Flail Mower New to Me- Seppi SMO 200 Flail Mower

[Doug Vee]

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.

blitz,

I received my new hammers and bolts this week also.

I will be picking up 4 sets of hammer ears to replace like in kind on my rotor. I will need to remove the rotor and take to the machine shop for them to R&R the bad ones for the new ones. The rotor looks pretty heavy. The frame will be completely naked, which be a good time to paint it...talk about scope creep.

I would like to ask you- All my new locknuts except 2 threaded all the way to the bottom of the threads on the new bolts, by fingers only. That is not how the old locknuts came off. I had to use a wrench, almost to the bitter end of the bolt. How did your locknuts thread on? Did they have to be wrenched on most of the way? Is there some sort of special procedure of some sort to lock them in place?

I bought new hammers and bolts/nuts from Flail Master. I called them about it and they were not aware how the Seppi "special" bolts/nuts worked. They agreed that some sort of locking arrangement was a must for flail applications. They said they could take them back, or I could buy nylon locking nuts and they would credit me for the cost of the tapered locking nuts that I received. They seemed willing to make sure I was happy, which I commend them for.

Thank you,

Doug

 

[blitzen]

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


Leon

Thanks, Leon, for the vote of confidence.
I am a rookie when it comes to video. My best idea would be to sweet talk the wife into recording.

 

[blitzen]

blitz,

I received my new hammers and bolts this week also.
View attachment 874366
I will be picking up 4 sets of hammer ears to replace like in kind on my rotor. I will need to remove the rotor and take to the machine shop for them to R&R the bad ones for the new ones. The rotor looks pretty heavy. The frame will be completely naked, which be a good time to paint it...talk about scope creep.

I would like to ask you- All my new locknuts except 2 threaded all the way to the bottom of the threads on the new bolts, by fingers only. That is not how the old locknuts came off. I had to use a wrench, almost to the bitter end of the bolt. How did your locknuts thread on? Did they have to be wrenched on most of the way? Is there some sort of special procedure of some sort to lock them in place?

I bought new hammers and bolts/nuts from Flail Master. I called them about it and they were not aware how the Seppi "special" bolts/nuts worked. They agreed that some sort of locking arrangement was a must for flail applications. They said they could take them back, or I could buy nylon locking nuts and they would credit me for the cost of the tapered locking nuts that I received. They seemed willing to make sure I was happy, which I commend them for.

Thank you,

Doug

Hey Doug, the hammer ears as you called them have a recess on one side for the bolt head to fit in. I put them on by hand until I had to use a tool, and mostly used an impact to tighten. You can see in one of the recent pics that the bolt head is recessed into the ear. That held the bolt and kept it from turning when tightening the nut. Worse case scenario you will have to weld the nut to the bolt

 

[Doug Vee]

Hey Doug, the hammer ears as you called them have a recess on one side for the bolt head to fit in. I put them on by hand until I had to use a tool, and mostly used an impact to tighten. You can see in one of the recent pics that the bolt head is recessed into the ear. That held the bolt and kept it from turning when tightening the nut. Worse case scenario you will have to weld the nut to the bolt

Blitzen,

Thank you for the reply. I have bought 4 sets of replacement ears to repair the bad ones on my rotor. I really like the recess to help with installation removal. My concern is, the new locking nuts that I have don't seem to have any locking quality to them. Unless there is something that needs to be done after they are fully tightened to create the locking quality. Until I bought this Seppi, I had never seen this type of nut.

Looking at the bolts I cut off, the nuts appear like they may have been flattened on the very end of the bolt, maybe.

Doug

 

[blitzen]

Blitzen,

Thank you for the reply. I have bought 4 sets of replacement ears to repair the bad ones on my rotor. I really like the recess to help with installation removal. My concern is, the new locking nuts that I have don't seem to have any locking quality to them. Unless there is something that needs to be done after they are fully tightened to create the locking quality. Until I bought this Seppi, I had never seen this type of nut.

Looking at the bolts I cut off, the nuts appear like they may have been flattened on the very end of the bolt, maybe.

Doug

Are the threads a match? I could only hand thread so far and then I used an impact.

 

[Doug Vee]

Are the threads a match? I could only hand thread so far and then I used an impact.

Yes, the threads match too well. I could spin 19 out of 21 nuts all the way to the bottom of the threads with my fingers while sitting on the bench. I was thinking they need to only turn two or three threads before having to use a wrench to complete the tightening.

Doug

 

[blitzen]

Hey Doug, here are some of the dog ears that I have. These are from SEPPI...

 

[Doug Vee]

Hey Doug, here are some of the dog ears that I have. These are from SEPPI...

Yep, that's what mine look like. Now the hard work...removing the old ones.

Doug

 

[blitzen]

Yep, that's what mine look like. Now the hard work...removing the old ones.

Doug

I've got a plasma cutter that should be able to cut those off.

 

[Doug Vee]

I've got a plasma cutter that should be able to cut those off.

Ah yes, the plasma cutter...that would be handy! I watched a cool video yesterday demonstrating the process of Arc Gouging. Pretty interesting.

Doug