Mower blade mods

I bought a new set of 3 mower blades from a yard sale for $5, hoping that the star hole was the right size for my larger mower, since Yardman uses either a 5/8" star hole or an 11/16" star hole, depending on who made the mower, I was told. Anyway, once I got the blades home, I found out that they were of course, the wrong hole size, but the lengths were correct. What to do.....Since tool and die work is part of my job, I elected to file the holes to the proper shape and size, using the spindle as a plug gage. Hoisting the mower and fitting the first blade took about 20 minutes. The other two blades took about 10 minutes each, since I had the filing pattern and process dialed in. Soon I was off and cutting grass yesterday afternoon for an investment of $5 and 40 minutes time. The blades would normally have been around the $60 mark for these OEM blades. I just love challenges like this. The blade in the center of the pic is a blade that has been filed to the larger shape. The outer blades in the pic are as purchased.

RJ

nicely done, i could see this being a big pain getting it perfectly centered without a broach or something of the sort. the file is one of my secret weapons as well =]

Looks great!

You pretty good with a file. And you have an extra $55 to play with now!!!

Impressive work.. I did almost the same with 2 blades. I used a step drill to open the holes then filed small notches to keep the blades from spinning.

Cool that you could make them work. I've thought about buying two new blades for my old Craftsman mower and welding them together in an "X" pattern, kind of like Honda's mulching blade set up. Just need to take the time and get fire up the welder and then balance. I've already checked that I have enough clearance under the deck.

TheGrooveking

Check eBay for blades. I got a 6 blades (2 sets) of Oregon brand, "made in teh USA" for $50 shipped.

nate379 said:

Check eBay for blades. I got a 6 blades (2 sets) of Oregon brand, "made in teh USA" for $50 shipped.

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Nate, I can buy Oregon locally for a reasonable price, for around $30 a set or so, for 3 blades, but I had picked up these OEM blades new for $5. The Oregon blades have a modified version of the star hole. Besides, what fun and skill development is there in just BUYING everything?

See my sig.

RJ