Flail Mower new to me flail mower

[blitzen]

I bought a flail mower a couple months ago and the guy I bought it from just came back from vacation and delivered my new to me mower. It has hammers and they appear to be quite worn was wondering if anyone could direct me as where to go for new hammers. I have attached some pics of it. It is eight feet wide and I use my 47 pto horsepower to mow with I want to mulch up some poplar trees but the hammers appear to be past their prime and don't really dig in like I was hoping. I think once I put new hammers on I will eat those trees up.

 

[drjay9051]

Check out Flail Master. They are located , i believe in TN. Ask for a printed catalog or they have a downloadable catalog. Free Catalog


Tons of knives (hammers). Just make sure you get similar type as far as measurements. If you mail them a knife they will match it up for you. Great company to deal with.

I replaced the 88 knives on my Caroni with Flail Master brand. No complaints.

Leonz will likely chime in at any moment.

 

[minner]

Yep use Flail Master exclusively for my JD 390. They are half the price of the JD stealership.

 

[leonz]

I wish to welcome you as the newest member of the Flail Mower Nation.


You have an excellent Italian made flail mower that will last you a long time.


NOW the cast flail mower hammers which you have are
hardened steel castings and are ment as a rough cut mower
for heavy brush and vineyards.

You have to be carefull when grinding an edge for them as
you need a wet well kitchen knive grinder for the job will
work very well for this.


The local Seppi Dealer in your area will have these hammers for your
Seppi Flail Mower.


You have a great mower so dont hesitate to use it.

 

[greg_g]

Yeah, improper sharpening techniques can degrade the strength of cast and/or hardened steel. Sorta like reverse heat-treating. Yours should be sharpened on an oil- or water-cooled grinding disc. I'd be hard pressed to find anyone around here who can even do that, so in my case - I'd have to select "replace" over "repair".

//greg//

 

[blitzen]

Thanks for the information. I am wondering if it would hurt the blades if I filled them in with weld. They all need work or would the heat ruin the old hammers. I guess at this point I may have nothing to lose. The local seppi dealer has new hammers at 29.00 each. Flail-Master has a loftness hammer that is close it measures .65 at the hole 4.68 inches across the blade with 1.63" across the top and 5 inches tall. The seppi measures 1 1/2 " across top 4 5/8ths blade width and the same for height and the hole looks to be 11/16. Any ideas? Thanks in advance Dave

 

[leonz]

Hello Dave,

I would not want to attempt filling in the hammers with weld as the metals may not be the same.

About the Loftness hammers is they are not metric in size so thats a big concern.

The Seppi knives should come with pins or the pins are not that expensive-they are a wear part too

and should be changed.

NOW;


My feeling is run it for a season or two with your mowing needs and

then decide if you want to change the Old Hammers with New Seppi Hammers.


OR


I would also check with clean cutter or hard hitter to see if you can buy seppi replacement hammers from them too.



Will you be replacing the PTO shaft with a new one or buying the plastic safety sleeves?


I could grind them for you but I dont know if the mailing/shipping cost would be worth it for you versus buying new.


if you can purchase a kitchen knive grinder with a wet wheel like a Wen Kitchen knive grinder you will be able to sharpen the hammers.

Generally a flail hammer will crack and essentially break apart and then need to be replaced.

The other issue is maintaining the proper balance on the flail mower rotor as the hammers need to be the same weight when they are reinstalled on the flail mower rotor.


Leon

 

[blitzen]

I have 2 replacement hammers plus it appears that I may have broke one off the rotor with no damage to rotor. If I install the 2 new ones they will weigh more than the used ones so I am guessing they will all need replacing and as a side note the nuts appear to be welded to the bolts that the hammers swings on. So it looks like a little grinding will be in order so yes I will be needing new pins or nuts and bolts or if anyone can think of a better way I am willing to listen. Thanks again to all for your help. Dave

 

[blitzen]

