Lazer blades

[HOMER]

I talked with my new mowing buddy yesterday about his Lazer and the fact that it eats blades! He had a set on his mower that were shot after 3 days of use!

Is this a common thing with the Lazer? Is it due to the deck design? I can get about 5 sharpenings out of my Choppers before I trash the blades and buy a new set.

I saw him today and we were both cutting weeds for the most part. He wanted to know if my Chopper was leaving un-cut strips of grass/weeds and I showed him that it wasn't. I ragged him pretty hard for using worn out blades and he told me the set he was running was brand new, put on last night! They looked bad already...........just curious if it is him or the blades or the deck design.

[Runner]

I don't know what kind of blades he was using, or what he was cutting with them, but I never heard of such a thing before. I know it's not all that uncommon this time of year for people to go blasting through hunks of sod left over from unrepaired plow divots, (why they do it, I don't know) but he had to have been doing some heavy cutting of something besides grass to do that. Sure, sand will cause alot of wear, but not THAT fast. Also, was he hitting gravel prior to that? That would definitely do it too.

[joshua]

i'm with runner, i have 5 sets for my lazer (of blades) used them all last year and so far this year, they are great, not a thing wrong with them. you boys might want to hit sticks and stuff like that. that or someone doesn't know hhow to sharpen blades. i'm pluzzed on this one.

[HOMER]

I was puzzled too! I've never seen anyone go through a set in 3 days, these were gators and the teeth on them were broken off already!

It looked like he had been at the beach mowing sea weed! Maybe it was a rookie thing..........kinda like a Nascar driver saving his tires till the last 2 or 3 laps!

He would have hit the wall!

[awm]

my gators hold up well but running doubles i have noticed that the standard blades get dull twice as fast as the gators

[Eric ELM]

If you take a look at the blade on my double blade page that is angled from the lower right to the upper left, it has approximately 150 hours on it in that picture. I ran just two sets of blades on the diesel from June to last fall when that picture was taken. This blade was on the bottom and got sharpened every other day, approximately 40 times. The other blade you see, the Gator blade is two seasons old and is worn more, but it's been sharpened at least 100 times. I run a standard blade on the top and only sharpen it once a week.

AWM, I'm guessing you are running the Gator blades on top, which is the reason it doesn't get dull as fast. The bottom blade does all the cutting of the grass, the top one only chops up the clippings more.

I read on another post where someone only sharpens his blades a few times and throws them away. What's wrong with a blade that you need to throw them away after sharpening them 5 times Homer?

[HOMER]

Usuall the air lift is thinning or broken out at the tip. If not the blades develop a divot in the center that is real hard to sharpen.

I keep tellin' ya'll your cuttin the good grass, we got the hard stuff down here. Your also cutting at 4" and I'm at 2". This keeps your blades from stirring up so much sand and dirt thus extending the life span. Five sharpenings is about all I ever get before they go to the milk crate.

One of these days I'm coming up there and make some stripes! I cut a little rye this year, next year I'll have it in more places and you better believe I'm gonna make stripes!

[lee b]

I can't get but 5 or 6 sharpenings on a set of blades before there useless. How can you sharpen one a hundred times? After a day or two of hard mowing a brand new blade will already have the corner rounded off, after sharpening a few times you start getting into the airlift on the back of the blade. Warm season grass will eat mower blades in a hurry and the sand will blow holes through the deck, I've seen grasshoppers, scags, and every kind of mower you can think of with gaping holes welded over on the decks. Mowing grass in the south is tough on equipment and the people who run it.

[DMC300]

Down here I have to sharpen blades daily.The dry sandy conditions cause the blades to be visibly dull after 4-5 hrs..
This is on both the Dixie and the Lazer,the sand doesn't discriminate!
Eric,Idon,t know about Homer but after awhile (a short while) the lifts get eaten off by the sand.So while you still have blade left you can't mow with it.

[HOMER]

I wonder if anybody makes a stainless steel blade! Maybe they would last longer. Eric could get 3 yrs out of one while we might get a good month! :D

[Eric ELM]

I guess us Yankees are lucky. I hadn't thought of sand being the problem. Thanks for letting me know the reason.

[Charles]

Yea this is true we cut grass lower here in the south and they sometimes get sand blasted and you are more likely to hit a rock embedded in the grass. He was using gators too which I have found leaves grass sticking up here and the. Now the double gators and the magnums have more vacumm power. But i couldnt use the one set of gator regs at all.

