little body work on the deck.

[dan_m]

We've been getting our daily (sometimes twice) summer storms here in Georgia. Happy to be getting the rain, but it also means a huge growth spurt for the the grass and weeds. I knew I had to drop the deck to clean off all the wet grass, but found an unexpected surprise.

I can't say I'm sure how this happened, but it did - possibly hitting an exposed surface root from a tree? Anyway, it had to be addressed. The bottom of the deck was bent a little up into the deck and interfering with the blade. This is the side without the discharge.

I first thought I'll just use my hand sledge and in a couple whacks, I'll beat it back. But there wasn't enough room to get a good swing even with sledge sideways. So I resorted to my biggest pair of vice grips and was able to bend it back by hand to make sure the blade fully cleared.

While I had deck off, checked the blades and that blade was a little chewed up. I swapped it with one as I have 2 sets, one sharp and the ones currently installed. I'll try to sharpen it at a later date and see what I can do with it.

The grass made a huge mess on the driveway so I had the opportunity to unleash the Billy goat who has been garaged since last fall .

The moral of the story - check your decks!

Dan

 

[skeets]

Ya mean it aint suppose to look like that?

 

[Mowbizz]

Been there, done that! Blade on my BX 60” deck jammed tight when I hit a ground level stump just right. Vice grips and hammer to the rescue. Also stripped out the blade bolt hole…had hunt around to find a tap that size! Now with my Z422 I fabbed an extra pedal to momentarily lift the deck over obstacles…

 

[ve9aa]

Glad to see you wear hearing protection.

 

[dan_m]

Glad to see you wear hearing protection.

That's one loud goat!
I take safety seriously.

I was too lazy to go upstairs to get my in-ear buds (isotunes) so I used my old on ear that I keep in the garage for my woodworking. Both have bluetooth so I can listen to tunes while doing work.

Dan

 

[JimmyJazz]

A large pipe wrench works well in those situations.

 

[D2Cat]

A monkey wrench works better!

 

[lugbolt]

send that rain this way

ain't seen a drop in over a month. Pasture's dried up. To keep it positive, at least I won't have to cut it anymore this year, AND it makes it easier to kill off the stickerweed.

 

[JimmyJazz]

A monkey wrench works better!

View attachment 83440

A monkey wrench IS a pipe wrench to we hillbillies. Just a harder to spell fancier term. Less is more nomenclature wise here in Appalachia.

 

[D2Cat]

A monkey wrench is a pipe wrench to we hillbillies. Just a harder to spell fancier term. The simpler the better.

Nope. A monkey wrench is smooth on the inside of the jaws whereas a pipe wrench has ridges to grab the pipe tighter when torque is applied!

Smooth jaws in this application means less damage to the metal being straightened.

 

[dan_m]

A large pipe wrench works well in those situations.

vice grips worked really well for me, I was amazed how easily it bent.

Dan

 

[lugbolt]

y'all don't know what a monkey wrainch is? Must be yankees. !

 

[dkbswim]

A monkey wrench works better!

View attachment 83440

that is a Ford wrench

 

[PoTreeBoy]

A monkey wrench IS a pipe wrench to we hillbillies. Just a harder to spell fancier term. Less is more nomenclature wise here in Appalachia.

The goal is to make the most syllables with the fewest letters.

 

[JimmyJazz]

The goal is to make the most syllables with the fewest letters.

I disagree, efficiency is the goal with grunts preferred followed my monosyllabic utterances . Thats been my experience. Not to be confused with stupid I will add.