Peter's Reel Mower

I've been working on a Reel Mower for Pete. Believe it or not he actually wanted one of these things! Even though I collect stuff like this, I cannot help but give a once over look at someone that says they want something like that. I think he might be a treehugger or something. Probably harmless.

Reel mowers are pretty cool and being human powered are a must have as far as I am concerned. I have several, mostly broken. The thing is, they really were not all that popular for a long, long time, so they are usually a cheap buy, or free if you can find one. Of course they usually are screwed up. If you find one, lubrication can do alot, but wont cure all ills. Spray paint will fix maybee 25% of the problems that remain.

Some of the reel mowers I have used work really good, especially one really old Toro I had, and probably still have somewhere. I was using it and boom! the tire falls off. Actually the hard rubber part, this one was a really old wood handled one and the tires were pretty big, which gave it extra oomph, and it ran very smooth. No doubt a top of the line model in it's time. The old rubber tire had cracked and become weakened afer only 50 or 60 years, and when I got around to using it, it couldn't take it. I may have been pushing it too hard also, now that I think of it I may have been doing a race to see how fast I could cut with it. Anyways, Toro probably doesn't stock replacement tires. I didn't actually check but I think it is a safe bet to say that they don't.

Getting back to the story, I was looking for something else and got to where I had a couple reel mowers stored. One was definitely out, missing rubber on the wheel (no not the Toro), but the second was, well, complete, and all metal(Pete has specifically mentioned that he did not want a wood reel mower). Albeit rusted like a, well, you know. Nothing a really quick job of sanding and spraypainting couldn't fix. I had the perfect paint, I found them in a pile of Free stuff by the road! First a "Professionals" primer coat, and then, a silver Metallic coat for the handle, and rims. I considered flourescent orange for the body, but I like Pete and I don't want Lisa to leave him. So I settled for the next best. Green (John Deer Green), Actually I wanted to use Red, but the nozzle was clogged.

After reassembling I did the following video and did a test mow of the front yard. I t worked pretty good. Fairly light to push, and no problems cutting. Very nice noise wise compared to a gas mower. Just the "shicking" of blades. Width of cut is narrow compared to a gas mower, but the overall feeling I had was that it cut the total area fast. If you account for the time to fuel and go to the gas station to get gas I bet there is a break even point where it is faster, even with a smaller cut.

The youtube link wasn't working for some reason, but you can view it here on google videos