Flail Mower New to Me- Seppi SMO 200 Flail Mower

[Doug Vee]

Wow, you are getting after it! here are a couple photos of the SMW hammer. After market from Clean Cutter Tiller Blades. item name MAZ07. Here is a picture of the SMW hammer front and back.

Ha! Your first sentence are the exact words my brother in law used.

Apparently the existing hammers on this machine are not original equipment.

I was able to remove the roller yesterday. The end cap with the good stub shaft that was askew in the last pictures came off without too much of an issue. The end with the bad stub shaft is another story. It appears is was rubbing so long on the end cap, that the joint between the stub shaft and the rest of the end cap is not whole. I tried tapping down on that stub to see if the end cap would come loose like the other end...no cigar, stub hub broke loose from the end cap.

There are no separate parts listed for the end caps/stub shafts, so I am assuming it will need a machine shop rebuild OR an entirely new complete roller. $$$$

The gearbox is apparently done draining. As noted earlier, there is no hurry to refill, but I have a question on the gear oil level...there is no level plug. I guess that is not too big of deal, a piece of wire could act as a dipstick. The question is- What should the oil level be? I have three other mowers with gear boxes, and it appears that the oil level on all three of them is "a little lower than the center of the gear set/output shaft". The bottom of the level plug is about 1" lower than the center on the 5' rotary cutter (New Holland), and maybe 1/2" lower on the 6' John Deere belly mower. I can't quite see good enough on the 6' Kubota front deck to know exactly, but it is around there.

Doug

 

[blitzen]

Ha! Your first sentence are the exact words my brother in law used.

Apparently the existing hammers on this machine are not original equipment.

I was able to remove the roller yesterday. The end cap with the good stub shaft that was askew in the last pictures came off without too much of an issue. The end with the bad stub shaft is another story. It appears is was rubbing so long on the end cap, that the joint between the stub shaft and the rest of the end cap is not whole. I tried tapping down on that stub to see if the end cap would come loose like the other end...no cigar, stub hub broke loose from the end cap.
View attachment 863729
View attachment 863731
There are no separate parts listed for the end caps/stub shafts, so I am assuming it will need a machine shop rebuild OR an entirely new complete roller. $$$$

The gearbox is apparently done draining. As noted earlier, there is no hurry to refill, but I have a question on the gear oil level...there is no level plug. I guess that is not too big of deal, a piece of wire could act as a dipstick. The question is- What should the oil level be? I have three other mowers with gear boxes, and it appears that the oil level on all three of them is "a little lower than the center of the gear set/output shaft". The bottom of the level plug is about 1" lower than the center on the 5' rotary cutter (New Holland), and maybe 1/2" lower on the 6' John Deere belly mower. I can't quite see good enough on the 6' Kubota front deck to know exactly, but it is around there.

Doug

I spoke to one of the guys at Seppi, they said that they don't have the old roller anymore and have a new design, they have incorporated to work with the older mowers. I am not clear on how to check the level of gear oil to make sure it is correctly filled. When I look into the gear box I am seeing a little better than half full and seems to work fine for me.

 

[Doug Vee]

I spoke to one of the guys at Seppi, they said that they don't have the old roller anymore and have a new design, they have incorporated to work with the older mowers. I am not clear on how to check the level of gear oil to make sure it is correctly filled. When I look into the gear box I am seeing a little better than half full and seems to work fine for me.

blitzen,

I did note that there are two roller assemblies listed in the manual. One is described as "prior production". Mine looks like the prior production part. The roller support brackets appear to be different between the two iterations of the roller. So, if I can't have the roller repaired, I guess I am stuck with an all new roller assembly, with brackets, bearings, etc.

Concerning oil level in the gearbox- "around half full" must be the level to shoot for.

Thanks again,
Doug

 

[blitzen]

Yup, on the roller assembly. Yup on the gearbox too.

You're welcome...

