Rotary Cutter Chain Guards

[Dallas_Lilly]

I purchased a rotary mower this week. It has a Gearmore sticker on it but the serial sticker said Lift Kutter so I am almost positive that it is a King Kutter labled as a Gearmore, I do not think anybody else would spell Kutter like that. Any how I could not afford the optional chain guards at this time and had intentions of purchasing them at a later date. I was walking past the scap metal bin thursday at my work and noticed oodles of motor grader tire chain links. That and few pieces of left over angle from other projects and some left over rebar and I made some chain guards. Still need some paint but I tried them out and they seem to work well.

 

[dayrunr2]

Nice job. That should keep flying objects to a minimum, and that's always a good thing.

Mike

 

[GuglioLS]

Dallas,

Your home made chain guards came out nice! I was wondering if the "scrap" chain you dumpster dived were somehow all the correct length? or did you have to cut a bunch? I sure wish I had those installed on my cutter before it busted the outer pain of the Kitchen window last summer The Mrs. was not too pleased about that, we both have gotten used to the duct tape on the window though.

Larry

 

[weldingisfun]

Looks real good!
Did you run a piece of rebar through the top links? I'd like to do something like that too. How about more details about how you did it.

 

[Dallas_Lilly]

Thanks guys

GuglioLS, No they were not the correct length, I had to cut links out and it worked out that each grader chain had 3 chain guard links in them. It probbably only took me about 30 minutes to cut with a torch.

weldingisfun, I started by bolting pieces of angle iron where the factory chain guards would go. I did not weld anything to the mower.

Then I welded a single link to the angle for the rebar to rest in. The rebar is in sections at the width between the single links welded to the angle and then the rebar is welded to the single links.

Then I put the chain links on the rebar and put the sections of rebar in the single links and welded it together. I started by using one single piece of rebar but it was real difficult to slide the chain with the bumps in the rebar. By pure luck the rebar and the chain is 1/2" so the chain does not move much side to side, just back and forth.

Hope that makes sense, I should have took more pictures along the way instead of just the finished product.

 

[Dallas_Lilly]

GuglioLS, Where is Edgewood NM? For a about a year of my younger life I lived in a town close to Clovis called House.

 

[GuglioLS]

Edgewood, NM is about 25 miles east of Albuquerque on I 40.
I've been to Clovis several times a while back. Good thing the Pentagon kept Cannon AFB opened.

Larry

 

[BTDT]

Nice job on the guard. In your first pic, the mower to the left of your tractor would be a 1hp unit, right?

 

[Dallas_Lilly]

Nice job on the guard. In your first pic, the mower to the left of your tractor would be a 1hp unit, right?

Yeah she is 1hp, do not have a fence on the perimeter of my property yet or she could do a little mowing. She got kicked by another horse square in the knee a year ago and that is all she is good for now.

 

[SBD]

Here's a chain guard I built for mine. I used a piece of pre-drilled metal from a road sign and welded some chains to it. I then bolted it on. I used a bolt cutter to snip the chain into pieces since it was not heavy duty.

I had chain clearance problems in the middle so I hammered some of the links round so that they would clear the mower blade. I made another one just like it for the back but don't have a picture if it.

So far it has worked real well when mowing. I have kicked up some hidden rocks and lots of gopher burrows and the guard seems to work well.