Front mount flail mower from mid PTO

[Paul Allwood]

I'll throw this out there just in case you haven't considered it.

When you put the tabs on the roller for the flail blades mount them in a helix pattern.
It will self balance that way.
And it takes less hp to power them.

Thanks - I haven't worked out a final layout, but some sort of helix is what I'm planning.

 

[Runs With Scissors]

Thats looking awesome man!

I love those “jigs” that you made.

Very elegant solutions, keep up the good work sir!

 

[Paul Allwood]

Thats looking awesome man!

I love those “jigs” that you made.

Very elegant solutions, keep up the good work sir!

Thanks

 

[Paul Allwood]

I started trying to workout the layout for the flail tabs on the drum on the bench in the shed yesterday. Aiming for:
- Multiple lines of tabs along the drum with each line in some form of helix
- Flails from one line to the next offset to provide overlap so there are no spots that don't get cut
- No contact between flail Y-blades

After trying for a while I gave up and decided to try to model it in CAD. I had only ever used Solidworks but couldn't resolve a license issue so instead I tried the free web-based version of Onshape. There's a bit of a learning curve to get started with Onshape bit the general idea is the same. After spending a few hours with Onshape today I think I already prefer it to Solidworks.

I think I've come up with a tab layout that will work, but it's really hard to pick a view that makes it clear.









I added the Y-blades to the model to confirm that they cannot hit each other. Tomorrow I'll start tack welding the tabs in place and double check that the blades cannot touch.

 

[Paul Allwood]

I marked out the cutter drum and made a start on tack welding the tabs in place today.

Here's the jig I made to hold the tabs in place for tack welding.





Here's one line of tabs tacked in place.





This is as close as the flail blades can get to touching - pretty much matches what I was able to model in Onshape.

 

[Paul Allwood]

All the tabs are now tack welded onto the drum.

3 August 2026

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3 August 2026

Enjoy the videos and music you love, upload original content, and share it all with friends, family, and the world on YouTube.

youtube.com

 

[Yooper]

Paul, when you weld out the tabs I suggest you stagger the welds to minimize warping. IOW, weld one set and then rotate 180 and weld another set on the opposite end. Rinse and repeat. When done you can put it between centers in your lathe if it’s long enough and weld on some flat stock to balance it. If there’s a business that services car/truck driveshafts that could dynamically balance it close by, better yet.