[John DiMartino]

I have 7 sets of blades,and only 175 hrs,I do run doubles,so I use 2 sets at a time.I sharpen mine at least 30 times before they are trashed.All 7sets are still mint,hardly worn at all.When I sharpen,Im just taking off a tiny bit,aince i sharpen every 4-8 mowing hours,so they last a long time.if you only get 5 sharpening out of them-you must run them until there is no edge at all,then you have to grind for 10 minutes a blade.I do not hit rocks,dirt or sand either,if there is any doubt as to the chance of hitting smething,I reduce RPM's ,sno if i hit,it wont be violent or hurt anything.

[lee b]

John in my conditions after 6 hours of mowing the blades will be dulled to the point that a razor sharp edge will be worn down to a .10" wide blunt, thats under tough conditions. Of course there are times and conditions when the wear is not nearly as bad, but during the heat of summer when the bermuda and bahia get tough and the sand is dry you need to change blades at least twice a day, and expect new blades to last about 1 week of mowing. Also on one industrial site I have to replace the edger blade after every edging or about 2 hours use. Sand is tough on all our equipment and we have lots of small rocks that are really bad. Mower decks wear out much faster than the rest of the machine, welded patches are common on decks around here, even on commercial quality mowers a couple years old.

[awm]

THAT IS THE CASE ERIC,DIDNT REALIZE IT COULD MAKE SUCH A DIFFERENCE

[Ssouth]

Anyone ever heard or tried these.
Hamblem blades (http://www.hamblenblade.com/)

[awm]

have you fellows with sand problems tried a flat shaft blade with very little lift.man im glad thats one problem i dont have

[bondlawn]

Homer, I've got a buddy who bought a new Lazer last summer (either 52 or 54 inch cut-can't remember). From day one he had problems with the thing leaving "un-cut strips" as you call it. My Dixie would blow through the same grass and cut pretty as you please. Finally after all this time he got an Exmark factory rep to look at it. (Unfortunately he got little response from the sales rep.) The guy took it back to the factory with him and said something is definately wrong and they would either fix it or replace the machine. Maybe your friend has the same problem.

Yes, we do have tough conditions here in the South (as well as the prettiest girls). I cut a school that is so bad that a brand new blade at 06:30 is worn to the point of missing 1/3 of the blade width by the end of the day (12 hours of cutting). Its all a matter of how much sand is loose in the grass.

[HOMER]

I've been through Griffin on the way to Hampton to watch the race, very pretty town as I recall. I will keep tabs on him and see if it was a "weed thing" or if it is also doing it in the grass as well.

I just thought the deck design of the Lazer created a lot more vaccuum and maybe this was the reason for the blades wearing prematurely.

[Eric ELM]

ssouth, I can't believe they don't post a picture of it. It seems hard to believe you could put on their blade and never have to sharpen it or replace it, EVER as they say.

This sounds like a gimmick, self sharpening blades, razor sharp and stay razor sharp. Has anyone tried these?

If this is true, the price is right at least.

[Ssouth]

Eric, I know they should post a pic. I going to E-mail them for some literature and see if it has a pic with specifics.

[65hoss]

I usually get a lot of hours out a blades. My gators on the lazer seem to be holding up pretty well. All the leaf jobs and bare dirt I've been over lately have definetly made a difference on them.

[awm]

i was thinking the same thing about them hamptons.
surely somebody has tried them. how do you make a blade sharpen itself. ANYBODY, CAUSE IF THEY HAVE FIGURED HOW TO DO THAT IM ON THE LIST . if its really sharp
sounds a little like an elephant flying an disneys the only one i ever saw pull that off.

[ChadsLawn]

There flat blades...i copied this from there FAQ's page


How Long will the HamblenBlade Last?
The HamblenBlade will generally last two to two and a half times longer than a commercial blade in a lawn maintenance situation. Because it sharpens itself you don't need to invest man hours or resources to keep you blade sharp. The actual amount of time a blade last depends on the soil and grass type. In Florida, where the sand content is high, we have found our blades lasting 80 hours or more with blade rotation every 8 hours. Rotating the HamblenBlade involves only removing the blade from the mower, turning it over and remounting the same blade on the same mower.