Have recently completed a SB45 17" restore as a groomer to accompany my SB45 mower. Its all complete but thought some people might want to check out some photos.
Original mower was purchased from a deceased estate and after initial inspection the mower was found to be in amazing condition. little to no use would best describe its mechanical condition. Original catcher with minimal surface rust, 2.5hp Kirby motor still starting first pull albeit deteriorated primer bulb. Some not to spec touch up paint work was the biggest problem.
I am a bit handy on 3d modeling and have been toying with some ideas for a while. With some helpful in put from member Simrice and googling I settled on a design. Using laser cut blades with 9 tips, 1.5mm thk and 8 variations to the centre hole orientation I sent the order off for them.
I had a worn out donor reel from another machine and wanted to reuse what I could for parts. I cut and removed the blades and circular plates from the reel to be left with just a shaft. I used some 20x3 Gal. S.H.S as a sleeve to slide over the shaft with a slight interference fit. The square section is the basis of driving the blades. The square cut out in the blade has a small arc on one edge so i could identify which blade was which type. There was 4 of each type and 8 types with about 5 deg of rotation difference so that it creates the spiral pattern when all assembled on the shaft.
For spacers i used more S.H.S cut at 10mm which can be doubled up for using the machine as a dethatcher.
to run the groomer reel in the SB45 machines with a blade diameter large enough to give a deep cut when needed, you need to make some other changes. Bed knife was removed from the Sole Plate and new mounting holes were drilled to move it back in the chassis and tilted forward to avoid it bottoming out into lawn, to better follow the shape of the new blade and allow the deflector plate to be reinstalled.
so all assembled and time for some testing.
Last edited by Bonnar_Bloke; 19/02/1808:01 AM. Reason: terminology of parts
all operating well but needed a tidy up and a fresh coat of paint. might as well stick a new motor on it too. fitment of the B&S motors to the earlier SB45's with the straight lower handlebars doesn't work well and spacer plates are normally fitted to allow clearance. In my case I didn't want to fit spacers and managed to reshape the bolt plate of the upper handlebar section to bring the bars forward enough that the grips are around level. a nice simple fix.
BB you are right there, the percentage of DH people that are on Gumtree never fails to surprise me, but at least I get a chuckle out of it sometimes. I guess the world is full of silly people and Gumtree attracts them like bees to a honeypot