Woods RD990X Can't Get Blades Off to Sharpen! Best Method to Sharpen Them On the Mower?

[Halftrack]

Another option would be mounting a file in your reciprocating saw. Amazon lists one that would probably remove enough material to make filing feasible.

 

[xrjohndeere]

I have a Woods RD990X finishing mower that I bought new and have used for years to mow a grass airstrip. The blades are slightly dull - if I slow down, it still mows OK but the cut is a little ragged if I try to speed up. They haven't been removed in years, so when I recently tried to remove them for sharpening, it was very difficult to remove the bolts holding the retainers that allow the pins that the blades pivot on to come out. I finally got the bolts and retainers out but the pins would not drop out - they are apparently rusted in place. I tried everything - penetrant, tapping, heating, etc. but they simply won't come out!

My next plan was to simply remove each entire spindle assembly so I could put the pin in a hydraulic press and push them out. However, the pulley retainer on the top of the spindle seems to be rusted in place, too! I could get the large spindle nuts and the 3 smaller bolts retaining the pulley out easy enough, but you're supposed to run 2 of them back in through threaded holes to push the retainer collar off the pulley - all that accomplished was snapping the bolts off since the pulley retainer collar wouldn't budge.

The worst part is that there are 3 spindles and I see where this is going - lots of broken bolts!

So, as a last resort, I need to figure out some way to sharpen the blades on the mower. That's normally never a good option since you can't balance the blades. However, it looks to me it's either this or buy a new mower! I know I could get in there with one of those grinding stones with a nylon angle guide, Dremel stones, etc. but in my experience none of those work very well - I normally use an All-American Sharpener jig with an angle grinder and flap wheel and it works great - but you have to get the blade off the mower!


There's very limited access to the area above the blades since they're fairly close to the deck. I know I could draw a file down each blade and sharpen that way, but it'll take forever to remove much material. Since the blades aren't damaged at all and still cut fairly decent, I wondered if I could sharpen them with an angle grinder and flap wheel by lightly grinding the underside of the blade just enough to slightly sharpen it by reducing the radius of the rounded-off edge? I don't think it would take much to get them back to cutting a bit better/faster. The flap wheel would be many times faster than trying to sharpen the blade with a file!

John

You should be able to take two sharp chisel and tap them between the blade and the spindle flat from both sides. Tap each in slowly and it should leverage the blade enough to pop the pins out. Another thing you can do is weld the pin to the blade and then use a big hammer and hit the blade on the side breaking the pin loose. Grind your weld off and reuse pin.

 

[N750A]

You should be able to take two sharp chisel and tap them between the blade and the spindle flat from both sides. Tap each in slowly and it should leverage the blade enough to pop the pins out. Another thing you can do is weld the pin to the blade and then use a big hammer and hit the blade on the side breaking the pin loose. Grind your weld off and reuse pin.

I did try using a ball joint separator to wedge between the spindle flat and the blade and it didn't work, but of course that was wedging-in from one side only - your idea to use 2 chisels sounds much better! I had also thought about welding a nut or something to the pin to try to turn it, but again, I like your idea of simply welding the pin to the blade to get leverage to break the pin loose. Thanks!

However, guess I over-thought this a bit. Today I found that my 4" angle grinder with a flap disk DID fit between the underside of the deck and above the blades! So, I backed off until my line-of-sight was parallel to the blade's grind angle and held the flap disk parallel to my line of sight and took strokes down the blade. I was able to sharpen the blades pretty quickly! I tried to count and keep the number of grinding passes the same on each pair of blades so as to keep them roughly in balance.

Think I'll see how my sharpening works (probably be Spring before I can test them since we're having heavy frosts now and the fescue has stopped growing) and continue with sharpening mounted on the mower until the blades are worn enough they have to be replaced. Then, as suggested, I'll try the chisels to wedge in and pop the pins or try welding the pins to the blades so I can install new blades.

 

[LD1]

I'm having a hard time visioning the blade mounting setup.

What you described sounds similar to my woods rotary cutter....but you said this is a finish mower

Can you take some pics? Cause at some point in time....the blades are likely gonna have to come off. Replacement, bent blade, new spindle, etc. And if it's this difficult now....imagine how much MORE difficult it will be in a few years.

