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Good Modification to my Craftsman Mower

My Craftsman 42" mower deck has one serious design flaw ("What?! Only one?" you say...) The left hand gauge wheel on the deck gets hit frequently when I'm trimming around trees. It's in exactly the wrong place when you cut around a tree against the left edge of the mower deck. Even if I'm very careful, it's very easy to brush the wheel against the tree I'm cutting around and bend the bracket that supports it, and I have a LOT of trees on my property. After straightening it quite a few times, I decide that some re-engineering was in order. I cut the bracket in two along the 45 degree bend that aligns the wheel with the forward direction, and bolted a hinge there. This mod has worked pretty well for a while, but the hinge wasn't really strong enough, and eventually wore out. Today I bought a spring loaded, very heavy duty door hinge and replaced my original mod. I also added an adjustable stop so that the spring built into the hinge pushes the bracket out to the right position and holds it there, which makes the gauge wheel track properly. If I brush a tree with the wheel, it just moves out of the way and springs back. This works really well. I'll post some pictures on the dropbox if anyone is interested.

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love America

Reply to
Bob Chilcoat
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Hey Bob,

Please do post some pix. I'm having a problem picturing what you did. I don't have "a lot of trees", but I have some curbing that sure gives the mower deck a shot.

Brian Lawson, Bothwell, Ontario. XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:23:07 -0500, "Bob Chilcoat" wrote: SNIP

Reply to
Brian Lawson

OK, I'll put some photos in the dropbox. It'll take a couple of days because it's pouring rain today and I'm not going to wade out to the shed in a sea of mud just to take some pix.

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love America

Reply to
Bob Chilcoat

It's dry today, so I've took some pictures and put them and a text description in the dropbox, for anyone who's interested. Look for MowerMod**, etc. This thing works pretty well.

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love America

Reply to
Bob Chilcoat

Hey Bob,

Thank you. Looks very well made, but I don't understand the term "spring hinge" I guess, and no spring is visible. Is that the type of hinge that would go, say on the doors to the kitchen in a restaurant, which will swing open by pushing from either side ( in and out ), and then return to "closed" (neutral) when released?

Good pix by the way.

Take care.

Brian Laws>It's dry today, so I've took some pictures and put them and a text

Reply to
Brian Lawson

Brian,

It's a normal door hinge, but has a spring concealed inside an oversized hinge pin. Ace hardware had a variety of hinges, and these were the heaviest duty. It was just called a 4" "spring hinge". A very similar one was called a "self closing" hinge. It has a large( 5/16"?) diameter hinge pin and the spring is somewhere inside the center section of this. One of the plates has extensions that wrap around each end of this pin. The other plate has a wide center section that wraps around the rest of the pin. The advantage of this hinge is that both plates are very well supported so that the hinge can take a significant vertical twisting load. The two ends of the hinge pin are apparently connected by some internal smaller pin, so that one can rotate independently of the other. There is a small radial slot cut into the part of the first plate that's wrapped around the hinge pin, and there are several small radial holes drilled in the hinge pin behind this slot. This allows the hinge pin at this end to be turned relative to the wrapped portion of the plate by inserting a supplied small steel pin into one of the holes. There is a second, very short "lock pin" supplied. By turning this end of the hinge pin by means of the two small pins you can wind up the spring inside to the desired tension, and then insert the lock pin to hold it permanently in that position. That's the best I can do to describe it. You'll have to go to the hardware store and see if you can find one. Once you see it, I think you'll understand completely. The other advantage of this hinge is that the spring is fully contained inside.

-- Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

"Brian Lawson" wrote in message news: snipped-for-privacy@4ax.com...

Reply to
Bob Chilcoat

Hey Bob,

Thanks for taking the time to explain. Next time I'm at Home Depot, I'll have a look.

Take care.

Brian Laws>Brian,

SNIP

Reply to
Brian Lawson

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