Caste Iron Lawn Mower

[Rhyolith]

This is one of those things that I have no use for at all... but it has great big caste iron gears on it so want it :mrgreen: (Bit like those old Mangles... will get round one at some point...) I have seen them a few times before but they have always been in the hundreds of £ and beyond even my justification to buy

But today a guy in an antique shop offered this to me at £25 :shock: ... so here it is :mrgreen:

Ransomes. Sims & Head. Ipswich Lawn Mower by Rhyolith, on Flickr

Should make a change from drills! :roll: The only part that looks like it needs outright replacing are the wooded rollers at the front (and possible the wooden handles too), otherwise some white spirit and re-oiling should get it gif nicely!

Does anyone know how to sharpen the blades on these?

 

[AndyT]

Wow, go for it.
I know that there are old lawn mower collectors and historians around, just as there are old tool enthusiasts. There are people who are both (but not me, though I can see it's a fine thing.)

As for sharpening, my guess is that a coarse 'cigar stone' would be the weapon of choice, or a large flat file, used freehand, though I'm sure you could devise a jig if you needed, but I think I've read that grass blades are better with a degree of scratchiness to the edges, so the grass does not slide along them.

 

[pitch pine]

What a beautiful piece of machinery. I think I wouldn't have been able to say no at £25 either. Pictures after you have fettled it please.

 

[AndyT]

Bearing in mind I know nothing about old mowers so don't want you to jump to conclusions, I wonder if you have an 'Automaton' described by the Old Lawnmower Club as 'highly prized by collectors'

http://www.oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/mower ... -automaton

 

[ColeyS1]

What a beauty !!!!! I'm incredibly envious but congratulate you on finding it !

Coley

 

[dickm]

you'll struggle to sharpen the cylinder on that without a proper grinder - DAMHIKT! Back in the 50s, there used to be one of those little ads with a line drawing of a device that it
was claimed you could clamp to the fixed blade, spin the cylinder and it would sharpen perfectly. It wouldn't!
But if you don't actually want to use it for aerobic exercise, careful work with a file or a flat whetstone will make it look OK.

Never been there, but (to great amusement of press reporters on slow news days) there is a lawnmower museum in Southport.

 

[Homers double]

Thats a lovely old ransomes mower.
Unfortunately lawnmowers are one of my little foibles, I own quite a few, over the years I've acquired several older ones that are in storage waiting for me to retire, somewhere I have a metal lathe attachment which is basically a grinder which moves along on a threaded bar while the lathe spins the cylinder.
To successfully sharpen the cylinder you'll need to dismantle the mover to remove the cylinder and take it to a mower servicing company, if you can remove the bottom blade take that as well as I've never successfully sharpened one myself.
I hope my wife never learns about the stuff I've acquired, she knows I have access to a storage unit but she never been to see it, I dread to think what her reaction would be
HD

 

[Rhyolith]

Your useful as usual Andy! Yes it is an 12" Automaton! Don't quite know how I missed the writing in huge letters caste into it....

Untitled by Rhyolith, on Flickr

I am well chuffed that its a model of recognised quality!

The thing seems to work by shearing the curved blades of helix the cylinder against (or near to) a plate/blade underneath, you can see it here:

initial Disassembly by Rhyolith, on Flickr
Underside by Rhyolith, on Flickr

The cylinder seems to have a square cutting edge, in a am thing running over it with a millsaw file would do the trick? I don't see why it would be awfully difficult unless it needs to be precise in some way? I have not really examined it closely yet mind... Should that plate be sharpened too does anyone know? The screws holding it on don't want to come out -_- I will not be attempting any sharpen to soon as it seems to be more to it then I understand as of yet.


I am impressed how much there is too this beast! I keep finding new mechanisms as I take it apart for cleaning, such as this arm inside the roller that causes the blade to only engage while the mower is in forward motion.

Roller by Rhyolith, on Flickr

The roller itself is actually two rollers on a single rod, this to allow it to go round corners easier I would assume? There is another one of those engagement arms the other side.

These are in need of replacement, I assume the wooden bits are meant to meet, but not join in the middle? These may be a challenge with a Black and Decker drill lathe...

Forward Rollers by Rhyolith, on Flickr

This is the stage I am at now:

Cleaning by Rhyolith, on Flickr

Just cleaning with white spirit to remove all the grease and other crude. As is my usual I probably won't think about re-paiting (yet) it due to my lack of confidence with such an undertaking and that I am more interested in seeing it working than anything

 

[DTR]

That looks like a beautiful bit of engineering! As luck would have it, I've currently got my Qualcast Panther in bits* while I sharpen the blade. The flat blade I have sharpened on the oilstones, no different to, say, a drawknife. A mill file should be fine though, that's what I use for the garden shears etc. If you really want to dress the rotary part, it could be done on your lathe with a toolpost grinder as Homer's Double has said. As for the forward rollers, I don't think they're very critical, they just support the front end and provide a measure of depth adjustment for the grass-cutting. My Panther's had one of four missing for ages, it's made no difference.

(*In theory the Panther's flat blade is just screwed to the bottom of the mower. However the mower hasn't been properly maintained in years (if ever), and decades of lawn-mowing has worn the screws down to smooth bumps. I've had to dismantle the mower in order to get the screws out via destructive means.)

 

[RobinBHM]

I understand archives for ransomes can found here:

http://www.reading.ac.uk/merl/collectio ... R_RAN.aspx

Ransomes started producing cylinder mowers in 1832 so one of the oldest makers of mowers. You have a real piece of history

I wonder how old yours is

 

[AndyT]

The page I linked to gives a date range of 1867 to 1881 for it, with the company name shown.
It also has a rather nice advert describing the 12" model as suitable 'for a Lady or Lad' !

