New lawnmower ? Repair old one ?

[Jethro_uk]

After a brief experiment having our grass cut for us by a local chap who doing 5 other houses in the street, I've decided to go back to cutting it myself.

Lovely weather Monday, so broke out lawnmower - a Qualcast Elan 32, and started up and downing.

Despite adjusting to the highest cut, and ensuring blades were aligned, it kept getting fouled with grass, and jamming. Eventually a wisp of smoke from the side told me the belt had started slipping.

It's at least 5 years old (could be 6 I can't remember when I bought it).

No problem to replace the belt. However I think the blades need sharpening/aligning.

On the basis I can get a similar spec Bosch for £100, would anybody advise investing in trying to fix the old one ?

On a related theme, I like stripes in my lawn, and I like it cut short. One of the reasons why I have gone back to cutting it myself is the chap being paid to do it used a petrol driven rotary, which he claimed could not go lower than 2 inches. And which didn't leave stripes. Can anyone sell the idea of a rotary mower to me ?

[Martin Brown]

That's a youngster. My last one survived nearly 15 years continuous use before becoming unrepairable. It probably is still fixable but my patience with fiddly internal combustion engine faults is lacking and there are so many other things failing like the deck and handles from stress fatigue cracking that it fails from something else too often now.

A new belt and a bit of TLC on the blade with a good file should fix it.

You can buy rotary mowers with a rear roller that leaves stripes. I just bought one after giving up on mending my old one with multiple faults. A cylinder mower would be a liability on my steeper lawns.

The cut isn't as clean as the scissor action of a good cylinder mower.

[Brian Gaff]

If you want stripes, rotaries are rubbish. Could one ask where this strip fetish came from?

I have an old Qualcast Concord and its toothed belt used to keep breaking and the mower also got jammed up and went out of alignment. Luckily now I cannot see stripes and get someone else to mow it as mown electric flex gets shorter and shorter... grin.

Brian

[Jethro_uk]

Not a fetish as such ... just how I like my lawn to look. Especially as no one else in the street has striped lawns.

Also, unless I am mistaken, cylinder mowers require much less power than rotarys or hovers, since they work like a pair of shears, and don't need to throw a weighty blade around, or support the weight of the mower.

[rbel]

My wheeled (no roller) Honda Izy rotary leaves stripes. It has a very thick and tough piece of rubber across the back of the chassis which serves two purposes, it helps stops debris flick back at the user when mowing without a grass box and it leaves clear stripes in the lawn.

Been using it for many years (regular mowing of two quite large lawns) and the rubber strip shows no sign of wear.

-- rbel

[Nthkentman]

Google a post earlier this week on 23rd where I replied to that one.

For a garden no lower than an inch cut. You *really* don't want to go lower in the current weather changes. Not only will it feel better underfoot, but will benefit the grass greatly.

Sharp reel and blade will produce a clean cut lessening disease ingress

*and* most importantly allow the recovery of the grass more easily.

As for stripes if you aren't getting them from the rear roller then there isn't much you can change. If you want *really* nice stripes add a brush after the rear roller (A cut down stiff broom head etc with a steel strip or weight to press it lightly against the grass) and have it drag the cut sward as it passes. Watch the neighbours admire your superb stripes then..

[charles]

untrue. We have a rotary mower with a roller. It produces very smart stripes.

[Mr Pounder]

I used to have one of those. The belt used to melt.

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[The Natural Philosopher]

well you can certainly go lower than that and stripe.with a rotary.

There's a hayter around 600 notes with a grass collector and a rear roller..

Cylinder mowers need to be sharpened on a specialised machine: rotaries can be done with an angle grinder...

[Andy Dingley]

Qualcast have a more serious failure mode too. The bearing seizes and spins, then the heat melts the plastic housing. This in turn allows belt tension to pull the bearing sideways into the housing, reducing belt tension and allowing the slip.

Fixing it involves a whole bunch of dismantling to replace the bearing, then making up a new packer piece (CNC'ed aluminium for mine) and fastening it to the plastic frame to make a new side for the bearing housing, replacing the melted one.

It's questionable if this is worth it (other than for the sheer DIY bloody-mindedness) and it requires a fair bit of machine shop kit.

[Andy Dingley]

Or with a file, and using a backed-off cutter bar and a pencil as a gauge.

[The Natural Philosopher]

Do you hand polish gemstones for kicks?

[Andy Dingley]

I have been known to!

If the lawnmower was really out of true, then I'd chuck it in the lathe and= turn it. If I was sharpening them all day, then I'd have a toolpost jig fo= r grinding them too. For doing a one-off though, a couple of minutes with a= file just gets the job done, doesn't need tooling, doesn't need a trip to = the lawnmower shop.

[Jethro_uk]

Oh well, following the discussions here, and an evening of online research, I've settled on a "Bosch Rotak 34 Ergoflex Electric Rotary Lawnmower" - mainly swayed by a stream of 5* Amazon reviews. Was pleasantly surprised to discover I had over £50 in completely forgotten Amazon vouchers from a previous birthday, which makes this a very cheap deal.

[The Natural Philosopher]

I read that as a previously forgotten birthday

Is there any other sort?

[mogga]

What are you doing with the old one?

Are you going to freecycle it?

[Jethro_uk]

I might do ... that and an old freezer which works, but just wasn't needed. The usual route is friends & family, work colleagues, and then Freecycle. I hate throwing out things that could be of use to someone.