HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

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HoosierLawnGnome
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HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » May 16th, 2017, 12:06 pm

I found a used, battery-powered, McLane 20-ec-7-sp reel mower for sale on craiglist. Made an offer and picked it up a few hours later.

It has some rust as it was left outside over the winter, one of the blades on the reel is bent, and the bed knife is rusty, but after a new marine cell battery this thing runs just fine and cuts ok.

It adjusts up to almost 2" for HOC which will be great for my KBG lawn.

I'm not much of a mechanic, but I'd like to get this in better shape. I took it for a spin last night and it misses some blades. Main problem is rust, but I don't care how it looks I just want it to cut as well as possible. I plan to use it for cutting a "fringe" area around some beds, walkways, or trees.

The base mechanics are in good order, but I need to get things unrusted and sharpened up.

What are the best ways to clean up the blades and sharpen them?

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » May 16th, 2017, 12:17 pm

Image

Bent reel blade and rust
Image

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by Marinegrunt » May 16th, 2017, 1:20 pm

Nice find!

I have no experience with a real mower but might be able to help a little.

You can probably get the bends in the blades straightened out by using a 1/4" piece of flat bar and a couple c clamps. A few taps with a hammer might work too.

As far as cleaning up the blades I'd just wire wheel them. They do have some liquid rust remover that I've heard good things about but you'd have to get the blades off and completely submerge them. I personally have never used it though.

I'm not sure the best method for sharpening. You can't go wrong with a hand file but I bet it'll be tedious work. I would probably use a little 2" tiger paw on an air angle grinder to start and then touch it up with a file. A dremel could be another option. You would want to be careful because you don't want to remove too much metal. That's why a file may be best.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by rtomek » May 16th, 2017, 2:16 pm

Backlapping works well as regular maintenance but a full sharpening is difficult enough that I would pay someone. Just spread some lapping grease and spin it in reverse for a bit and you could very likely have some clean & sharp blades. Test it out with a strips of paper to make sure you have good contact, and adjust the bedknife as necessary.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » May 16th, 2017, 2:50 pm

One thing I noticed is that there is no contact between bed knife and blades. The bed knife will definitely need adjusted.


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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by JGwestTX » May 18th, 2017, 11:55 am

Get a board that is the width between the circle plates on the reel. Place it under the blade below the bent blade. Heat the bent blade, and while still hot use the c-clamp to apply pressure to the bent part. Do this several times. You don't want to heat it and do it all at once.

I would try that but can't make any guarantees. Hope it works though.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » May 18th, 2017, 12:51 pm

I have a heat gun and c-clamps. The best thing to start with would be disassemble, strip down, and repaint like you are doing - but I don't have a sandblaster - just a file, wire wheel, etc.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by JGwestTX » May 18th, 2017, 1:33 pm

I live out in oilfield country here in Texas. There are plenty of sandblasting companies around here. I work for my father in law in their family business building drawworks for the drilling rigs. We have a machine shop and welding shop. So I have access to machines that can help me fix what I need.

Maybe try a local machine shop in your area that has a bead blasting cabinet.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by Monkburger » May 25th, 2017, 7:08 pm

I've read that Reel Mowers require the grass to be wet before you cut - Is this true? (California Trimmer ones)

I've been thinking of getting one, but the ones I've looked at only cut an inch and a half.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 2nd, 2017, 3:00 pm

Monkburger wrote:
May 25th, 2017, 7:08 pm
I've read that Reel Mowers require the grass to be wet before you cut - Is this true? (California Trimmer ones)

I've been thinking of getting one, but the ones I've looked at only cut an inch and a half.
I haven't heard that - normally it's the opposite - you need to cut it when it's dry so it is straighter and more even when cut, plus it is less slippery and doesn't clog up the mower.

-------------------

I made some slight progress on my reel mower. I decided I'm not doing a 100% refurb on this - it just doesn't have that much potential. I am going to get it good enough to cut a little, then get another.

Anyways, I took it apart a little, oiled up the chains, greased a few joints, cleaned thing up and knocked off some rust. The squeaks are gone when it runs for now.

I tested with the 1" paper on my cut - it doesn't cut reliably at any point on the blade. So, I picked up some lapping compound at the auto store and backlapped it after adjusting the reel to the bednife, running 3 passes. Nope, still doesn't cut well.

So, then I filed down the bed knife a bit and ran it over the edge of the reel blades a little. I'm chalking it up to rust. It still isn't cutting a piece of paper reliably.

So, my next step is to file more, wire brush or CLR the areas that should be sharp to get it down to a metal that can be sharpened, adjust the reel again, and backlap again.

For what I have into this unit, it would cost me more to have someone cylinder grind it than I paid for it. I'd be better off buying a higher grade used item.

But, I'm learning a lot about reels doing this! So much better to learn on this than a $3,000 triplex or used greens mower.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by MGC » June 3rd, 2017, 8:52 pm

interesting HLG, if u dont mind answering how long will the battery last ? if u have used it that much yet

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 4th, 2017, 10:23 am

I haven't run it for more than 30 minutes. It's supposed to cut about 7500 sf per charge per the manual, but I'm sure that depends on the battery. I bought a larger marine grade battery than the original one so it's probably better.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by andy10917 » June 4th, 2017, 10:30 am

I bought a larger marine grade battery
Harvesting your own Kelp again?

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 6th, 2017, 9:49 am

andy10917 wrote:
June 4th, 2017, 10:30 am
I bought a larger marine grade battery
Harvesting your own Kelp again?
I wish! haha

Well, I got this thing as good as I'm going to get it. It's cutting much better but it's not the end result I'm looking for. The shredding on the cut is much less now. I'll try to get a picture up of the area I've been playing with - it's pretty brown from the psuedo-scalp and uneven soil.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by HoosierLawnGnome » June 10th, 2017, 12:14 pm

Image

Above you can see the test area I've been mowing at about 1 1/2". The ground is not leveled there - lots of 1/2" variations, but it's not extremely uneven. The reel mower is shredding some top 1/4" of blades, particularly in the thicker grass.

What happens is the top part of the blade shreds and looks ok the first cut, but then 2 days later that tip dies and yellows, looking bad. Not what I'm going for!

So, I'm going to relegate this mower to the cabin property or sell it.

Great experience though - I'm all set up to back lap and do basic maintenance. Now to find a powered reel mower that cuts well and is in good shape. The trouble I have is that very little is available to see locally.

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Re: HLG got a battery-powered reel mower

Post by MB5885 » September 22nd, 2018, 4:06 pm

HoosierLawnGnome wrote:
June 4th, 2017, 10:23 am
I haven't run it for more than 30 minutes. It's supposed to cut about 7500 sf per charge per the manual, but I'm sure that depends on the battery. I bought a larger marine grade battery than the original one so it's probably better.
Good afternoon. I just picked one of these up yesterday from OfferUp here in Phoenix. No battery. I did test with a small 12 volt battery and it runs. My question is what is the OEM battery specs. Anyway you could send me a copy of manual or the specification page of the manual.

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