Five clips and a cable to drop the deck. The cable has a spring clip on the end that makes removal tedious and you have to compress a pulley in order to get some slack. Needle-nose Vise-Grips are your friend in all endeavors.
One 16mm socket to remove the blades and a flat-blade screwdriver and a wire-brush to remove all the caked-up vegetation-gunk that is glommed underneath the deck.
A (futile) trip to Home Depot to discover they didn’t have squat, and then a trip to Tru-Value to find the correct size, shape, and “Made in America” blades — you don’t see that too often anymore these days with steel tools and hardware! And at about only $12 each, cheaper then the non-fitting cheap blades at HD!
The old blades are hacked, but they have enough meat on them for a few more sharpening-cycles on the grinder, and from the new blades I have a pattern to grind-to.
Thanks. My little MTD 3.5 hp push unit has Mower Envy now.
I need to put a grider to my blade, too. I wonder what the optimum angle and “sharpness” would be for a mower? I can put a 2000 grit edge on it, but that seems kind of overkill.
Something sharp, strong, but won’t roll the edge. And I don’t know the specs for that.
Jim
Sunk New Dawn
Galveston, TX
I just put about a 45-degree edge on it. That’s what the new ones were like. It will be dull again soon enough!
That looks like a royal PITA… Reminds me, I need to sharpen my one mower blade… sigh
It’s easier than it looks, but boy are those old blades dull! The new, fresh ones cut soo much better!
I suspect my method of lawn mower maintenance wouldn’t do you any good:
Puts “For Sale” sign on mower,
Spreads 25 yards of decorative rock in yard,
Buys extra large bottle of Round Up.
Your mileage may vary.
Ha! I’ve got weeds up to my waist out there in the Prairie, and industrial strength Round-Up!