(The site also has info on lawn mower restoration, and I'm sure members there will help if you meet any tricky bits.)

 

[NazNomad]

Getting the cylinder blade properly sharpened, then backlapping it when needed will keep it razor sharp.

You'll never get a mower that cuts better than a properly sharpened cylinder one.


.. and I think the Ransomes had three wooden rollers at the front, plenty available online.

Failing that , grab a couple of cheap rolling pins, cut & drill them into rollers.

 

[bugbear]

Getting the cylinder blade properly sharpened, then backlapping it when needed will keep it razor sharp.

You'll never get a mower that cuts better than a properly sharpened cylinder one.

Backlapping is "OK", but doesn't produce blade relief, which a proper lawn mower grinding machine will.

http://www.huntergrinders.com/about_sharper.htm

Cylinder mowers cut with an action just like a pair of shears, and the two blades (cylinder and bottom) need to TOUCH
for this to work. A well set up mower will slice a strip of newspaper at every position along the blade, just turning
the blade with your hand.

No need for true precision, the nearest 1/500" (*) will do.

You'll need to disassemble it for cleaning, and that's a good time to take the cylinder to your local
mower guy.

Spare wooden rolllers are easily made on a lathe (obvs).

BugBear

(*) seriously, that's the tolerance a mower grinder works to

 

[Rhyolith]

I have finished cleaning the Automaton and its now back in one piece.

I decided to touch up the cylinder with a good quality millsaw file so it would cut, this seems to have worked as it cuts grass! There are a few adjustments that need to be ticketed with to get right, mainly the height of the blade off the ground and the separation between the cylinder and the underplot/blade. I did not take the time to rule get these right for a full usage test, but I can confirm it works! Its quite comical how all the grass flies out the front i a vortex :mrgreen: I was wondering if its meant to have one of those scoop like things at the front?

Here is a video of it going (but not cutting).

Untitled by Rhyolith, on Flickr

My next step is to replace the various manky wooden bits, mainly the rollers. Firstly however dealing with a larger machine like this revealed significant inaquatices in my current workshop layout, so I feel a re-shuffle coming on before I do anymore on this :roll:

Looks like this mower dates 1867 - 1881 (thanks to Andy) can any confirm this or better help with a more precise date? I really would be delighted its defiantly a 19th century machine

 

[Benchwayze]

This is one of those things that I have no use for at all... but it has great big caste iron gears on it so want it :mrgreen: (Bit like those old Mangles... will get round one at some point...) I have seen them a few times before but they have always been in the hundreds of £ and beyond even my justification to buy

But today a guy in an antique shop offered this to me at £25 :shock: ... so here it is :mrgreen:

Ransomes. Sims & Head. Ipswich Lawn Mower by Rhyolith, on Flickr

Should make a change from drills! :roll: The only part that looks like it needs outright replacing are the wooded rollers at the front (and possible the wooden handles too), otherwise some white spirit and re-oiling should get it gif nicely!

Does anyone know how to sharpen the blades on these?

Yes Rhyo.

Send them to a specialist mower dealer who offers a sharpening service. My honest to goodness advice, having tried to sharpen a cylinder mower blade before.

 

[bugbear]

If you don't want to pay for a grinding surface, you could buy one of the clip on abrasive gadgets.

They're far more effective than back lapping with loose SiC paste.

This sort of thing

You need to fit them with lots of clearance and then VERY GRADUALLY do spin/tighten cycles, until the blades have been ground over their entire surface.

This took around 10 minutes on a fairly blunt Qualcast Concord; I don't know how long it would take on your machine.

EDIT; old (generally favourable) thread on these gadgets

sharpening-cylinder-mower-blades-t24542.html

BugBear

 

[ED65]

Does anyone know how to sharpen the blades on these?

Carefully. I've seen reports of some very nasty cuts (visit to A&E nasty) from people slipping when doing this so proceed with all due caution.

Edit: forgot to say, nice buy! If I had a lawn I cared for I'd have snapped it up at that price too, fab bit of kit.

 

[cg1997]

Hello
A nice mower, we have a couple early Automatons in our collection & have been looking for an Automaton of that design, do you still have this mower.

Clive
Museum of Gardening
Sussex

 

[D_W]

I'd backlap it and go to the expense of getting it properly ground only if it doesn't cut acceptably. I've been backlapping a scotts american for a couple of years, and perhaps I'll run out of luck at some point, but it would easily pass the newspaper test.

It's a joy to mow with. With all of the weight in the handle of that machine and the roller, I don't know if that'll be the case for that one - but you must give it a whirl and let us know.

I thought when I got a reel, I'd have to mow with my rotary once every three weeks or so, but I haven't had to do that. My experience as a younger fellow putting a lot of hours on a jacobsen F10 was that stuff gets away from them (certain weeds, etc) and you need to use a rotary to correct but I guess the fellow I mowed for (who has purchased his grinding equipment used, and wasn't exactly a mechanical savant) just didn't do a good job grinding the blades.

I'd put mowing with a reel (given a reasonable sized garden) right up there with shaving with a straight razor. I picked it up out of curiosity and thought it'd be trouble, but it's turned out to be better than rotary, just as shaving with a straight is entirely superior to shaving with a disposable or electric razor, and takes probably about 25% more time (less time if it's several days between shaves).

 

[Rhyolith]

Hello
A nice mower, we have a couple early Automatons in our collection & have been looking for an Automaton of that design, do you still have this mower.

Clive
Museum of Gardening
Sussex

Yes I do, I have not round to giving it a full restoration yet. I need to get my wood lathe working to make to rollers at the front and can't do that without finding a drive system for that, its quite a big string of projects that I will do at some point :roll: