Flail Mower Let's talk flail mowers

   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,221  
Re: Del Morino arrived

Greetings,

You will not need a passport to use your rotary mower your only going to throw stones at it.

Sadly, as far as grass growing is concerned its not going to come sooner.
With regard to our annual post winter prediction day telephone conference with Punxatawney Phil, Staten Island Chuck, Dunkirk Dave, Chattanooga Chuck, Sir Walter Wally, Jimmy the Ground Hog, Malverne Mell, Holtsville Hal, Woody, Woodstock Willy and the three no votes from the three major Ground Hog Weather Prognosticators from Canada being Shubenacadie Sam, Wiarton Willie and Balzac Billie predicted that winter would not stay for six more weeks.

Things went down hill from there with regard to the usual cross border rivalries and with various accusations of sorcery, Voo Dah, spell casting, my checks in the mail for gambling debts, accusations of keeper bribery, speeding ticket fixing, graft given to UPS and Federal Express for late cross border food and groundhog treat deliveries that usually take 48 hour or less etc. Things went further down hill and the usual cross border rivalries ensued with the usual taunts of settling things on the roof of the Skylon Tower or the roof of the Labbats brewery in Toronto or on the sidewalk in front of the Hockey Hall of Fame, or in the Rogers Center/Sky Dome on the ice with hay bales to create the usual messy obstacle course and racing times(the basket ball court became off limits two years ago after the janitors found scratches in the wooden tiles).

Last year every one of them got into the spent brewers grain bins at the Labbats brewery and it was not a good sight to see.

After "The Incident" last year it was agreed that things would be settled on the snow stockpile at Oswego, New York but none of the members showed up offering the usual responses from being unable to obtain car or go cart rentals to ride through the Queen Elizabeth Way to Buffalo then to Oswego, the cute lady veterinarian from Cornell was unable to oversee things, no money for plane tickets, no lady veterinarians available to kiss boo boos, and provide peroxide and a good nuzzle for luck and a general who cares attitude from several Hog members who will remain nameless who said they were not going to Oswego unless we have the same cute veterinarian and the female vet students from Tufts and Cornell to fuss over us like last year we are not going to bother!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

You should see these guys at the ship christening parties sponsored by Canada Steam Ship lines; they all take turns riding the swinging champagne bottle and bouncing off the hull before the bottle is broken on the hull to see who breaks the bottle first before the CSL guests arrive.

They were thrown out the last time when the CSL boss found out that the coin set under the keel of the newest lake ship being built fell out of one of their hats on the coat rack and he was not happy!!!


What a bunch of animals!!!!!!!!
 
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   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,222  
Re: Del Morino arrived

Got this 5' flail. The knives look like they'd be for a finish cut. How much HP should I need to use this effectively? Could I leave this mower up off the ground 6-8" and just cut the grass higher? What does the "special" indicate? Thanks.
 

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   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,223  
Re: Del Morino arrived

Got this 5' flail. The knives look like they'd be for a finish cut. How much HP should I need to use this effectively? Could I leave this mower up off the ground 6-8" and just cut the grass higher? What does the "special" indicate? Thanks.
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I want to welcome you as the newest resident member of the Flail Mower Nations. My father ran a much bigger flail mower being a 7 foot JD25A with a Ford Jubilee with no issues so no worries as long as you understand your mower and how it works.

Now you have a "Special" Ford finish flail mower for good grass mowing. Any of your current mules will be able to power it as long as you can lift it adjust it properly to avoid any issues with scalping the sod by having the mower front too low and run the PTO at the 540 RPM engine speed and travel at a slow ground speed to mow at the first mowing.

This is the key; you have to have the mower close to the ground(2 inches in cutting height) to take advantage of the pressure gradient/ground effect created by the high speed rotation of the flail mower rotor(2200 RPM+-) and the side slicer finish knives it is equipped with.

The side slicer knives will cut and lift the clippings over the flail mower rotor and deposit them in front of the rear roller.

You will not be able to mow very well with it off the ground, but once you see how well it mows at a 2 inch setting you will be very very impressed and the other benefit is that you can go back over the clippings and shred them even finer to become compost that will dissolve that much quicker for you.


Mowing in a spiral is faster as you can avoid braking and backing up and in the end use less fuel too.
You can over lap a bit if you wish but you may not need to.

You can purchase a paper manual for your mower from Messicks or contact Flail Master and ask if they have one that they can email a copy of to you.

Please read the entire flail mower thread if you have time, come back and ask more questions, go back and read some more and come back and ask more questions and you will be ready to mow soon.




Welcome to the Flail Mower Nations.
 
   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,224  
One problem is that they used different thickness hangers that are going to be different weights, I see two welded weights on the left and only a small one on the right but no indication of one missing. I really don't understand why the hanger bracket bolt holes don't line up and you have to pound the bolt through the hole to make it fit, about 20 of the hanger brackets lined up perfect and the remainder did not. The two threaded holes in the second to last photo is where the adjustable weights go. The only problem with working on old machinery like this is that you could spend the money buying new cutters and hardware and then find out that the rotor is not balanced or bent.
View attachment 500818View attachment 500819View attachment 500820View attachment 500821View attachment 500822

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A couple of things:

All of the knife hangers should be identical in thickness and weight and length.
If they are different they broke a few of them and they replaced them with home made steel strap iron and created the scoop knife hanger.