Just wanted to thank leonz for his excellent advice cleancutter has what I need and at approx. 22.00 plus shipping. I am well pleased with this so I will order 24 and get the nuts and bolts too as soon as I am able. I bet it is a whole other animal with a bite that actually has teeth. Even as dull as the hammers are it still mulches 5 and 6 foot weeds quite well granted I am in low 3 dropping back to 2 when I hit 2 and 3 foot tall grass the grass really can load up and bog the tractor down. When I slow down it does a nice job on just about everything. Attached are a couple of before pics of the poplars I intend to reduce to mulch the second one you can see to the left that it did not mulch the stem of the trees well but ate the branches and leaves pretty good. With the new hammers I am hoping to reclaim this area and any other areas that need it. Will post after pics when I get the new hammers installed. Dave

 

[leonz]

I love it when a plan comes together.


Dave please be sure to get the same grade of nuts and bolts
preferably fine thread as they will have better holding power
as well as the proper grade of bolt- if the dealer is not sure you can e-mail Seppi and they will tell you what grade you need and be sure to use blue loctite.


Is that grove of poplar a big one???
Would it be a bit faster for you to rent a pole saw to cut
them down a bit before you whack them with the Seppi?

 

[jimmysisson]

I'd be more concerned with wires under the tractor than the mowing, which looks like it came out great.
My Mott 88" with grass knives takes all the 40 hp my tractor has in thick grass. Does a nice job tho.
Jim

 

[blitzen]

Leon, that stand is not that big maybe 4 or 5 acres I also have an eliminator rake with scarifiers (spelling?) it is a bobcat implement and I can put it on the front in place of the bucket. I run it at ground level with the scarifiers below ground and the teeth on the rake are wide enough that it will pluck the small trees out. So I will run both at the same time and make adjustments from there. I also will get the right nuts and bolts. Blue Loctite intead of welding on, I will try this as it is not so permanent. Dave

 

[drjay9051]

Thanks for the information. I am wondering if it would hurt the blades if I filled them in with weld. They all need work or would the heat ruin the old hammers. I guess at this point I may have nothing to lose. The local seppi dealer has new hammers at 29.00 each. Flail-Master has a loftness hammer that is close it measures .65 at the hole 4.68 inches across the blade with 1.63" across the top and 5 inches tall. The seppi measures 1 1/2 " across top 4 5/8ths blade width and the same for height and the hole looks to be 11/16. Any ideas? Thanks in advance Dave

11/16 is .6875. Flail Master hole may not be big enough ! I had same issue when I replaced knives on my Caroni. Since mine mount via nut/bolt I simply bought 88 nut/bolts locally. YMMV.

As I mentioned you could mail a hammer to Flail Master.

Oh yes my replacements were half the thickness of the original blades. That was a spec i failed to look at. However OEM replacements were $3 each and the Flail Master knives were $.62 each. So for the difference I'm all for more frequent replacement.

 

[blitzen]

drjay, Thanks for the info I was able to connect with cleancutter.com and they have what I need at 22.00 each plus shipping the other seppi dealer wanted 29.00 plus shipping and I think cleancutter is only 10.00 0n shipping and they spec out almost identical. Flailmaster only had the loftness hammers or I would have ordered them I believe they wanted 19.00 each which would save me an additional 72.00 but they won't work so I am going to go with cleancutter and I feel its a fair price. It will cost around 600.00 for the needed parts and will bring my investment to 1300.00 total for this flail mower. Still a fair price (Ifeel) for an 8 foot hydraulic offset seppi mower in good overall condition. Dave

 

[drjay9051]

drjay, Thanks for the info I was able to connect with cleancutter.com and they have what I need at 22.00 each plus shipping the other seppi dealer wanted 29.00 plus shipping and I think cleancutter is only 10.00 0n shipping and they spec out almost identical. Flailmaster only had the loftness hammers or I would have ordered them I believe they wanted 19.00 each which would save me an additional 72.00 but they won't work so I am going to go with cleancutter and I feel its a fair price. It will cost around 600.00 for the needed parts and will bring my investment to 1300.00 total for this flail mower. Still a fair price (Ifeel) for an 8 foot hydraulic offset seppi mower in good overall condition. Dave

Welcome to the flail community. I don't believe you will ever regret the move.