new use for old mower

[user251]

I turned an old push mower into a chipper shredder for free. All i did is cut a hole in the deck above the blade welded a funnel shaped opening out of some old stud plates i had laying around, sharped the blade all the way to the bolt and let her rip. It does an awesome job and turns soft stuff like okra stalks and corn stalks into instant mulch.
i had to make a cover to keep the shredded junk from coming out the side.

it turned alot of okra stalks into this

 

[TanksHill]

Great way to reuse and recycle!!!

 

[sylvie]

What did you use to cut the deck? My mowers have heavy duty metal decks.

 

[Big Daddy]

You gotta love a man and his trusty welder. That's really cool.

 

[user251]

i cut the deck with a right angle grinder with a thin metal cutting blade. i did this on a rainy day on a whim. it really does a great job. i do however need to install a piece of tire or stiff robber in the funnel to keep debris from coming back out, but if i feed stalks while standing behind it like you are mowing i didnt get anything on me.

 

[RLAZ]

Thats pretty cool. So all you do is shove the stalks up the chute?

 

[xpc]

I like it and will remember for future inventions.

 

[ducks4you]

THAT IS FREAKIN' A W E S O M E !!!!!!!
Most of those chipper/shredders are too expensive and have a big pricetag. You can get a cheap little 22 inch mower for a song this time of year, and they come with that powerful little Briggs & Stratton engine, too. I have an old chipper/shredder taking up a corner of my machine shed that shreds...newspaper,well, maybe? Wish you lived closer. I have an old mower that needs a new job. RATS!!!

 

[boggybranch]

Yep....gonna have to commit that idea to memory. Beats the heck out of "push, pull, push, pull, push, pull, repeat."

 

[user251]

the good thing about it is most people dont know how to repair lawn mowers and will give them away when they can usually be fixed cheaply, my dad got one the other day for free because the handle was missing a bolt, can you believe it.....a BOLT . most of the time its a spark plug, trashy carbs, fly wheel key or something simple. the chipper idea came about from a rainy day, seeing a pile of slowly decaying okra stalks and then seeing a old rarely used mower. it was easy to do and fun to build. i forgot to mention im building an angle iron rack to sit it on to elevate it and to allow the debris to go into a washtub to be able to put it into the garden or into another compost bin.