Changing/sharpening blades

[Joel B.]

How do you change/sharpen blades on your big mowers? I have to either drive up on ramps and lie on the ground under the tractor or take off the whole deck to change/sharpen blades. Is there an easier way?

Thanks,

Joel B.

[65hoss]

I don't know what kind of mower your talking about, but I hang the Lazer off the side of the trailer gate and easily change them. My cub cadet garden tractor I use a floor jack to get it up and then an air impact to take them off.

[Craig Turf Management]

For walk-behind units, I lift the front of the mower, and put the anti-scalp roller in the front of the deck on a jack-stand. My mowers are balanced in such a way that I can lift the front of the deck with one hand.
I drive my rider up on a ramp. The kind designed for automotive use. I drive just one of my front casters up on one ramp. This gives me plenty of room to work.
Bill Craig!

[Lawn-Scapes]

I use a 3.5 ton floor jack. It gives almost 20" of clearance.. which is more than enough. I keep it in my enclosed trailer so I can change any where.. any time.

[dgrazdude]

Jungle Jim's makes a real nice jack called a jungle jack. It lifts the mower easily and gives plenty of clearance. It costs about 130.00. You can check it out on the internet.
dgrazdude

[Lbilawncare]

We use an engine hoist to change the blades on our dixie choppers. The chain hooks easily around the front "bumper" & it raises high enough to scrape the deck if we need to. It is also handy for the walk-behinds, changing clutches, motor bolts, etc is easier.

[mikal]

To sharpin, I use a 4.5 inch angle grinder and then lightly and fast run the blade on a bench grinder ( both sides of the blade sometimes because a lip can form underneith ) Plus keep water handy to cool off the metal and then balance it. To take them off I throw down a 4X4 piece of wood along a curb and then ride my cub up on it.

[Phishook]

In the shop I use an engin hoist. On the job, I run one side of the mower up the ramp, leaving the other side hanging off.

To sharpen I use a 4 1/2" sanding disk on a hand grinder with a rubber disk behind it. Works good to keep them sharp; kind of hard to get a straight edge on a really bad blade.

[SLS]

Jungle Jack to lift ZTR and walkbehind and good ol' bench grinder to sharpen the blades.

[Bushman]

For the Exmarks we drive one front wheel up the trailer tailgate (with the mower back tires solidly on the ground, to the side and brake engaged) Plenty of clearance and no way for anything to slip and drop. (The Walkers have tilt-up decks)
If the bolt threads are kept in good condition, they should just spin on and off with the wrench used only for torqueing. If not consider buying new bolts or a tap and die set to clean up the old ones.
We currently use a bench grinder with a water bucket to keep the blades cool, but are considering a commercial blade grinder. Has anyone else made the move? How much faster and better are the commercial grinders?

[awm]

one thing u may want to consider is a 12 volt impact wrench. took a lot of wk out of changing blds for me. campbell hausfield makes one that will last.. this tool plugs into your cigerette lighter.so u can change blds anywhere.

[Gtotoy]

I use an electric chain hoist bolted to a 4x4 in the rafters of the shop. works great on Z's and walk- behinds.

[hoagie]

Bushman.... I just picked up a magna-matic 9000 and the thing is phucking incredible. No comparison what so ever to a bench grinder. The edges are razor sharp in no time... and I dont know what the heck I ever did w/ out their balancer.


Well worth the cost.

[P&J Lawncare]

I use the r.b.g grinder and it is the one tool that I can't live without.

[dr grass]

on mid-mounts i pick up the deck with one hand slide a, floor jack under the front rollers with the other. on the front-mounts i take a 2 by 4 thats about 6 foot long and slide it underneath the deck, off centered and pick it up off the ground. with the other hand i slide the jack under the front rollers. than i have 2 r.g.b grinders. the 3/4 horse we use to knok the edge down and slide it across the back of the blade fairly quickly. than i use the 1 horse to take em down. works sweet. as long as there are no bad dings in them, it usually takes from 3-5 minutes. it makes a diffenence when you keep the blaces nice ans sharp every day.

shep:sleeping:

[rodfather]

Our trailers are "dovetail"...all we have to do is back the machine up to just over where the dovetail begins. Then we just lift up the decks on either the riders or wb's and change out the blades.

Pretty simple procedure for us for us...and real quick too.

[brucec32]

I've busted welds loose on my trailer ramp by using it for changing blades. Yours may be stronger, though. Instead, I use a small ramp built for cars that you just drive one wheel up on for my lazer z rider. It gives me enough clearance to use an impact wrench under to loosen the blades. For some reason my lazer Z has at least one blade stick BAD about once a month. I even replaced the compression washers with regular ones and it still does it sometimes. Try the drive-on ramps, they're about $30 for a pair, I think.

[wxmn6]

I tried my trailer ramps for raising my mid mount mower to change the blades but it is too hard so I went to WalMart and bought a pair of car ramps for $18. A good investment.

[Runner]

Lift with a Junglejack, (carried on the rig) rap the blades off with a rechargable impact gun (carried on the rig) and replace with whatever blade combination is best suited for the conditions I'm cutting. (carried on the rig) The whole operation is done in about 3 minutes in the field, by the time everything is put back away again. You can add about another 2 minutes if I scrape the deck then clean that up. ;)