Clamp That Blade!

OK, I bit.

I bought the following blade clamp at Sears, which holds the blade firmly in place while removing the bolt to sharpen the blade or the flywheel.

Craftsman Blade Clamp : Sears Outlet


Cost me about $9.00

The downside is that I have to be able to find it in my basement when I need it.

 

never had such nice tools. I have seen times where this would have worked well. Probably safer as well

 

I've been holding the blade or using some other compromise for decades, but this appealed to me enough for me to treat myself.

 

I've always jammed rope into the cylinder to prevent the piston from moving all the way up.....

Works like a charm!

 

I always use an air impact wrench. The rotational inertia of the engine and blade are sufficient. The bolt immediately loosens and the motor does not turn whatsoever.

 

Yeah the impact works well, now that I have one. usually the bolts are not that tight, but once in awhile you get one that just will not come loose, even had to chisel one off, someone had really messed up the bolt. wish I had the tool to hold the blade then.
Is everyone getting busy now! I am stopped at work everyday with questions and can you fix?

 

Heh, heh! I have an impact wrench and a compressor ---- where were you guys with the helpful idea before I bought this?

Now I'll have to consider returning it.

I'd been struggling with that job numerous times over a period of decades and hadn't though of using the impact wrench.


I have a 2.5 HP compressor in my basement plumbed in to an old 50 gallon water tank for extra air storage, and then with 1" pipe to a convenient outlet in my basement, side of the house and front of the house. That's one of my little luxuries I installed one day. So I can get a lot of air until that reservoir is used up!

 

I hope your water tank is of sufficient thickness and strength to hold the air pressure. With a gas which is compressible, the stored energy is huge. If it blows, you have a problem. At 100 psig the energy stored is 96250 ft-lbs which is about the energy in an ounce of TNT.

In the chemical industry, where I have considerable experience, any pressure vessel in excess of 5 ft**3 must be made to exacting requirements. 50 gallons is 6.68 ft**3.

Be careful.

 

Interesting tool, but I am wondering if it will distort the deck on one of those $129 "Special" cheap mowers if tightened up? Have you used it yet?

 

No, it's still in the original packaging.


It has some rubber tips on the clamp portion which probably increase friction, reducing the need to screw it down overly tight.

My guess is that wouldn't be a problem.

But now I'm thinking I should return it and use my impact wrench to off the bolts, as suggested earlier.

 

SP....new tools are always nice of course...but that seems more of a gadget. I always either grabbed the blade with a heavy leather glove or wedged a block of wood somewhere.

Of course, that was for my specific mower that I had for 15 yrs, if I was working on them for a living or hobby...might be different. I always had 2 blades and swapped them 3 times a season, so I never dealt with a stuck or buggered bolt.

Course, I'm sure I have some gadgets stashed in a toolbox or drawer somewhere too...lol

 

Yes, I managed Ok for a couple of decades or so using ad hoc methods. I sp'ose I indulged myself with a gadget I didn't really need..... Sears caught me at a vulnerable moment!

(The really good retailer never has a customer leave with more than a nickel in their pocket, is my theory!)

I actually went in to Sears to see if I could find a spring for my B&S throttle. No spring, but I came out with The Gadget!

After that I hunted through Home Depot for a spring. They didn't have the spring I needed, but they had a box of a hundred spring for $4.50 which I bought. I used one spring and cut and fit it to work with my mower.

Sigh!

 

I use an impact gun nearly every day to remove blades. Most of the time it's the milwaukee 18 volt lithium ion cordless impact which claims it can deliver two thousand inch pounds of torque (plenty sufficient for all but the most stubborn blade bolts). I have some air powered ones too, but I figure why worry with hoses and heavy guns when a little cordless works well. When I get a stubborn one, I use a block of wood or clamp a vise-grip to the blade and let the end of the vise-grip jam against a suitable spot on the deck to hold the blade and use a 1/2" pull bar to break them loose. In those cases, I don't think that little gadget will hold up well anyway. It should be fine for the occasional homeowner type user.

 

No worry to it. Hoses are kept on one of those wind up hose reels on the ceiling in my basement right next to my car lift. In fact I put the mowers on the car lift so I can get under them.

Compressed air tools are very handy. Just having a blast of air is handy at times.

I am not a fan of battery powered tools.

 

I wasn't a fan of battery powered tools either until I got the one before the one I use now. It was also a milwaukee 3/8" impact. It could take the lug nuts off on my 3/4 ton diesel and it lasted so long that it wore out the anvil. The one I have now is even stronger and lighter. Much easier than using the air tools. My shop is equipped with air too, and I have a honda powered Emglo compressor on my service truck as well. I just don't use it to power an impact much anymore. I do this for a living, so the easiest and fastest way of doing a job is what I go with.

 

Wait until it's time to replace the battery. It almost costs as much as the tool.

 

nope, the tool costs around $300, I bought an extra battery so I could have 3 (even though they charge in less than an hour I use it a LOT). The battery was around $60. Even if it was more, it pays for itself many times over.

