Removing Mower Blades

[rickmacheske]

Does anyone have a good way to remove the bolt on mower blades? My 6' mower needs the blades sharpened but I can't get the blades off. I've tried WD-40, putting a torch on the bolts, hitting them with a hammer, nothing seems to break them free. Any hints?
Thanks,
Rick

 

[Bird]

Rick, naturally my preferred method is a pneumatic impact wrench, which I'll assume you don't have. If you have an air-compressor, then I'd buy an impact wrench (be sure to check the specs on any of them to see how much torque they're rated for because cheap ones work just fine, but some do not have enough power). And of course if you don't have an air-compressor . . ., well, I don't know how anyone does without an air-compressor. /forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

 

[milkman]

Nothing in your profile and you don't mention what make mower, so it's hard to help, some mowers have left hand thread bolts holding the blades. Possibly the problem? /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif

 

[3RRL]

Rick,
Assuming that's a brushhog type mower, a lot of guys just tilt them up and use an angle grinder to sharpen.

 

[rickmacheske]

Thanks guys. I had a fairly cheap impact wrench. I had tried that before posting. I went out and bought a "professional" version. With that and solvent, the bolts spun off in seconds. Having good tools sure helps.
Rick

 

[john_bud]

Rick,

That is an excellent illustration on the difference between a $29.99 impact wrench and a real one! When it comes to air tools, spend the money and buy the good stuff!

jb

 

[EddieWalker]

Be sure to know what you need to torque them down to when putting them back on. My Landpride blades are to be at 500 pounds.

Eddie

 

[Pks]

<font color="red"> My Landpride blades are to be at 500 pounds. </font>

Be careful with the units on those blades! By definition Torgue comes with two units: force and distance. So 500 pounds over what distance: Inches or Feet? 500 inch pounds is about 41.7 foot pounds.

 

[EddieWalker]

Sorry if you thought I meant inch pounds. My mower blades are to be torqued down to 500 foot pounds!!

Eddie

 

[Bird]

Eddie, actually I do believe in having nuts and bolts torqued to manufacturers' specs; however, I don't always do it. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif I think 500 is also what my Howse brush hog said to torque them to, and the first time I dropped the entire blade and stump jumper assembly, I found that I didn't have a socket of the right size to remove the blades, and didn't even have an open end/box end wrench of that size. So I got out my 10", made in Taiwan, genuine Crescent imitation, adjustable wrench and was wondering whether I'd break it if I put in on there and hit it with my 4# hammer. I was really surprised when I found that I could quite easily unscrew those nuts with the 10" wrench, one hand, and no hammer needed. Just didn't know my own strength, I guess. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif Anyway, I bought the right socket for my half inch 425 ft. lb. impact wrench to put them back on and figured that was close enough. /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif