


#3

Snapperfreak

Snapperfreak

That is cool!


#4

unclelee

unclelee



Here is another example of the Lawnboy/ Craftsman connection.
This is a Canadian Simpsons Sears model from 1953 one year after OMMC purchased RPM...notice the Iron Horse engine....same as the 1953 Lawnboy modle.
Lee


#5

C

cashman

$ 89.50 in 1953! Sears sold a price leader model similar to that through the mid 1970's for $99.99. The later ones had a Power Products 2-cycle. Power Products was bought out by Tecumseh. I use to work on those. If you had it tuned right, you could spin the flywheel with your hand and it would start


#6

reynoldston

reynoldston

When you think about it you can still buy a cheap 2016 push mower for not that much money with a lot more safety features.


#7

B

bertsmobile1

reynoldston said:
When you think about it you can still buy a cheap 2016 push mower for not that much money with a lot more safety features.
Click to expand...
No they are insanly cheap now days
Got no idea about US historical wage rates but I would guess that $ 89.00 in 1953 would have been some where from 1 to 2 months salary.
Down here it was 8 weeks of average male adult wages including overtime & shift allowences.
In 1970 I was making $ 75.00/ week & the national average was $ 90 so it was down to a weeks wage, ie 1/8th the price.
In 2014 the nation average was $ 1250 /week so the $ 200 bg biox cheapies are less than a days wages or 1/40 th of the 1954 price.

When looking at historical pricing you should always relate it to wages at the time and it is helpful to convert everything into hours of labour to acquire the mower.
The top end Honda self propelled sells around $ 2500 down here, about a week & a half.
The average mower is around $ 500 or 2 days wages.


#8

reynoldston

reynoldston

bertsmobile1 said:
No they are insanly cheap now days
Got no idea about US historical wage rates but I would guess that $ 89.00 in 1953 would have been some where from 1 to 2 months salary.
Down here it was 8 weeks of average male adult wages including overtime & shift allowences.
In 1970 I was making $ 75.00/ week & the national average was $ 90 so it was down to a weeks wage, ie 1/8th the price.
In 2014 the nation average was $ 1250 /week so the $ 200 bg biox cheapies are less than a days wages or 1/40 th of the 1954 price.

When looking at historical pricing you should always relate it to wages at the time and it is helpful to convert everything into hours of labour to acquire the mower.
The top end Honda self propelled sells around $ 2500 down here, about a week & a half.
The average mower is around $ 500 or 2 days wages.
Click to expand...

Back in 1959 I was making 35 dollars a week repairing appliances and living on it with a car payment. It seems I got by OK.


#9

unclelee

unclelee

cashman said:
$ 89.50 in 1953! Sears sold a price leader model similar to that through the mid 1970's for $99.99. The later ones had a Power Products 2-cycle. Power Products was bought out by Tecumseh. I use to work on those. If you had it tuned right, you could spin the flywheel with your hand and it would start
Click to expand...



The 16" in the middle used a power products engine...however it was not made by RPM.
Using an inflation calculator the $89.50 price tag in 1953 is the equivalent to $794.50 in 2015


#10

reynoldston

reynoldston

Late 1940's and I was very young so I don't remember very much about it. My father brought home a electric mower that ran off of house current and mowed the lawn with it. As I recall it was a big thing back then. Also it just seems it didn't do a very good job, but as I said I was just a child and that was close to 70 years ago.


#11

unclelee

unclelee



Here is a pic of a mid 50s Craftsman made by AMF using the Power Products engine....crazy cool looking mower...wish I could find one


#12

C

cashman

Back in the early 1970's, Tecumseh sold short blocks for those 2 cycles and I can't remember exactly, but dealer price was less than $20.00 for a short block.


#13

Boobala

Boobala

unclelee said:


Here is a pic of a mid 50s Craftsman made by AMF using the Power Products engine....crazy cool looking mower...wish I could find one
Click to expand...

Not a single safety or warning label/sticker on it......... weren't those the days of common sense & handed-down experience ?? :thumbsup: Boobala


#14

unclelee

unclelee

Boobala said:
Not a single safety or warning label/sticker on it......... weren't those the days of common sense & handed-down experience ?? :thumbsup: Boobala
Click to expand...

Yep.....when men were men?


#15

B

bertsmobile1

unclelee said:
Yep.....when men were men
Click to expand...

Before advertising agencies showed us how to mow in thongs, sandles & swim suits
Women of course mowed in high heels wearing a 2 piece swim suit or coctail dress with half their brests hanging out.


#16

unclelee

unclelee



1952 Dunlap by RPM and a 1953? Craftsman both with Power Products engines


#17

unclelee

unclelee



Later models got a shroud!!


#18

upupandaway

upupandaway

unclelee said:


So my tiller is from Canada because it also has as Simpson Sears name plate. Or did Simpson also have a US factory??
-(the other) Lee
Click to expand...


#19

unclelee

unclelee

upupandaway said:
So my tiller is from Canada because it also has as Simpson Sears name plate. Or did Simpson also have a US factory??
-(the other) Lee
Click to expand...


https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simpsons_(department_store)

Here is info on Simpson Sears


#20

reynoldston

reynoldston

bertsmobile1 said:
Before advertising agencies showed us how to mow in thongs, sandles & swim suits
Women of course mowed in high heels wearing a 2 piece swim suit or coctail dress with half their brests hanging out.
Click to expand...

Some porn with your mower ad, things can't get any better then that :smile:


#21

unclelee

unclelee



Lol....that's just how the ladies mowed back in the day.


#22

B

bertsmobile1

Yes.
it is funny to look at the difference between then & now.

Print adds still show women with as little coths as the censor will allow but instruction manuals show operators with padded trousers, gloves, helments & protective eyewea.
There must be a shortage of rubber in the USA because the video adds seem show women who are not able to get a proper fitting bra.

When I had the courier company I dropped a mower off to one of my photographer clients.
The next day he asked me to take it back.
When I asked why he did not shoot it he showed me the brief from the advertising department and yes it was written by some one who shoud have spent 15 minutes in the mens room with a copy of Playboy.
It had to look like a F! car side and front on from ground level up but a sumptious blonde ( mower was blue) from full height. He was supposed to make the curved handle bars represent brests, the pinched in pivot point as a waist and the catcher hips.
Poor darling apparently had no legs. He declined the job and funny enough the new design was a fantastic flop and one of the prime reasons why the company went to the wall.

It only goes to show someting an add man told me years ago.
When the product stinks, resort to SEX.


#23

Z

ziti

What a great post! My father had one of those old Craftsman. I was about 5 or 6 and remember the teeth on the front and warning stamped on the rear deck. That old mower was always hard to start. Dad would wrap the starter rope, with the wooden handle, around and give it a pull and nothing would happen. He'd swear at it like a drill sargent. One time, I was behind him watching with my hands on my knees, when he pulled the rope and the next thing I knew I was flat on my back staring up at the blue sky!


#24

unclelee

unclelee

I found another early Craftsman mower so I thought I would add it here.







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