Flail mowers never ever have adjustable weights "EVER" they are welded in place where they are needed.

It also appears that all of your original weights are still intact and in position on the flail mower rotor.

That "weight" should not be there. There should be a knife hanger and scoop knife there.

It would explain a lot of the vibration affecting the flail mower rotor along with the different weight knife hangers.

The scoop knives are set to over lap when mowing. A missing scoop knife with the scoop knife hanger will always always always affect a flail mower rotor and it will immediately become unbalanced.
 
   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,225  
Re: Del Morino arrived

Got this 5' flail. The knives look like they'd be for a finish cut. How much HP should I need to use this effectively? Could I leave this mower up off the ground 6-8" and just cut the grass higher? What does the "special" indicate? Thanks.

Rule of thumb is 5hp per foot, but my 7' 917 ran fine behind my 25hp PTO L3200, so 3.5hp per foot. If you can lift it, you can spin it. From ther its just a matter of being able to go slow enough. It was easy with my HST & I went a lot slower than with my 5' rotary, but covered the same or more ground per hour. A lot depends on what you are mowing to a large degree.

The adjustment for roller height on my 917 was welded up years before I got it. Leaving my hydraulic toplink in float & lifting the 3pt I could get to 4" maybe a bit higher. I couldnt get to much higher than that. Cut quality did suffer a bit up higher, but as I was feld mowing, not law mowing I didn't care. You'd get bad results going any higher & flails wont work well unless they are on their roller. I tried it, mostly hanging it over a ditch & it cuts a bit, but nothing you want, except in special circumstances like hanging it over a ditch or obstacle.

YYa, the side slicers give a good cut & mulching, but fare less well against heavier stuff. Duck foot hammers do better in heavy stuff. Your side slicers bolt directly to your rotor & are really long. My side attach to a D-ring & bracket. More possible movement on my setup, but i'm not sure what advantages one design has over the other. There were a pile of 917 variations as well as the predecesor 907 I believe. I assume Special was just another model in the lineup with some tweak or size difference from the rest.

Make sure the rotor is straight & the bearings are good & it should last you a long time if you lube it properly.

Edit: Just looked at your photos again & 1 really bent knife stands out. think its partner is bent too. Check all your knives then talk to Flailmaster & get some replacement knives before you run it. Ive mangled a few knives on my well head & other stuff, so it's not that big of a deal at all. Just replace em & move on.
 
   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,226  
Re: Del Morino arrived

Thanks for the welcome. I've got several mowers (disc & rotary) but only used a flail one time.

I'll check the knives, lube it, and get a manual. I'll probably play with it behind an L4240. The mower is almost not wide enough for that tractor but it's HST and easy on the operator!

I have a couple of tractors I am going to sell this Spring, an L305, B8200 and a GT1860 lawn tractor. I may sell this mower with one of the tractors if it helps attract a buyer! Thanks again.
 
   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,227  
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Flail mowers never ever have adjustable weights "EVER" they are welded in place where they are needed.

.

I'm confused:confused3: why does the operators manual say different.
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   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,228  
I'm confused:confused3: why does the operators manual say different.
View attachment 501055

Unless the owners manual states differently, those "balance weights" are likely welded in place even though the drawing seems to show them bolted. Perhaps the factory set up is to use the same rotor for both fine cut and coarse cut setups but to weld different weights in place for each. I cannot imagine why a rotor would be built so that "field" rebalancing could be done. Balancing requires high speed revolution with precision testing equipment and is done, as far as I know, only in the factory or in specialized workshops.
 
   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,229  
Unless the owners manual states differently, those "balance weights" are likely welded in place even though the drawing seems to show them bolted. Perhaps the factory set up is to use the same rotor for both fine cut and coarse cut setups but to weld different weights in place for each. I cannot imagine why a rotor would be built so that "field" rebalancing could be done. Balancing requires high speed revolution with precision testing equipment and is done, as far as I know, only in the factory or in specialized workshops.

The picture I posted might be misleading because it does not show the other end of the rotor, both ends of the rotor have two drilled and taped holes for bolted on weights along with welded on weights, and the manual is saying to adjust the weights if your using fine cut or ruff cut blades. With fine cut blades your mounting more blades and they want you to reduce the weights, with coarse cut blades there is not as many and they want you to increase the weight. The bolted on weight even have their own part numbers, interesting, I have a couple calls out to manufacturers awaiting call backs.
IMG_1452.PNGIMG_1462.JPGIMG_1464.JPG
 
   / Let's talk flail mowers #4,230  
Yes the manual you posted does say to add/remove weights based on the type of knives or blades used. Since the spacing is different for each type of knife, are off center and then use more weights on that 'empty' end? Did you verify the style you are using are in the correct holes? Did you have all knives off and then reassemble the in different locations? Other than getting the weights added as the manual shows, I'd bet your best chance to reduce the vibration will be a new set of hangers.
 
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