Ahhh... another weekend of mowers, mowing, and mowchine building. The weekend started out good with a lucky find- THREE push mowers out front of a house with a big FREE sign stuck to a telephone pole. All are in decent shape, one even started when I put gas in it. I usually sell these all spring and summer long for usually $45-$75, so that will usually pay for whatever weird hobby I'm into. So far I have 4 push mowers, a leaf blower, and 2 edgers.The season is about to start here, so I'll be in good shape.
Anyhow, I spent just about all weekend working on the frame of my machine. I spent a good part of Saturday measuring and cutting out pieces. Some were custom shaped to fit around certain things like the axle tunnel in the front. I wanted to stiffen up the rear but do it in a way that was both out of site and out of the way of the transmission, belts, etc. My solution was building a box frame out of 1/4" angle iron ( made out of the aforementioned bed rails) and welding this up in the middle of the rear section.
Next up came the front end. I've been concerned about this section because others have mentioned how vulnerable this part of these old Sears are to cracking around the axle tunnel. I had welded 1/4" angle iron to the sides last week, but felt it needed more. So I flipped her upside down and measured out 2 pieces of angle iron and welded these to the underside. The pieces just barely fit in the space between the axle tunnel and the frame. I welded these to the frame, axle tunnel, and front of the frame. ( front of the mower).
Next I decided to weld an extra piece of reinforcement to the front of the frame because even though I had welded the seams together, I still felt like this was a little puny, especially now that supports were welded behind it. So I welded a piece on the front. So all around the entire front there is 3 layers of 1/4" steel.
Next I figured that while the front was pretty well reinforced now, the front itself might need a little more structure tieing it to the fatter rear end. So I welded two pieces of angle iron to the sides at 45 degree angles. They just fit between where the footrests and pedals will go. To avoid jeans getting caught on the edges, I rounded the corners down and cut the clutch side down a bit. These are welded to the 1/4" side supports, which are welded on top of the frame. So they are attached to the thickest parts of the reinforced frame. We'll see if they hold...
Anyhow... there's still more that needs to be done to the frame. I would like to work on the steering column and supports next week. The factory ones are sort of a joke- thin sheetmetal type stuff. The frame on this mower is thick all the way up to the top of the steering column. I plan on welding angle irons across the frame up there with holes cut out for the steering axle. That aught to strengthen that up. But that's another weekend.
