Home made mulching plate

JDgreen

JDgreen

Lawn Addict
Have so many leaves, I hate to mow them over with a mulching push mower. Made this deck block off plate from aluminum stock, you cannot see the "L" brackets, but they are slotted so I can adjust the distance between plate and deck opening. The pic of the leaves shows how well it will keep them in the deck to be chopped up with the plate fully shut, and in the position shown, partly open, my once detested 7-Iron deck does a much better job of chopping up DRY grass than it formerly did, because the plate keeps most of the clippings inside the deck where the Gator blades can chop them up better, when it formerly blew all the grass out the chute before chopping it up. It still windrows, but nowhere as bad as it used to.
 

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Nice job jd,always nice to see people make,create ,fab their own ideas and make something happen.not much raking to do now.
 
jd--looks good, I might add that I have been using a similar setup on my mowers for many years. I took a little different approach in that mine will swing up for two reasons. One reason being the ability to blow my driveway with plate swung up and the other is to scatter leaves or grass after "windrow".
I mow my lawn in a clockwise fashion and always have a single windrow of grass or leaves in the center:thumbsup:
Cutting this way means you are recutting the windrow and moving it over.
I sometimes rake the leaves or grass into piles and use for mulch:thumbsup:
 
Giles said:
I mow my lawn in a clockwise fashion and always have a single windrow of grass or leaves in the center:thumbsup:
Cutting this way means you are recutting the windrow and moving it over.
Click to expand...
That's exactly how I do it. I have a 34" JD Model 68 rear engine rider that I've installed a home made mulching plate on and mowing clockwise I'm always cutting up the windrow left at the chute. The only time there's a problem is when the grass isn't dry enough or I've left it too long. Then it just drops clumps randomly everywhere. I used to alternately mow clockwise and counterclockwise, but I now have a 30" Honda RER that I use every other time going CCW without a mulching plate that throws the clippings to the outside.
 
oldyellr said:
That's exactly how I do it. I have a 34" JD Model 68 rear engine rider that I've installed a home made mulching plate on and mowing clockwise I'm always cutting up the windrow left at the chute. The only time there's a problem is when the grass isn't dry enough or I've left it too long. Then it just drops clumps randomly everywhere. I used to alternately mow clockwise and counterclockwise, but I now have a 30" Honda RER that I use every other time going CCW without a mulching plate that throws the clippings to the outside.
Click to expand...

My biggest single mowing area is an acre and a half that has my barn, garden shed, and garden in the rough center, I begin in the center by the barn and mow in ever-widening circles so the grass gets cut and recut over and over.
 
Oh, should have mentioned, I would prefer to bag these leaves up with my mulcher pusher and put them on my garden plot, but they are BLACK WALNUT TREE leaves, which contain a chemical (juglone) in the roots of the tree, the buds, and the nut hulls and leaves which are highly toxic to many garden plants. They say the leaves contain the chemical but it will break down after several weeks. I do not want to find out the hard way if that is true.
 
I might add that I have tried three different type blades.--Gator, High Lift, and standard blades. To my surprise the regular blades do a better job.:thumbsup:
I think deck design plays a big role with any machine and some blades work better then others.
I have tried three different type blades on both my Gravely G16 with 50" deck and on my Wheel Horse C175 with 48".
Same results with both machines:smile:
 
Here is the one I would like to get for my largest mower.

dlcs3.jpg
 
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