The old mower had two large (19″) blades that weighed in at a couple of pounds each. Since they were spinning at some dangerous speed, they needed a big, heavy (30 lb) deck for safety. And to support all of this there a big heavy pulleys bolted to the deck attached to taut belts that went to the motor. All of this leads to a large, heavy system built like a tank (as they say). I suppose this is good for heavier work, but I’m just mowing a suburban lawn. I am looking to do something smaller and lighter.

The first thing I found were these little scooter motors. 24V 30W for under $20. Use maybe four of them and for a blade In had a look at some of these heavy duty heads for string trimmers. Lots of these steel string trimmer heads on Amazon for $12.

Attaching the shaft of the motor to the blades is a small problem. Found these adapter kits, but they expect a shaft with more threads. Realized I could just use some standard washers and nuts and be done with it. Also re-learned a lesson about metric vs imperial parts. Seems 5/16″ nuts are darn close to 8mm.

Also noticed the motor fit nicely inside a 2″ PVC pipe. PVC. Might be easier to work with. I drilled a “T” and found out the geometry isn’t quite right. Going to try cutting a bit but PVC pipe might not be the way to go.

Also noticed the old blades were offset. I guess this is how they keep from having an unmowed stripe down the middle in the gap between the two blades. Turns out the deck mounting points were also offset a bit, I suppose to account for the offset blades. I was imagining a simpler right-angle design. Another puzzle to solve.