My Craftsman 42" mower deck has one serious design flaw ("What?! Only one?"
you say...) The left hand gauge wheel on the deck gets hit frequently when
I'm trimming around trees. It's in exactly the wrong place when you cut
around a tree against the left edge of the mower deck. Even if I'm very
careful, it's very easy to brush the wheel against the tree I'm cutting
around and bend the bracket that supports it, and I have a LOT of trees on
my property. After straightening it quite a few times, I decide that some
re-engineering was in order. I cut the bracket in two along the 45 degree
bend that aligns the wheel with the forward direction, and bolted a hinge
there. This mod has worked pretty well for a while, but the hinge wasn't
really strong enough, and eventually wore out. Today I bought a spring
loaded, very heavy duty door hinge and replaced my original mod. I also
added an adjustable stop so that the spring built into the hinge pushes the
bracket out to the right position and holds it there, which makes the gauge
wheel track properly. If I brush a tree with the wheel, it just moves out
of the way and springs back. This works really well. I'll post some
pictures on the dropbox if anyone is interested.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love
America

Hey Bob,

Please do post some pix. I'm having a problem picturing what you did.
I don't have "a lot of trees", but I have some curbing that sure gives
the mower deck a shot.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:23:07 -0500, "Bob Chilcoat"
wrote:
SNIP
of the way and springs back. This works really well. I'll post some
pictures on the dropbox if anyone is interested.

OK, I'll put some photos in the dropbox. It'll take a couple of days
because it's pouring rain today and I'm not going to wade out to the shed in
a sea of mud just to take some pix.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love
America

"Brian Lawson" wrote in message
...
Hey Bob,

Please do post some pix. I'm having a problem picturing what you did.
I don't have "a lot of trees", but I have some curbing that sure gives
the mower deck a shot.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Tue, 30 Nov 2004 17:23:07 -0500, "Bob Chilcoat"
wrote:
SNIP
of the way and springs back. This works really well. I'll post some
pictures on the dropbox if anyone is interested.

It's dry today, so I've took some pictures and put them and a text
description in the dropbox, for anyone who's interested. Look for
MowerMod**, etc. This thing works pretty well.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

I don't have to like Bush and Cheney (Or Kerry, for that matter) to love
America

"Bob Chilcoat" wrote in message
...
OK, I'll put some photos in the dropbox. It'll take a couple of days
because it's pouring rain today and I'm not going to wade out to the shed
in
a sea of mud just to take some pix.

Hey Bob,

Thank you. Looks very well made, but I don't understand the term
"spring hinge" I guess, and no spring is visible. Is that the type
of hinge that would go, say on the doors to the kitchen in a
restaurant, which will swing open by pushing from either side ( in and
out ), and then return to "closed" (neutral) when released?

Good pix by the way.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 13:07:52 -0500, "Bob Chilcoat"
wrote:

It's dry today, so I've took some pictures and put them and a text
description in the dropbox, for anyone who's interested. Look for
MowerMod**, etc. This thing works pretty well.

Brian,

It's a normal door hinge, but has a spring concealed inside an oversized
hinge pin. Ace hardware had a variety of hinges, and these were the
heaviest duty. It was just called a 4" "spring hinge". A very similar one
was called a "self closing" hinge. It has a large( 5/16"?) diameter hinge
pin and the spring is somewhere inside the center section of this. One of
the plates has extensions that wrap around each end of this pin. The other
plate has a wide center section that wraps around the rest of the pin. The
advantage of this hinge is that both plates are very well supported so that
the hinge can take a significant vertical twisting load. The two ends of
the hinge pin are apparently connected by some internal smaller pin, so that
one can rotate independently of the other. There is a small radial slot cut
into the part of the first plate that's wrapped around the hinge pin, and
there are several small radial holes drilled in the hinge pin behind this
slot. This allows the hinge pin at this end to be turned relative to the
wrapped portion of the plate by inserting a supplied small steel pin into
one of the holes. There is a second, very short "lock pin" supplied. By
turning this end of the hinge pin by means of the two small pins you can
wind up the spring inside to the desired tension, and then insert the lock
pin to hold it permanently in that position. That's the best I can do to
describe it. You'll have to go to the hardware store and see if you can
find one. Once you see it, I think you'll understand completely. The other
advantage of this hinge is that the spring is fully contained inside.

--
Bob (Chief Pilot, White Knuckle Airways)

"Brian Lawson" wrote in message
news
Hey Bob,

Thank you. Looks very well made, but I don't understand the term
"spring hinge" I guess, and no spring is visible. Is that the type
of hinge that would go, say on the doors to the kitchen in a
restaurant, which will swing open by pushing from either side ( in and
out ), and then return to "closed" (neutral) when released?

Good pix by the way.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.

Hey Bob,

Thanks for taking the time to explain. Next time I'm at Home Depot,
I'll have a look.

Take care.

Brian Lawson,
Bothwell, Ontario.
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
On Thu, 2 Dec 2004 17:05:47 -0500, "Bob Chilcoat"
wrote:

Brian,

It's a normal door hinge, but has a spring concealed inside an oversized
hinge pin. Ace hardware had a variety of hinges, and these were the
heaviest duty. It was just called a 4" "spring hinge". A very similar one


SNIP