A new mower model "Mow All" coming soon...

[nomad]

A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

No, not coming yet, title is just a joke - but topic isn't.
Why is such a "mow all" not available in the field?

I have seen many threads about the mowers here; finish mowers, drum mowers, disc mowers, rotary cutter mowers, etc. Their working principles of all these are "more or less" same and can be summarized as "there are blades cutting the grass following a rotational motion" - they differ from each other only in speeds and sizes of blades. But these differences can be adjusted easily by adding a simple component or two (for ex., by an extra free gear like engine gearbox, a finish mower can be operated as a rotary cutter.)

I think all these rotational mowers can be combined/united into one kind of mower and we can call it "mow-all"-

Ps: I'm seriously thinking about a "home-built mow-all" mower now. But I need some simple drawings of blades of different mowers to write a simple/generalized computer simulation code for the blade motion and for the air+grass mixture flow around the blades. If you have such simple blade drawings, post them here in this thread please.

 

[Bob_Skurka]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

I'm not sure that a finish mower can work like a rotary cutter. A rotary cutter typcially uses a few short blades attached to a large heavy disk. The disk seems to act like a flywheel to maintain momentum when cutting through very heavy stuff like 1" saplings, wet/tall grasses, etc. The inertia of the spinning disk keeps the blade speed up for such heavy tasks. A finish mower, on the other hand, uses much lighter blades that are longer and spin on their own spindle at the center point. They do not have the mass and therefore cannot create the inertia needed to easily cut through some of the things a rotary cutter is designed to cut through.

I'm not saying you can't get a decent looking lawn out of a rotary cutter, or that a finish mower can't mow a field. I think you can do either or both. But then again you can empty a pond with a teaspoon, it just isn't designed for that job. So in my mind mowers are task specific, one is designed for one type of job. . . it may do other jobs, but perhaps not with the same ease or the same quality of results, or perhaps not without some potential damage.

 

[Dave___in___CT]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

The Mini Van of mowing... /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif


Dave...

 

[RobS]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

Also, the things you typically cut with a bush hog will quickly take the sharp edge off the blades which will result in a poor cut on the nice lawn /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

 

[nomad]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

Bob_Skurka wrote:
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( .. The inertia of the spinning disk (of rotary cutter) keeps the blade speed up for such heavy tasks .. )</font>

No, this inertia would not be needed for such heavy tasks if the blade of rotary cutter operated faster. Since the speed of rotary cutter blade is low (to make the mechanism cheaper) that inertial (the blades mounted to a disk) is added to match the required force to cut the heavy grass. To increase the force applied to the grass, you should either increase its inertia (by changing mass center) or should increase its speed of the cutter. So, a finish mower blade with a speed of 3000 rpm can easily accomplish heavy tasks. But, the finish mower's restriction is its deck design which won't allow to work for heavy grass. But, this too is a simple problem.

RobS wrote:
</font><font color="blue" class="small">( Also, the things you typically cut with a bush hog will quickly take the sharp edge off the blades which will result in a poor cut on the nice lawn )</font>

Well, this problem can be overcome by making a special blade with a good wear resistance.

I think you think such a Mow-All or Mini-Van-Mow;-) will cost a lot. No, its cost will not be more than a total cost of rotary cutter + finish mower because one deck, one gearbox, one clutch, one shaft will be used.

 

[PineRidge]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

I don't think one implement to do all the jobs is feasible, But if you get all the bugs worked out I would like to see a demo of this mow all in action. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

 

[Egon]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

Check out " air foils ". Thats basically all a rotary blade is. You could write programs to optimize the blade configuration based on the Froude number of a grass air mixture.

Egon

 

[EdKing]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

<font color="blue"> No, this inertia would not be needed for such heavy tasks if the blade of rotary cutter operated faster. Since the speed of rotary cutter blade is low (to make the mechanism cheaper) that inertial (the blades mounted to a disk) is added to match the required force to cut the heavy grass. </font>

A good example of this is the old Gravely 2 wheel tractors. Same deck, just 2 different blade configurations. Single heavy blade for cutting the thick stuff, or 2 light sharp blades in a cross pattern for finish mowing.

 

[RalphVa]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

I'll second the motion on the Gravely "bush hog". With the single, heavy blade it'll cut through almost anything that you can hold the tractor in place against when it hits it. With the crossed blades, it'll do a beutiful lawn mowing job. Actually, the crossed blades aren't too bad even for bush hogging. Just can't do really big stuff. The mower also is a mulcher. It does this by having a dome above the blade.

Ralph

 

[jinman]

Re: A new mower model \"Mow All\" coming soon...

Nomad's "Mow-All"

/forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif