Twisted + bent rotory blades

[Von]

I picked up a very used Howse rotory cutter 2 years ago for $175.00. Had to weld it back together and repainted it. It has worked fine ever since. The blades were alittle bent and had some twist to them, but for all the rocks I needed to cut in half I figured they were perfect for the task!/w3tcompact/icons/smile.gif Well I desided to check them for this year and wow was I surprized at how I beat them up! (see attached photo) So off to the new TSC that just opened last week, and of corse they don't sell Howse brand any more. So I picked up the King Kutter blades for $13.95 each. The manager thought that mine were the same blades, just mine were too bent to tell for sure. If anything they may hang down an extra 1/2" if that. Now can the old ones be straightened out any for when I loan it out to the neighbors? All I will be cutting now is grass about every four-six weeks, so I would like to put a real sharp edge to the new blades.

 

[rf33]

I think that with a little heat, you could bend them back into shape, but you would likely take the temper out of the steel, and probably would just be better off getting a new set every year or so if you are really rough on them. I think that even if you did get them reasonably straight again, they would likely still be pretty out of balance, and would probably still wobble and vibrate alot.

As to the real sharp blades, I am not sure that you want to sharpen them too much, unless you are really sure that you will not hit anything but grass. With a thin sharp leading edge, anything you hit (like rocks, sticks, etc. will ding that blade pretty deep, usually making the blade cut even worse than one with a fairly blunt edge. Just my .02...

 

[Bird]

Von, there's no doubt they could be heated, straightened, etc., but personally, I wouldn't do it; just wouldn't ever trust them again. I'd just discard them.

 

[Kodiak]

The more times a peice of steel is bent or worked the harder it gets in that particular spot. So where they have been bent and then straightened several times, there will be an area that can easily become to hard, or brittle. And prone to crack easily. On a rotary cutter this can lead to a traumatic blade failure. some thing you really don't want to experiance.

 

[TerryinMD]

Kodiak,

For how mashed, bent, twisted, and dinged those blades are, I think that it would be hard to tell what the correct size may be.

Man - you beat the poop right out of them!! /w3tcompact/icons/crazy.gif

Terry

 

[Kodiak]

Actually those blades belong to Von. I would have replaced them quite awhile ago.

 

[pennwalk]

Von,
Howse is still in business. There was a thread about chain guards recently and people had had luck ordering parts from them. You could give them a call to check what the dimensions of the blades are supposed to be.<A target="_blank" HREF=http://www.howseimplement.com/>http://www.howseimplement.com/</A> Replacing the blades looks like the way to go to me. I would mount the old blades on the wall of the shop as a trophy.

Chris

 

[ns_in_tex]

I havn't tried straightening bush hog blades, but straighten my finish mower blades on a regular basis. I do so without heating in a hydraulic press.

 

[b249]

It sounds to me like it's time to spring for new blades. I would not want to attempt straightening them for the reasons mentioned.

Blade failure under use, caused by fatiguing (bending/reshapeing) the steel may not be pretty; depending on where the projectile lands.

It would seem that if they were not "true" or "really straight" it would start up some funky harmonics in the gear housing and lead to premature wear. I would rather buy new blades than pay off on any of the above damages.

b249

 

[Dozernut]

As previously mentioned, metal does fatigue, becomes weak and can fragment. D.O.T. was mowing shoulders with a brush mower. One tractor hit a large rock and the blade shattered, sending out shrapnel. A van that was traveling by was struck by the metal, which pierced the van, and lodged in the headrest behind the driver. The driver was unhurt but the results could have been disasterous if the timing had been a little different. $30.00 is very cheap compared to someone getting hurt or killed!