When my wife got home, she looked at the mower, looked at me, smiled, shook her head and went to the house without saying a word ! Priceless.
G'day
wce and
TylerI guess it all depends on
body language with the Fastcuts.
Did she shake her head in the vertical plane or the horizontal?
I can confirm this is a Sunbeam
Fastcut and it
probably predates
the Sunbeam rear discharge machines.
Many thanks for the images as they record the first known
4-stroke version of the Fastcut.This appears to be original - even the up-swept handlebars!
The dress cowl is missing and the wheels are generic.
The rear wheels appear to offer a negative angle to the blade holder.
That is a no-no! [Sunbeam were an early user of large diameter rear wheels.]
The
Fastcuts are the most frustrating of rotary mowers -
because little evidence has been found of them. I suspect this is
because of post 1954 copyright issues with newsprint publications.
I will rant and speculate here. I hope that is okay?This is an important machine, historically - because it involves
a sort of clash of design civilisations!
Sunbeam had been part of our landscape sine the earliest of days,
and Sunbeam (AUS) wool clippers testify to that.
Post WWII, Sunbeam entered the domestic consumer market - mix-masters,
shavers, frypans, ... and then lawnmowers.
Sunbeam entered the lawnmower world here in 1960, with their brilliant
twin-rotor electric. I love that mower!
They then entered the petrol-powered market with the
Fastcuts and
Lawnkeepers in the mid 1960s. This is the thing ...
So, Sunbeam Corporation, introduced a USA styled off-set wheel job.
[Sunbeam is a North American company]. But they did something radical
here ... Sunbeam (Australia) added single-point height adjustment to
an off-set wheel base. Know of anyone else that did that?
Also note the under-base. There is some attempt at increasing the
gap between blade tip and rear and front sections. NOTE the difference
in the skirting on wce's machine and the 2-stroke images I supplied!
The Fast Cut evolved.
Also note the high-skirted pressed-steel base. This would have been an
excellent lawnmower. Pope did it, Sunbeam did it, but who else at this time?
Also note the swing-back blades on a bar blade-holder! ...
certainly Australian ... not USA!
For the record, I attach 2016 auction images of a
Fastcut 2-stroke.
Cheers-------------------------
Jack