Dave

 

[Doug Vee]

Yesterday Pape got back to me with a parts order quote. Bad news about the roller. The bearing supports, and bearings are no longer available for use with the old roller (once repaired, if possible). The complete, current style replacement roller assembly would be $3K, shipped from Italy (half is the assembly, the other half is shipping).

I will contact a couple of shops next week to see what might be possible in regard to repair/rebuild of the existing roller. If that is possible (depending on cost), I will need to source some sort of bearing replacements, and the inner bearing supports, called a "labyrinth" on the parts breakdown.

Can anyone recommend a supplier that might be able to help with the above noted items? And possibly replacement hammers/bolts for this machine?

If the parts cannot be sourced, and the roller cannot be repaired, then I guess I would be over the proverbial barrel. I think the balance of the machine is worth a new roller, but obviously it would be my preference to not buy a new roller, but probably would if need be...

Thank you all,
Doug

 

[Doug Vee]

Just did a quick check on the "Lets Talk Flail Mowers" thread. Looks like Carrie at Flail Masters might be a person to check with. I also did a quick Google search on the roller bearing and had many hits to check into next week.

I would still appreciate any input one might have time to provide.

Doug

 

[Doug Vee]

This project is moving, albeit slowly.

I was able to have the roller rehabilitated. A prior owner had changed the bearing setup on it and now I know why. It was not feasible, at least for me, to go with all Seppi parts. The bearings are both grease-able Timken bearings in Timken pillow blocks. A local machine shop did the shaft repairs and re-welded the end caps to the pipe.

I was able to get all the worn out hammers off the rotor. Some I had to cut off, but many of the nuts threaded off. My shoulders and hands were sore for a couple of days after, but it is done. New hammers and bolts are ordered from Flail Master and should be here mid to late June.

My next project though, is removing the rod that the front deflector plates hang from. I want to change from the deflector plate system to deflector chains.

Some mounting holes for the rear hatch are waller-ed out, so I need to weld in and re-drill...might rent a mag drill for that. Also, one of the offsetting link arms of the hitch has a small crack. I will grind it out and re-weld it.

Doug

 

[Doug Vee]

I removed the deflector rod and all the shot deflector plates yesterday. I may buy a new 3/4" rod and weld the bolt tab to it. The current rod apparently started as an 18MM rod, is closer to 17.5MM now. I want to switch to deflector chain, but am wondering what size chain would fit on a 3/4" (pretty close to 18MM) rod. Obviously, the ID width of the link would need to be large enough to slide on the rod. Looking on line it appears that 1/2" chain has an ID large enough for that, but that size chain does not seem like what I see hanging on mowers in on line pictures. The optional Seppi chains don't appear to be 1/2" in the parts pictures. Suggestions/ideas would be appreciated.

Concerning rotor balance- with the rotor completely stripped, I notice that when I spin the rotor by hand, it always comes to rest in the same location. That seems to indicate an out of balance condition. I inserted one bolt/nut at a time opposite the "heavy" side until it stopped settling in the same place. It took 3 bolts/nuts to balance the rotor. I weighed the 3 assemblies and they total 1 pound-5.31 ounces. My question(s) is(are)- how close to perfectly balanced are rotors on other peoples machines and if not perfectly balanced, is the vibration significant or tolerable?

Thanks again for the input,
Doug

 

[blitzen]

Just wanted to chime in and say that last week I received my hammers and nuts & bolts for my Seppi, here is a picture of the drum. I am well pleased with how this mulches up the 6 foot plus weeds and woody stemmed bushes. Here is a picture of drum with attached hammers!! I will try to get some pics or video(if I can figure that out) of the mower in action.

 

[leonz]

Just wanted to chime in and say that last week I received my hammers and nuts & bolts for my Seppi, here is a picture of the drum. I am well pleased with how this mulches up the 6 foot plus weeds and woody stemmed bushes. Here is a picture of drum with attached hammers!! I will try to get some pics or video(if I can figure that out) of the mower in action.

Happy mowing blitzen, I look forward to drooling over my keyboard watching your mowing videos.


Leon