Below is the assessment of an owner who did not have access to a 3D printer but wanted to try the disc design on his mower. This wasn’t my plan but I was curious if others would see the benefits.
“ Had a first run today. All working great and I see a difference. Mulching works well! Leaves and stuff gets shredded. So all good. Thanks again! You should commercialize this ”
Just to be clear commercializing these discs at my age is not my desire. Life is busy enough.
The discs are available for free on Thingiverse for those with printers.
However, if you would like to try them, I can print you a pair for $100 USD all in. This does not include bolts, nuts, washers or blades. Also, given that these are experimental, there is no warranty or liability.
This is very cool - thank you. I had thought about doing this - but am not in a position to take it on.
I wanted to solve two problems …
The design of the blades mountings can surely be improved - longer grass always get caught under the blades between the blade and the disc behind the screw. It’s a bugger to keep clear and free-moving.
If there is some debris on the grass - in my case cabbage palm leaves (am in New Zealand) - the leaves get wrapped around under the disc and pulled into the hub and ultimately stop the disc turning properly and causes overheating. I figured that the shape of the disc (the side that faces the bottom of the mower) could be chnaged to protect the hub/spindle from the debris rather than pulling debris into the hub and jamming it.
I totally agree about the blade mounts. There must be a way of stopping/minimizing clogging. I do insert a washer between the blade and the disc. It seems to help.
With regards to the palm cabbage leaves. Have you tried the discs I designed or are you talking about the stock discs?
I have found that the more turbulent airflow of the modified disc, chops larger strands and leaves the mower module cleaner. Mind you I do not have very long grasses or large fibrous leaves.
Hey all. The disc shown above has a recessed 20 mm washer with an oil/grease trough. I don’t know if the grease will just clog but a large washer may prevent tangling of the blade with debris.
Would making the spoke arms a more teardrop design to mimic a wing help? My understanding with mulching is there needs to be air lifting the grass up. If you took the inner spokes and had them be a lifting body design it might achieve that.
Then again, I’m just an armchair engineer with aviation background.
Funny you should mention this. I am just testing a mod.
First an apology. The bolt and nuts I randomly pulled from a bin.
I fastened the outer blades with the bolt, blade, metal washer and nut in that order. Pulling the nut flush into the plastic disc. This I have tested and works.
The untested mod is same bolt, blade, plastic 28 x 2.5 mm washer and two nuts pulled flush into the plastic.
The larger washer prevents the back corners of the blade from collecting debris.
The two nuts strengthens the hole. A proper heat seated fitting would be better but I didn’t have any and nuts a cheaper.
There was a PPP who was using washers under the stock screws, blades, discs, etc and swore that it helped with the debris build up and let it continue to swivel.
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