The 2 batteries on my old one lasted long enough to wear out the tool. The anvil wore out and the bushings in the impact head wore out. That was with me using it daily in the shop and on service calls and was probably my most-used tool. It still lasted years and proved it's value. It had Ni-cad batteries which are inferior to the Lithium-Ion batteries in my current impact, so I expect them to do the same.

 

That's over twice the cost of my 400 ft-lb air powered impact wrench that has more than twice the torque. With the money saved I also purchased a compressor that has many other uses.

 

Heh, heh! I went down to the basement and dug out my air hose, fittings and impact wrench, so I'm all set to replace my flywheel key.


Now I just need to hunt around for a big rock to roll over with the mower!

 

Ok LawrenceC, I get it, you want to use air powered tools, however I am going to continue to use certain quality battery powered tools without having air hoses to worry about and trip over and be in the way. Go toss your impact in the back seat of your vehicle, drive down to a pond on a customer's piece of acreage and use it to repair their mower in a remote place with no compressor. You can't. This is what I do. I run a service truck and make many repairs on site.

If you bought a new 3/8" impact AND compressor for less than I spent on my impact, you didn't buy anything that will last in my situation. A good quality 3/8" air powered impact will run close to the same money or more than I spent on my battery one. (I own two ingersoll rand impacts, one snap-on, and a matco so I know what they cost and I have air powered ones when I want to use them). A half decent compressor will run twice what I paid for the impact. My compressor is a two-stage 6hp powered belt drive 60 gallon upright. I use these tools for a living. A cheap tool and compressor may work fine for you in your situation, but not mine. Been there, done that.

This is becoming off topic now, and I see no need to continue an unwanted debate about why battery powered tools are not what I should be using.

 

My impact wrench is indeed Ingersoll Rand and it is 1/2 inch drive. My air chisel is also IR. The air rachet and grinders are brand X and are rarely used. I bought the air ratchet to remove the nuts that hold the gas tank securing straps on a mid engined sports car of mine that I remove to facilitate changing the timing belts. Otherwise it takes about an hour to remove the nuts from the long threads 1/4 a turn at a time. It's cramped in there with little room to rotate a ratchet.

The compressor is a cheap diaphram variety. I don't like it but it has served my purposes for 15 years. It is noisy and does not have a high CFM. But, like I said, it serves my purposes. Every year I threaten to buy a big 220v piston variety but never seem to get around to it. Unless I get into paint spraying, I don't need one.

I do not do field work. All my work is in my basement for my purposes alone. The hose reel is adjacent to my car lift attached to the ceiling. Another hose reel is in the garages piped up to the basement compressor system.

If you read my posts, I never said you should not be using battery powered tools. I'm the one who doesn't want to use them.

Chacun a son gout.

 

In my days as a furnace repairman, I preferred corded tools myself. I was always working in someone's home or business, so packing around a compressor was not worthwhile.

I didn't use power tools all that often, so battery powered tools had depleted batteries pretty reliably.

Corded tools had lots of power, were often cheap and lasted a long time, and power was available from those homes and businesses. All I needed was an extension cord.

For my DIY repairs, I will use air tools or corded tools as convenient, since I have compressed air piped around my house. I use gasoline powered mowers for the extra power.

I used to use corded string trimmers, but I used to use them hard and they'd fail after five years or so.

I bought a cheap Homelight 2 cycle string trimmer a couple of years ago off Craigslist for a few bucks, but until I cleaned out the carb a week or so ago it didn't work very well ---now it works GREAT!

I went to the 2 cycle string trimmer for the extra power and so I wouldn't be confined to locations with power outlets.

So for me, what kind power source to use varies depending on circumstances. I'll use whatever suits my varying needs.

 

I use a solar string trimmer....green and free to operate......

but carrying around the 12V automotive battery and the 3 sq meters of PV panels is really taking its toll on my back....lol


That was a total joke...ok?

 

Hey gunguy---


The obvious solution is to use a nice lawn tractor to haul all your "green" equipment around.

 

Battery power'd impacts made a lasting impression on me about 8 years ago when a fella busted my Subaru axle nut loose with a battery power'd Makita (with the correct 36mm socket I didn't have at the time ) in the parking lot, after I had spent hours trying to get it off with improper tools one or more of which broke (cheap sears adjustable wrench). Torque on that nut is 145lbs

 

Pneumatic impact wrenches can have their limitations sometimes, too.


It's rare that we get a lot of snow around Seattle, so I was in the habit of installing my studded snow tires only when needed.

One day I did that, using my air impact wrench to tighten up the nuts, and went happily driving along that day. Until night, when I was returning home on the ice covered freeway, and had one of the front tires fall off the car! It went bouncing down the highway faster than I was going.


Apparently that impact wrench wasn't all it might have been. Should 'a checked the torq when I was done with it, apparently ---- but who knew?