I make it a point to take my rotary cutter blades OFF to sharpen, even though I could do it without removal. At least 2x per year, they come off, get cleaned and costed with never seize, and put back together. I never have to fight anything

 

[Topzide]

Have you tried 50/50 of acetone and Trans fluid? That's been a goto for me in tough spots. Might be worth a try.

 

[4570Man]

Can you post pictures of the blade? I’m having a hard time visualizing the setup. You’re really just prolonging the inevitable if you don’t remove them.

 

[seville009]

If you have a way to transport it (trailer) to a dealer/mower place, it may be worth it to have them remove the blades. I'm sure they are used to dealing with the issue and know all of the tricks and techniques. May be worth the time and money. Shouldn't be that expensive.

Aftet that, just remove the blades each year and swap them around the spindles.

 

[N750A]

I'm having a hard time visioning the blade mounting setup.

What you described sounds similar to my woods rotary cutter....but you said this is a finish mower

Can you take some pics? Cause at some point in time....the blades are likely gonna have to come off. Replacement, bent blade, new spindle, etc. And if it's this difficult now....imagine how much MORE difficult it will be in a few years.

I make it a point to take my rotary cutter blades OFF to sharpen, even though I could do it without removal. At least 2x per year, they come off, get cleaned and costed with never seize, and put back together. I never have to fight anything

Having just crawled out from under the mower after sharpening the blades, I'm not in the mood to crawl back under for pics ... at least not today! LOL!
However, let me give you a "word picture": The Woods RDX990 is built very similarly to a rotary cutter/"bush hog." Instead of having one single blade on the end of each spindle like a lawnmower, the spindle shaft has a mount with 2 short arms protruding laterally 180 degrees apart. On each short arm, there is a pin retained by a clip and a bolt. A blade articulates on the pin - in other words, it can swing back and forth same as a rotary cutter and so instead of 3 spindles/3 blades, there are 3 spindles/6 blades. To remove the blade, you remove the bolt in the arm, pull the clip on the pin, and the pin should drop out the bottom, along with the blade. I believe Woods calls it their "easy change" system, but there's nothing easy if the pins are rusted-in.
Yep - NOW I know the pins should have regularly been removed and lubricated. However, although I'm delaying the inevitable by just sharpening the blades and not getting those pins out, I seriously doubt that since it's been several years since they were removed, another year or two won't make much difference! LOL! Also, the machine is stored in a much drier location now, so hopefully that will help slow down the corrosion process.

 

[Richard]

I have a Woods RF 720 (?) if I recall it's a six or seven foot rear discharge, 3 blade.

Was cutting, something got really wonky.... turns out I had a blade fracture right at the bolt. So the blades were still intact ON the mower, but one of them looked like a boomerang where one side was held with one bolt, other side held with the other bolt.

I had F.I.T.S. getting it off. Pulled off tractor, took backhoe to flip it over on its back. Tried things like you state......I finally had to pull out my grinder and simply cut the heads of the bolts off (digging deep only meant I was digging into the blade so that was ok)

I had spent probably 4 HOURS trying to remove them. Didn't get a single one of them loosened. I then spent about 15 minutes each grinding the heads off then I could pop the bolt out and all was well.

Fortunately, I had an entirely new set of blades sitting in my tool box so I pulled all the old off and put new on. I did however, need to buy new bolts.

Can you flip the deck for access? Nothing worse than getting your head squashed by 700 pounds hanging up in the air above you.

 

[N750A]

Access isn't too bad - I lift up the mower and then put blocking under the sides and let it rest on that - no way I'm working under there with only the tractor holding it up! I'm working on a smooth, dry concrete floor and slide a thin foam camping mattress pad under me for comfort. I can get my retaining clips and bolts out OK (and I did put anti-seize on them when I put them back in!), it's just the pins that are stuck. The pins have a rather massive head, so grinding that off would take forever and the pins aren't exactly cheap, either, I think the suggested idea of spot-welding them to the blades and then later grinding the weld off is a good idea. And in response to another post, I do think I'll talk to the service dept at my local dealer and see if they think they can do it or have been there/done that! It'll be a PITA to have to haul it up there but probably not nearly the PITA of trying to do it myself! LOL!