Categories
other thoughts outdoors

Lawn Equipment

[Today: 6+ miles]

I did some lawn equipment maintenance today.

First, I got the front end of the big mower up on some auto ramps and got under enough to get the mower blades off.  There are three of them.

I used my bench-grinder-on-the-floor to try to get some kind of a cutting edge back on the blades.  They were beaten down pretty badly, probably even a larger radius on the “edge” than the string in our string trimmer.  But I got them all ground down and used a stone to get rid of the burrs and such.  I put them back on and took a couple of test passes and it looks good.

After a trip to Lowes for some trimmer string, I wrestled with the tired old string trimmer.  The thing was a cheapie when we bought it, 6 + years ago.  I think this last winter it just accumulated too much crud in the fuel system.  I never could get it working right.  I eventually cracked the little rubber primer bulb.

So I’ve ordered some new parts for the trimmer for about $30 online.  If that will get me going again for a couple more years it will be worthwhile.  After that I may need a new trimmer.

Our push mower got some maintenance a couple weeks ago.  I changed the oil!  And it got a new primer bulb a couple of years ago.  I have already had it up and running.

Our winter no-mowing season is pretty short, about three months.  But even in that amount of time things seem to get a bit gimpy.