Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

[toolslinger]

Leonz - Thanks so much for that. That's the cleanest parts breakout I've seen yet, and actual instructions are a bonus!

 

[Racenut]

Merry Christmas to me. I say Christmas because it may be December before I can actually do anything with it due to fire hazard here in Ca. But we'll see... at least I'll have it ready to go by then.

Went with the Novatractor MFZ because their hammers just look like they will munch stuff better. I'm less concerned with how fine it cuts grass and more concerned with how it will shred berries, weeds, brush, saplings and small branches. So hopefully these will do the trick. In my wife's hand they look huge, though they are still pretty big.

Will review once I get a chance to munch some stuff

 

[leonz]

Hello and good afternoon Racenut,

I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the "Flail Mower Nations" from the Golden State.
To save yourself a great deal of aggravation I want to suggest to you that you remove the spring clips and
drill these holes on the recutting bars larger to enable you to use 1/4" by 1" inch fine threaded bolts and
nylock nuts.
By doing this you will avoid losing the recutting bars and also avoid having to hunt for them
on the mowed land.

Happy mowing

 

[Racenut]

remove the spring clips and drill these holes on the recutting bars larger to enable you to use 1/4" by 1" inch fine threaded bolts and nylock nuts.

Thanks or the tip. I'll take care of that before they have a chance to escape.

 

[toolslinger]

Well, after some back and forth with Montage, I've got all the parts I need ordered. That includes a new, complete roller, which they didn't blink an eye at providing. I fortunately found most of the gearbox bearings on the shelf at work, so I saved a little there. They're not exotic, so I didn't really want to pay the premium from Montage...

Cost for everything is more than I wanted to spend, but fine really. I'll be somewhere under or right at $2000 for the mower when it's up and running, including the $250 purchase price...

One item they didn't have that I need is the Roller Nut Guard. That's NLA, and I'm missing one, and the second is incredibly worn. I can't imagine how much this machine has been run to grind that down so badly...

Anyway, I run a CNC mill for prototyping parts at my company, so I thought I'd take a stab at making them.

Cut from 4140 PH steel. Assuming I don't loose one while mowing, I should be good on these for the rest of my life...
Second one is on the machine finishing up currently...

 

[jthibodeau89]

Noce work on the cnc. What make and model cnc mill do you run?

Icagree that the parts you made will likely outlast you.

 

[toolslinger]

We've got a Haas VF2ss. Mostly I run Aluminum, and Stainless, so getting feeds and speeds right for the PH was a little annoying, plus we just moved to a full 3d software from 2.5, so I was using this as a learning experience. These parts have a lot of play when installed, so this was the perfect part to learn the various 3d strategies on. If I ended up with something even reasonably close it would have worked... Second piece wasn't quite as good. I must have been off by .005 when I flipped it on X, so I've kinda got a parting line look on that one. Oh well, that buffed right out... Now I just have to get those bloody magnetic chips out of the machine...

 

[ddbackhoe]

Liked my import flail so much that I finally finished modding it to fit on the front of my skidsteer. Now if only I had a telescopic boom to reach farther under ,,,,,

 

[jonsstihl]

nice work, do you have another hydraulic outlet so you can move the cylinder in and out on your telescoping boom you are going to build

how did you mount the hydraulic motor to resist the torque motion. Assuming it is on some kind of plate between the A frame.

 

[jthibodeau89]

We've got a Haas VF2ss. Mostly I run Aluminum, and Stainless, so getting feeds and speeds right for the PH was a little annoying, plus we just moved to a full 3d software from 2.5, so I was using this as a learning experience. These parts have a lot of play when installed, so this was the perfect part to learn the various 3d strategies on. If I ended up with something even reasonably close it would have worked... Second piece wasn't quite as good. I must have been off by .005 when I flipped it on X, so I've kinda got a parting line look on that one. Oh well, that buffed right out... Now I just have to get those bloody magnetic chips out of the machine...

Gotcha, Haas VF2ss. I would like to get a surplus VF1 or VF2 for my retirement plan. May also look at a Fadal. Maybe early 2000 vintage.