I have been very happy with the notched air foil Excaliburs used on my 60" Lazer. I recently had a dealer order 7 more for me, two complete sets and one to replace a damaged one on a previous set. Last week I replaced the one and didn't even bother to look at the other two complete sets. Today I unwrapped the other two sets and 2 of the 6 look defective. If you look across the cutting edges, both flare down near to ends. The others seem fine. It also appears the tops of these blades have a considerable amount of rust under the paint compared to the other 5 I purchased. Is it normal to have defects like that roll right through? Put on the mower, you probably would not even notice the difference in cut, but the fact is, those two would have to cut lower because of the flare. Another problem is, the dealers do not want to handle them and are often reluctant to order them. They would much prefer to sell and aftermarket blade and make more money on them. I have a feeling if I make a big stink about this they may not want to order any more of them for me.
I just wanted to add that I have noticed that there is a QC problem with these blades. Most come tweaked or bent right from the parts shelf. Some worse than others. I often ask my dealer to inspect them and pick out good ones. I believe that they first machine in the edge, then notch the foil, then roll the lift up with heat. This puts a funky bend about midway down the edge. I use SCAG's Marbain blades on my SCAG, and they are a REAL nicely manufactured blade. Light, strong, and perfectly flat! May want to look at choosing another supplier?
Guys, We've already contacted out blade supplier and have began inspecting the blades we have in house. Our supplier has also requested that we get your e-mail addresses so they can contact you directly and retrieve the blades you have for inspection. Please e-mail me at terry.eckert@exmark.com. Thanks Terry
I have found the same problem. I went to pickup some Excaliburs that the dealer had ordered for me. I always check them to be sure they sit nice and flat on his parts counter. The blades he tried to sell had a very noticable bow in them. I refused to buy them and the dealer got very upset. He said Exmark wouldn't let blades come though the parts system that weren't within spec. Is that true Terry, Dustin, Fred??? Shouldn't they all sit flat on a level, perfectly flat surface. I want blades that are flat, true and line up prefect tip to tip. I have found that my Lazer cuts flawless when I have blades that line up perfect tip to tip.
JK, Here's the scoop guys. I went out and looked at a set of blades from assembly and they too have a slight bow at the tips. If you set the blade on a completely flat surface you might be able to get a nickel under the center of the blade. We're checking our parts inventory as well. The slight amount of bow we found is "normal" and won't effect the cut. During the manufacture of a blade there are a series of stresses that the steel is subjected to. The bend to create the air foil, the stamp to remove the notch, the punch to remove material for the blade bolt, the grinding process and then after all that it then gets heat treated. It's virtually impossible to keep everything completely flat. Also the notched blades in heavy, wet or lush conditions will bow a little with use from the airfoil out. Generally they will bow about a blade thickness to and then stabilize unless you hit something. This also doesn't present a problem in regards to quality of cut. If you look at the blades posted in the general forum on this subject you'll notice a wave in them. This does not appear to be normal and we are currently investigating this to determine what the cause is. Right now it looks like everything we have is in pretty good shape. We did find a small handful of blades that looked really bad. Afte we measured them they looked a lot worse than they actually were. We're still pulling samples but we haven't found anything that was out of tolerence enough to effect performance yet. Thanks for bringing this to our attention guys. Terry
I got in touch with the blade manufacturer today. Rather than take these blades back to the dealer and risk them ending up in someone elses possesion, I am going to send them back to them.
More importantly, eXmark, thank you for taking the steps you've taken in such a quick, concise manner. Its reasons like this that I love eXmark....along with 94.6% of everybody else=)
