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Bolens Tubeframe 38" Mower Deck Project

13K views 176 replies 19 participants last post by  Dave in NY 
#1 ·
After having a few problems last year with my 42" deck I got to thinking that it might be nice to have a backup mower deck (perhaps mounted on a nice looking 1053) in case I encounter problems in the future. I have had a 38" (measures about 37-3/4" across the blades) mower deck that I got with my second 1050 sitting around and decided to dig it out yesterday and try and return to service. Took a good look at it and I think even though it has been patched and has some cracks in the deck I can repair it. Took some pictures of the deck that show some of the cracks so other members can see where this style of deck is prone to cracking after years of grass cutting duties. One thing that I always found strange is the two belt guards - they look factory made but are not illustrated in any of the 38" deck parts manuals I could find so I am thinking they have been added from some other attachment?? I do have the gear box for the deck as well but have it sitting on a shelf and forgot to take pictures of it - one lower corner of the casing appears to have been broken out at one point and welded back in. I took pictures of the support plate the gear box bolts to and it appears to have been broken and welded back together at some point as well so I am assuming the deck ahs had a rough life. One of the lower skid plates that go between the blade surround and the rear of the deck is missing - perhaps it broke off and got jammed in a blade somehow causing the support plate to break or something else happened? Some people may argue the deck is not worth repairing but I hate to see any Tube Frame attachments recycled into scrap metal so I am going to try and bring it back to life. The model number is not readable on the decal but I think I can figure out from the various parts manuals how things go together. I will have to strip the deck and then cut off the patches and repair or replace any cracked areas - should keep me amused for a few weeks (or months).
 

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#4 ·
Oh yeah definitely a 38'' Deck you can tell by the blades, spindles idler arm and gear box (those were all different on the 38's)

Looks like she had alot of work dont to her in its previous life , all that stuff re welded and those homemade guards .

But nothing that cant be fixed :)

looks like the 18416 deck model
 
#6 ·
There is no doubt you enjoy a challenge and have the skills & patience to rehabilitate the deck !! :worshippy1: :thumbs:

The question is: Are you REALLY that bored? :smilewink:

So much has been butchered on that deck, that I would not waste my time. :(

Now, a spare deck, that I can understand, but not that one! :poke:

At least if you remove all the paint, it will weigh 10 pounds less! :D
 
#7 ·
looks like the 18416 deck model
I was leaning towards the 18417 since it has the two safety decals - one on the left and one on the right but who knows given the condition of the deck.

There is no doubt you enjoy a challenge and have the skills & patience to rehabilitate the deck !! :worshippy1: :thumbs:

The question is: Are you REALLY that bored? :smilewink:

So much has been butchered on that deck, that I would not waste my time. :(

Now, a spare deck, that I can understand, but not that one! :poke:

At least if you remove all the paint, it will weigh 10 pounds less! :D
You are right about questioning my logic but I have been looking for about four years for another deck (38" to 42") and have not found one locally in my price range so it looks like this will be a go to project when I need something to do. Lots of paint on the top side for sure but not much on the bottom.

Wouldn't say I am that bored but I finished the car seat project I was working on and this will keep my mind off the upcoming doctors appointments and what seems like weekly blood work lately - will give me a reason to get out of bed each day.
 

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#8 ·
I was leaning towards the 18417 since it has the two safety decals - one on the left and one on the right but who knows given the condition of the deck.

You are right about questioning my logic but I have been looking for about four years for another deck (38" to 42") and have not found one locally in my price range so it looks like this will be a go to project when I need something to do. Lots of paint on the top side for sure but not much on the bottom.

Wouldn't say I am that bored but I finished the car seat project I was working on and this will keep my mind off the upcoming doctors appointments and what seems like weekly blood work lately - will give me a reason to get out of bed each day.
Give it a shot! See what happens, why not? Nice people cus of the seat
 
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#9 ·
Got the deck stripped to the point that I can start cutting the welds and removing the plates that have been added. The one pulley is not correct and someone has used an off the shelf Browning pulley and sleeved it to get a snug fit on the shaft. Took some pictures of the gear box so you can see where it has been welded as well. There are some stress cracks in the aluminum bearing housings that I will try and repair - never welded aluminum before so should be interesting. The PTO yoke that goes on the input shaft to the gear box has been replaced at some point. One thing that surprised me was that Bolens did not use a sleeve in between the two blade bearings to lock them up when the blade bolt was tightened - would think that would put a bit of side stress on the balls in the upper and lower bearings.
 

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#10 ·
Beautiful job on that interior Stew. As far as the deck goes, it may very well be alot of work, but as you say, It keeps your mind off other things & keeping the concerns at a minimum is always better for your health. I cant think of a better reason to redo it. I look forward to watching as you proceed with it. Good luck with it.
 
#11 ·
Beautiful job on that interior Stew. As far as the deck goes, it may very well be alot of work, but as you say, It keeps your mind off other things & keeping the concerns at a minimum is always better for your health. I cant think of a better reason to redo it. I look forward to watching as you proceed with it. Good luck with it.
I second Kens comments, hope and prayers for your health situation Stew.
 
#12 ·
Thanks for the kind words - the deck is a little bit lighter now.

