Caroni TM1900 with Smooth-Cut Blades

[nunyabinis]

This morning I took the stock blades off and installed the following blades:


Mower Parts



To my eye, the resultant cut looks as good as a regular finishing mower. I am most pleased.

I figured that I would use these blades to cut my lawn this spring & summer and put the stock blades back on this fall before I do any heavy-duty cutting down at the Hunt Club.

 

[IslandTractor]

How long did it take you to change all the knives? What tools did you use? Photos of new cut?

 

[nunyabinis]

How long did it take you to change all the knives? What tools did you use? Photos of new cut?

Took about 45 minutes. One 3/8 in air-ratchet and one 17mm wrench. Thank God for air tools!!! Now that I know what I'm doing it'll prolly only take about 30 minutes next time.


I'll see about some photos. Right now I'm cutting mainly weeds. My yard is Common Bermuda and it doesn't "come in" real good until about mid June. The hotter it is the better it likes it.

 

[J_J]

Took about 45 minutes. One 3/8 in air-ratchet and one 17mm wrench. Thank God for air tools!!! Now that I know what I'm doing it'll prolly only take about 30 minutes next time.


I'll see about some photos. Right now I'm cutting mainly weeds. My yard is Common Bermuda and it doesn't "come in" real good until about mid June. The hotter it is the better it likes it.

I believe that blade is a medium duty blade. Yes it will cut grass very well, and weeds and rough stuff. I have the fine cut blades on mine, and I try to stay away from heavy weeds, small trees, etc, as it will beat up the cutting edges taster. I replaced 176 blades on mine. 88 stations 2 blades each. Sharpened on both sides. Someone was asking about the overlap, and you can see the overlap in this picture.

On your one blade, does that single blade overlap any , or is it just as wide as the double blades?

 

[Reg]

Assuming you have the 56 shackle version;
I hope you noted that there is an apparent mistake on the assembly of leftmost one ?
Just a reminder for when you put them back.

For anyone who doesn't know, or hasn't noticed yet, they both face "inwards" like a pair of letter "L"s like this "LL" but tighter together.
On all the other shackles they go back to back, kinda like thin cheap sheet metal bookends with no books between them.

How I know ? I made the mistake of "correcting" what I thought was an assembly error.
It only took one jam to teach me that the folk at the factory probably knew what they were doing.

EDIT:
J J and I were posting at about the same time.
If I had seen his picture before I posted I might have worded things differently.
Anyway, what I described as "L" shapes are in fact opened out more than that, about 135 degrees not 90.
The ones on the extreme left shackle don't go back to back, they both go right.
:END EDIT

 

[nunyabinis]

On your one blade, does that single blade overlap any , or is it just as wide as the double blades?

The cutting edge of the single blade is almost exactly the same width as the two stock blades measured at their bottoms while hanging. I took several measurements before ordering the single blades and the ones I ordered were the closest I could get to the stock blades.

The most critical measurement ended up being the slot that the shackle eyes have to go through. On the Caroni stock blades the slot is one inch long. Of all the single blades that flailmaster.com sales, the blades that I ordered are the only single blades that have the one inch long shackle slot. Anything smaller would not have allowed the shackle eyes to go through the blade slot. It HAS to be at least one inch.

 

[J_J]

Reg, were you talking about the picture that I posted? If so, that is a reference picture, not my flail, although mine is similar.. Now that you mentioned it, I don't know about the outside blades. I will have to check. If I remember right, I had some space past the last hanger, but if I see things beat to he**, then I will know.

 

[nunyabinis]

Assuming you have the 56 shackle version;
I hope you noted that there is an apparent mistake on the assembly of leftmost one ?
Just a reminder for when you put them back.

For anyone who doesn't know, or hasn't noticed yet, they both face "inwards" like a pair of letter "L"s like this "LL" but tighter together.
On all the other shackles they go back to back, kinda like thin cheap sheet metal bookends with no books between them.

How I know ? I made the mistake of "correcting" what I thought was an assembly error.
It only took one jam to teach me that the folk at the factory probably knew what they were doing.

EDIT:
J J and I were posting at about the same time.
If I had seen his picture before I posted I might have worded things differently.
Anyway, what I described as "L" shapes are in fact opened out more than that, about 135 degrees not 90.
The ones on the extreme left shackle don't go back to back, they both go right.
:END EDIT

ALL the blades on mine were on back to back. I'm 99% sure. (I always leave that one percent just in case)


Anyway, I cut grass for two hours with the new blades and the mower ran great. Actually, it ran smoother and quieter than with the stock blades. Prolly because the single blades don't have as much mass. The stock blades are heavy-duty.

 

[J_J]

Here are two diffwerent shafts, finish cut, and rough cut. The price of just the shafts is large, over $2000.

 

[nunyabinis]

Here are two diffwerent shafts, finish cut, and rough cut. The price of just the shafts is large, over $2000.

Indeed. That's why I opted for the $100 solution.





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