Hover mower not cutting smoothly and leaving clumps

[NY]

I have a Flymo Hover Compact 350 mower which is not cutting as well as it used to: it tends to leave clumps and sometimes I have to go over the same patch a couple of times because initially it bends the grass over rather than cutting it. This is for normal lawn grass with maybe a week's growth since the last time it was cut.

I've had the blade sharpened. As far as I can tell, the motor is running at full speed.

The only thing that is unusual about the blade is that it is slightly kinked: the last few centimetres where the blade is sharpened bend upwards by a few degrees (ie the tip is slightly further away from the grass). Should the fact that the blade is not perfectly flat matter, given that the height of the cut will be determined by the lowest point of the sharpened part of the blade.

[Etaoin Shrdlu]

I'm no lawnmower expert, and maybe someone will have a better answer for you, but I would suggest that the height of the cut will actually be determined by the lowest point of the sharpened part of the blade that is moving quickly enough to cut it. This might not include the bits further in to the centre. Is the upwards bend there by design? If not, I would just try bending the tips back down again. Carefully, if they're sharp :-)

[Ian Jackson]

In message , NY writes

I had a couple of fairly cheap hover mowers, and on both of them, after some use, the tips of the blades started to be bent slightly upwards. I assume that this was caused by the constant pounding from hitting the blades of grass - and also the occasional stone.

As it's the fast-moving part of the blade near the tips that does most of the cutting, having the tips bent upwards allows the slow-moving part near the hub to chew rather than cut.

Every time I took the blade off for sharpening, I made a point of also bending the blade so that the tips were slightly downwards.

[Bob Minchin]

Have you got the blade in the right way round? Just a thought.

[NY]

Good question. I did wonder about this. I took the whole mower (*) to the mower servicing company that sharpened the blade, so hopefully they refitted it the correct way round.

(*) Because the crappy plastic (!!!) spanner that Flymo provide for undoing the central bolt is far too flimsy for the job: why couldn't they have provided a metal one which would allow enough force to be applied?

[Mr Fuxit]

You've got the blade upside-down! The blade ends should point DOWN.

[Mr Fuxit]

Being upside-down means that the BACK of the blade is trying to cut.

[Another John]

That was my first guess as well. Blades usually have an inscription which indicates (or says) "This side to mower". It's often obscured by years of mulched grass, so scrape the blade to find out.

As for a spanner: surely someone that uses this news group has a spanner (or rather adjustable wrench) that will undo the nut? You need to block the blade from turning, if you need to undo it: use a piece o'wood. HTH John

[Ian Jackson]

In message , Another John writes

Or turn the mower over (so you can see the blade), and give the 'on' switch a quick blip so you can see the direction of rotation. The sharp sides of the blade should be the leading edge.

Be aware that the direction of the thread is sometimes 'opposite to normal' (well, it was on one of my two mowers).

[Dave W]

Yes indeed. With the blade upside down the sharpened edges will not be the ones hitting the grass.

[NY]

I'll check the direction of rotation to make sure, but I think it's correct in that the edge is slightly less sharp that it was when the blade was first sharpened, and has a small stone chip in it, suggesting that this *is* the leading edge.

Maybe the blade has got bent the wrong way over the years of usage and (if it's normal for the tips to bend *towards* the grass) I need to unscrew the blade, clamp it in a vice and bend the tips the other way slightly.

[Mr Pounder Esquire]

The blade on my old Fymo mower bent a bit up on the ends and it WAS on the right way. It was marked - grass this way or something. Even I could not go wrong.

>

[ss]

If you google `lawn mower blades` and images you will see that some have an upward bend on part of the blade, thats not to say yours is correct.

[Dave W]

Well in my Flymo the tips are bent down, and I doubt if they could be symetrically bent the wrong way through use. I hope your blade was sharpened on the leading edges by someone who knew which they are.

[Dave W]

I've just had a look at Google images, and it looks like the genuine FLY008 blade for your mower is hardly bent at all, but it's obvious that the sharpened bit is on the longer straight edge. So it will be easy to check that it rotates the right way.

[NY]

Strange that the place the sharpened the blade didn't bend it back to be straight, if that's how it's supposed to be. You'd think that a place which specialises in selling and servicing lawn mowers would know how it was supposed to be.

They sharpened the correct side of the blade (ie the side that had previous been ground to a point but had become blunt and pitted over the years) - the rear of the blade is still full-thickness metal.

[Another John]

And have you checked, as I suggested before, if the blade has a "This side to mower" inscription? (If you can see it, then obviously it's been mounted the wrong way up).

J.

[NY]

Not as yet - laid up in bed with flu at the moment - but I will. But the fact that there were small signs of wear already on the sharpened side suggests that it's mounted the right way round. Not so sure about the kink in the tips, though...

[bert]

In article , NY writes

Suggest you got o local shed and have a look at a new replacement.