useful toy

[Treemonkey1000]

Just my 2 cents worth.. Metal fatigue can be a big factor. Bolts shearing off. That blade breaking and bouncing off of something and getting you anyhow.. Safety glasses won't do much for half of the blade spinning at you. It does look fun. Not fun enough for me to use like that though. Good luck.

 

[dtd24]

Yeah........I dunno, that thing looks pretty scarey to me.

 

[chickenman]

work is a balancing act between safty and getting something done

it was made to do a particular job that has to be done once a year for a few hours, and with running it far below its design limits and only having used it 3 times fatigue isnt much of a factor yet

its held on by 2 halfinch bolts with nylok nuts and as i take the blade off each time to store it and replace the nuts i get a chance to check it out

and yes in critical aplications i use lock nuts just once, harkens back to my military days as an aircraft mechanics and regulations concerning self locking nuts

im rather careful in what i do i was a tool and die maker for 30 years and was never seriously hurt and have all my fingers

its not like there are stones in the vegitation 8 feet in the air

 

[tlbuser]

IMO, nicely fabricated tool. How much did you spend to build it? What else have you been building that might interest us?

 

[chickenman]

ive made a set of forks, a scarafier for the 3 point and my crowning piece is my stone picker

a universal attachment to mout various attachments to my fel

and a grader that worked out better than i hoped it would

 

[Treemonkey1000]

Ok Chickenman it sounds like you are doing the right preventive maintenance. The picture sort of look liked it might have been an old beast. My mistake.

 

[tutorbell]

im using a comercial grass blade that spins upwards of 15,000 plus rpm im going a fraction of that and the vbelt will slip and it will stop spinning long before i reach any limit it may have

What kind of commercial mower spins the blades at 15,000 RPM? As far as I know, most if not all commercial mowers limit the tip speed of the blades to under 18,000 feet per minute.

What is the diameter of that blade?

 

[have_blue]

work is a balancing act between safty and getting something done

Well said.

I've never seen a useful tool that couldn't hurt you.

Did you know that wasp stings kill more people than mowing machines? That's right, you better park it, or wear a wasp-proof suit.

In all seriousness, everyone has their own built in scare-O-meter, and each one is set a little differently according to their experience. Noisy, spinning equipment understandably scares a lot of people that have never been around it. You've obviously designed and built enough equipment that your meter is well calibrated. Enjoy your cool tool!

 

[chickenman]

What kind of commercial mower spins the blades at 15,000 RPM? As far as I know, most if not all commercial mowers limit the tip speed of the blades to under 18,000 feet per minute.

What is the diameter of that blade?

i belive your right my memery seems to have been faulty as to rpm/sfm
so as it stands im running it at about its rated speed or below

 

[chickenman]

Well said.

I've never seen a useful tool that couldn't hurt you.

Did you know that wasp stings kill more people than mowing machines? That's right, you better park it, or wear a wasp-proof suit.

In all seriousness, everyone has their own built in scare-O-meter, and each one is set a little differently according to their experience. Noisy, spinning equipment understandably scares a lot of people that have never been around it. You've obviously designed and built enough equipment that your meter is well calibrated. Enjoy your cool tool!

years ago i was sitting at my bench doing some layout work with a salvaged unshrouded refridgeration fan blowing on me, at this particular time a state osha inspecter stopped and said i couldnt use that fan so i reached out and stuck my fingers into the spinning blade and it came to an imediate stop, he kinda looked at me funny and walked on