/diy/ - Do It Yourself

>>1411508
>Lawnmowers thrive on abuse

lawnmeowers definitely do NOT thrive on abuse. Now go to your room.

>>1411508
lawnmowers thrive on maintenance schedules, particularly blade sharpening and greasing all the grease zirc points.

>>1411508
pushmowers probably thrive on abuse

>>1411508
My freebie finally started belching white smoke after 3 years with a greasy sponge as an air filter, being left outside always, never winterized, and having a steel pipe zip tied to the handle. Annual blade sharpening was done with an angle grinder. Oil was changed once

>>1411544
run some sea foam through it

>>1411508
>2-strokes thrive on abuse


fixed

>>1411540
Operator self abuse, watching a grown man shame himself on his front lawn is a shameful display

Does anyone actually change oil in their push mower? Year 4 of factory oil on mine.

>>1411508
i had a pushmower i bought at kmart back in 2000 (back when they had a throttle), all i can remember is the engine was briggs & straton and it was mulching type that you could close the side shoot.

i had an asshole alcoholic neighbor who just went through a divorce and let his kids get away with murder. my yard adjoining his property accumulated coors light cans (he got a dwi once, but his daddy was a game warden so all he got was a slap on the wrist) and his kids trash be it soda bottles or candy wrappers. somehow every stick and branch that fell from his trees which didn't even overhang on my property ended up in my yard too.

after a couple months of picking up all that crap and filling a couple 50 gallon trash bags i said fuck it and just mulched it except for branches over 1.5'' in diameter.

that lawn mower lasted 8 years, the engine still ran. the deck rusted under the shoot and a piece broke off.

>i used a stick to half ass scrape the grass out (probably why it rusted). i'd let the grass get 6-7 inches tall before i mowed it and i would mow in the rain.

>i never changed the oil once

>6 years in i decided to sharpen the blade (shook so bad from mulching all that trash i though i had parkinsons) and put a point and condeser kit in it and a new plug.

thats all the maintinance it had besides keeping it in a shed and out of the elements when not in use. it started one pull in the summer, occasionally 2 pulls were needed when it was cooler in the spring and fall.

push mowers these days don't even have an adjustable throttle anymore. i swear twice a mowing season i have to take the rewind cover off and remove a leaf that somehow restricts the air vane governor.

>>1411757
Been running mine on oil i drained out of a diesel van a decade ago before scrapping it. So far so good.
What keeps fucking it though is my stupid dog digging holes everywhere. Hitting a hole and then pulling it out again keeps wrecking the bolts the hold the handle together.

I used to make pretty good beer money by saving people's neglected small engines from the dumpster and reselling them after putting a few bucks worth of parts in.

>>1411508
>Lawnmowers thrive on abuse

they do, but you'd be happier if you'd married the dishwasher

>abuse
Aside from purposely running it in to a tree there's not much you can do to this thing. I'll grease and clean the old grass out in the spring, other than that I just fire it up and mow every week.

>>1412053

If your entire yard looks like that then I suppose your tractor will last forever. But when OP said "abuse", I was picturing my neighborhood of yards filled with boulders that are mostly buried, and huge tree roots that you have to avoid. I've seen clowns hit a rock going full speed on their riding lawnmowers and nearly destroy the mower.

>>1412056
My yard was a goat pasture that sat abandoned for about 12 years. After I fell all the scrub trees and pulled and ground the stumps it was still rough as hell.
That heavy ass woods mower on the back levels out my yard every pass it makes. It also makes a nice loud noise to remind me that I have a rock I need to dig out before I mow again.
After five years of this I've actually got the yard straightened out. Now it's time to start planting trees, lots of them. I also would like to put up a split rail fence around the property. Once all this is done I'll need to look in to a zero turn, that tractor can be a bitch getting in to tight spaces.
>my eight year old driving it around

>>1412065

ok, we're all jealous now. Nice job pal, with your land and your family.

