Manly mower vs flyweight flymo?

[jack]

5 hours ago, JSHarris said:

Depends on the make.  Honda make a small 4 stroke that will run upside down or sideways (I have a bare engine I've hoarded to make a small generator for my boat with).  Most usually give a maximum angle somewhere.  The worst used to be the old Briggs and Stratton vertical shaft motors, that only needed to tip a little bit for the oil splasher to stop throwing oil around and so causing them to seize.  The horizontal shaft engines, with their much deeper sump, never seem to be so fussy.

If you can't find a maximum angle listed for your mower, then try finding an exploded diagram of the engine, as 9 times out of 10 you'll be able to tell from that what the oil level is going to do when it's tipped over a bit and whether or not there's a likelihood of oil starvation as a result.

By coincidence, it's a Honda engine, but I haven't looked at the manual.  The manual for the mower itself is mainly about health and safety, and recommends a maximum of 15 degrees' slope.  I'll have a dig for some info about the engine itself.

Thanks

[SteamyTea]

My sister used to cut lawns for a living, she had bought just about every lawn mower going, ended up with Honda ones.  She thinks they are the best.

Does the Honda mower have a dry sump lubrication system then?

[Jeremy Harris]

Pretty much a dry sump, yes.  They invented the system so they could get around the increasingly tight emissions regulations that prevent two stroke engines being used in may places and the first application was their range of 4 stroke strimmers and similar hand-held bits of kit.  These have to work over a wide range of angles, so Honda came up with a cunning system that has an annular sump around the crank with a modification of the common splash lubrication system small engines use that turns the crank-mounted splasher into a pump.  The centre of the crankshaft is hollow and the plate that rotates inside the annular sump pushes oil through the centre of it and thence to the bearings.  It has a series of traps, plates and drains to both prevent oil collecting where it shouldn't and to encourage it to flow back to the sump.  Here's a cutaway drawing of an early version of their design:

[Ferdinand]

Incidentally, Honda-engined seems to be the "last forever" option amongst whackers, too.

Ferdinand

[Jeremy Harris]

I've stripped a well-used Honda GX31 engine (the one I'm planning on turning into a mini low voltage generator one day) and they are exceptionally well put together, really nicely engineered, so it doesn't surprise me that they are considered to be the "last forever" option.

[mafaldina]

On 5/24/2016 at 17:27, Ferdinand said:

Off-topic. Slightly.

I quite like the sound of scythes, but I have a few problems with this particular gentlemen, Simon Fairlie, who seems to have a habit of campaigning for extreme versions of causes that only the rich world can afford, then coming somewhat to his senses years later when he has done quite a lot of damage.

For many years he was a vegan campaigner who then decided it was acceptable to eat sustainable meat.

Now he is happy to support anti-GM campaigners, who have imo a *hell* of a lot to answer for in terms of making it more difficult to feed the world. Fortunately the only continent where this madness has really taken hold is Europe; most of the others are rather closer to reality by dint of not being able to afford the luxury of those opinions.

>" Scythes are an ideal tool for making it clear to sowers of experimental GM crops that the majority of UK residents do not want them in this country. I am happy to loan scythes for anti-GM protests. "

I will not do business with people who promote the commission of criminal damage, particularly when I think the relevant opinion is squarely based on conspiracy theories. And I hate to think what such protestors could be charged with; you can probably cut a leg off with a well-sharpened scythe.

is there a recommended alternative source?

Ferdinand

(PS If anyone wants to debate the politics of this I suggest a new thread in the Housing Politics forum.)

 

Late response, you could try these guys: 

www.scythecymru.co.uk

My husband got his scythe (and all the bits) from them. 

[DavidWright]

52 minutes ago, mafaldina said:

Late response, you could try these guys: 

www.scythecymru.co.uk

My husband got his scythe (and all the bits) from them. 

And in case there's any doubt those are "Austrian" style scythes, just like on the other site..

The "Trimming blade Styria" blades are what Simon Fairle describes as "Ditch Blades". Unlike grass blades (which end as you'd expect a blade to), the trimming/ditch blades end in a very robust point (which you can't see it on the blade page image because of the edge guard). This makes them more robust. Particularly handy if you are working along a fence line! A 55cm 'ditch blade' was what I started with, so it's the blade that's had most abuse, both in terms of use and in learning to keep it sharp. Even with that use it's still a very useful blade, and is the one I turn to in the stonier areas (you still don't want to hit a stone with the cutting edge, but if it happens I cringe a little less that I would with my fine grass blade!).

[Temp]

I have about 1.25 acres which I cut with a 21HP Toro DH220. Actually it's more than 1.25 if I cut part of the church yard next door. Things I have learnt...

1) Straight/Centre chute mowers are better than side chute. They seem to get blocked less frequently.

2) If the grass is a bit long (that's why you are cutting it!) then it's better to eject grass out the back than to mulch it using the cutting deck. When mulching long grass the mower can get bogged down a bit and it takes longer and doesn't look as neat as just ejecting it. The Torro has a switch that stops you ejecting the grass without the collection basket fitted so I had to bypass that (at your own risk). 

3) Mowers don't have good suspension! It can be like driving down a bumpy road for two hours in a shopping trolley. Make sure the seat is comfortable! Get the ground really level before seeding/turfing. Don't let anyone drive over it in a car. The wheel ruts might not be visible but you can feel where someone drove over ours 7 years later. 

4) Design your garden/lawn/patio so there are no corners. You can't get a ride on mover into a corner. 

5) If you want an orchard plant the largest trees you can find - with luck the lower branches will be high enough that you can mow close. Plant them in rows not some random pattern.

6) Just mow over any tennis balls or toys your kids leave on the lawn. They will learn eventually.

Top tip....

If your mower becomes hard to start and has the symptoms of a weak battery or failing starter (eg starter can't turn it over or only just) then check the valve clearances. I replaced the battery and was about to replace the starter on my Toro on when I discovered that Briggs & Stratton motors have a decompressor that is sensitive to the valve clearance. It's a small extra cam on a counter weight that opens the exhaust valve at low rpm. On my mower the valve clearance should be set to 4 thou and if I remember correctly they were about 6 thou. That was enough to stop the decompressor working and made it v. hard to turn over.

 

 

[Jeremy Harris]

13 minutes ago, Temp said:

Top tip....

If your mower becomes hard to start and has the symptoms of a weak battery or failing starter (eg starter can't turn it over or only just) then check the valve clearances. I replaced the battery and was about to replace the starter on my Toro on when I discovered that Briggs & Stratton motors have a decompressor that is sensitive to the valve clearance. It's a small extra cam on a counter weight that opens the exhaust valve at low rpm. On my mower the valve clearance should be set to 4 thou and if I remember correctly they were about 6 thou. That was enough to stop the decompressor working and made it v. hard to turn over.

 

 

Interestingly this applies to all the Daihatsu-made "Briggs and Stratton" engines.  It was a consequence of applying tight Japanese tolerances to what had been a pretty loose tolerance bit of American "engineering" (I use the term loosely, as prior to Daihatsu making the better B&S Vanguard engines they could hardly be described as being engineered at all..............).