>>1412071
Thanks man, I wasn't trying to brag. To keep it thread related I do have a cheap push mower I use to trim close around the house. It definitely thrives on abuse, but considering it's just another piece of shit MTD I don't feel it deserves any better.

>>1411508
If it's a lawnboy or a shitty old toro then yeah abuse that shit. Snappers, john deers, cub cadets(pre 2016), red hawks and other higher brands deserve more attention especially if you cut commercial. Number 1 way to prevent maintenance is to put marvel mystery oil in the gas, change oil and for gods sake clean the fucking deck. Got many cheap push mowers that "didn't work/ didn't cut proper" and all that was wrong with them was the built up hardened thatch interfering with the blades.

>>1412272
2 stroke lawnboys run forever

>>1411757
Yes, once a year. But I actually enjoy performing maintenance on my things

>>1411555
>Neighbor has cheap shitty push mower that is 10+ years old.
>Runs for about 5 minutes at a time and dies
>Can't get it started one day
>Let him borrow mine to finish lawn
>Dump some seafoam in the gas tank
>Sharpen the blade real quick on the bench grinder
>Give him back a fully running mower when he returns mine
>Thinks I'm a genius and brings me a case of craft beer

I just hope he doesn't ask me to fix anything else.

>>1412321
>>Dump some seafoam in the gas tank

what is that, and what does it do?

>>1411508
I had a cheap old used lawnmower I bought for 40 bucks at a garage sale and used it when I was a poorfag renting.
I had varsol in a gas jug in the garage. My roommate thought it was gasoline.
It wasn't. I didn't have a gasoline gas jug, we lived right by the fucking gas station so I just wheeled it there to fill it up normally.
So dumbass pours in varsol into the half empty tank. Massive huge white clouds of smoke filled the garage.
That piece of shit lawnmower still worked fine after that mistake.

>>1411508
I bought a used Tecumseh mower in 1996 for $50, changed the oil and air filter every year. Spark plug every 4, sharpened the blade when it needed it. She ran great till 2 years ago when I accidentally put too much oil in it. It still ran but sounded strange. I sold it to a beaner for $20.

Bought a new MTD mower at that time, and it worked fine til next summer when it would not start. Fucking new gas attracts water. and the float bowl was full of it, now I have to drain the gas in the winter.

I'm keeping my eyes out for a mower from the 60's or earlier. When people made mowers to work and not be "carb compliant" and cheap.

When I go on vacation I load up on ethanol free gas and use that the rest of the time.

I just picked up a self propelled electric start mower from a goodwill for $20, it works, but needs a battery. I will be transferring the motor and handles to an old yard man mower deck I have. Self propelled mowers are for pussies.

My Walmart weedeater brand lawn mower has been stored outside for the last 15 years, had its oil, spark plug, and air filter changed once, all last year including a diaphragm gasket and primer bulb. I used the same blade for 14 years. The handle release is gone and now the only way to turn it off is to press a metal tab by the rear of the engine to close the circuit. Still runs pretty decent.

>>1412053
Thats a real beauty

>>1412329
It's a fuel additive that contains 10% Unicorn Piss. Cleans out the fuel system.

>>1411508
I’ve never understood why people try to abuse and neglect their things.

>>1412425
you just fix it later when it gives you a problem. Saves about 70% time overall ime.

>>1412482
This is the real redpill. Repair is more efficient than maintenance.

>>1411555
Belching white smoke usually means bad rings. This post was borderline retarded.

>>1411757
Yes because a few small costs is better than one big one....

>>1412343
Your roommate is the dumbass in that story? If someone handed me a gas can filled with a mixture of mountain dew and turpentine, would I be the dumbass for pouring it in my mower? Gas cans are for gas.

>>1412488
Don't change the oil in your car and see how efficient that ends up being.

>>1412498
>not doubling your fuel trip efficiency by using both your red and blue cans for gasoline in summer and kerosene in winter.
At least someone's keeping the economy running for me.