Took the angle grinder equipped with a cut off wheel and put it to work cutting the welds for the majority of the plating that had been added. Got most of the plating removed - left a couple of small areas that will get removed later after I repair some of the areas so the deck has some strength again. Used a wire brush to remove a lot of the excess paint on the top side and I also cut out the blade surround in one piece so I can use it as a pattern to make a new one. The deck appears to be about .090" thick in most locations so I would guess it was made out of 13 or 12 gauge steel originally - may use 1/8" thick steel to repair the damaged areas where the deck is rusted and cracked - a little thicker at .125" but I can let the extra thickness go towards the bottom where it won't be noticed. Once the blade surround was out of the road I got the gear box support plate cut back off where someone had welded it on. There are a couple of cracks around the pulley hole at the gear box location that have been partially repaired and plated - I will probably cut out that area and weld in some new steel as well as where the lift arms bolt on. Marked out the hole locations with a paint pen and hopefully I can redraw the lines once I repair the areas to locate and drill new holes. Also missing a few nuts for some of the guard holes so will have to weld some new ones on. Hopefully next week I can start cutting out the damaged areas and welding in new steel.
 

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#14 ·
Started to cut out and replace the lift hole locations on the deck today. Used the cutoff blade to create a slot and then used the sawsall to finish cutting out the old metal once I had marked out the area that was going to be replaced with new metal. Used a piece of flat steel clamped to the deck to support the new metal piece until I got it tack welded in on the bottom and then flipped the deck back over and finished tack welding the new piece. Once tacked I marked out the hole locations for the lift link bolts, centre punched the location and then drilled new pilot holes - did that at each of the four mounting locations.
 

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#15 ·
The last piece I could not clamp a piece of flat steel onto the deck so I just tack welded a short piece over the cut out area, tack welded the metal piece in and then ground the two tack welds and removed the short piece again. Once I had the four lifting locations fixed I cut out and replaced the steel where the deck had cracked at the gear box mounting area. I used one of the old patches I had cut off for this task - marked out the hole locations and drilled them and then bolted the replacement piece onto the deck and marked out the piece that would be removed. Cut out the old metal making sure the cuts would ensure a snug fit of the replacement piece so that the hole locations would be correct. Had to do a few test fits but eventually the replacement piece of steel got tack welded in. Once that was done I did a little welding around each of the replacement pieces and then let the deck cool to try and minimize heat distortion. While the deck cooled I used a small round file and a three cornered file to change the 5/16" round holes where the lift links attach into square holes so that they will hold the shoulder on the new carriage bolts that will be used to mount the lift brackets back on the same as they were originally when I get that far. Then I decided to call it a day - still have some welding to do and then I will have to patch where the wheel brackets mount.
 

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#16 ·
When you talk about keeping yourself busy you really mean it. I can hardly believe the progress you are making. I have no idea if it makes a difference on a mower deck but I would like to mention. Many years of working in ship repair one of the requirements of the industry was no square corners on an insert. They say it creates a hard spot for cracks to start. Don
 
#17 ·
When you talk about keeping yourself busy you really mean it. I can hardly believe the progress you are making. I have no idea if it makes a difference on a mower deck but I would like to mention. Many years of working in ship repair one of the requirements of the industry was no square corners on an insert. They say it creates a hard spot for cracks to start. Don
Thanks for the input. The square corners on the replacement pieces could become a factor in the metal cracking in the future on the deck but I have repaired rusted areas on a few lawn mower decks over the years using the same method and have not had a problem with them cracking. It is interesting to note that the metal around the gearbox mounting area cracked on the original deck and even with the area plated and the original cracks welded the area cracked again as you can see in the pictures - I would assume the deck has a lot of stress and vibration in that area. I will keep an eye on the deck once it is back in operation to see if any cracks show up - it will not surprise me if new cracks occur given the age and condition of the deck.
 
#18 ·
Made two cardboard patterns that should help me locate the wheel brackets when I go to weld them back on and then I removed the wheel brackets. The right one was welded on to layers of steel so I just cut the deck around it to remove it - the original deck metal was thin there anyway. The left bracket got cut off using a cut off blade for part of the way and then finished the job with a hack saw - the left bracket will probably get made out of new steel since the bolt is welded on where the two lower adjustment holes should be. Once the brackets were out of the way I started repairing the right mounting area on the deck. Initially I cut out a section that I thought was large enough but found the metal to the left was tender than I thought when I went to weld the new metal in so I cut more out and welded more in. Eventually the missing metal got replaced with more solid material that should support the wheel bracket.
 

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#19 ·
Then I moved on to the left wheel bracket area and a spot in the middle at the rear where the one skid plate had been attached. Old metal got cut out and new pieces welded in - the area where the left wheel mount had a slight curve so I shaped the replacement piece with a bit of a curve so it fit very close to the original. Got a bit more welding done around the lift point areas - found the deck had a bit of a curve in the middle so I applied a bit of persuasion with the sledge to get things flat again - it looks fairly level now and I think once I get the blade wrap around welded back in it will help give the deck more strength in that area.
 

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#21 ·
Wow, you had some work ahead of you and man you move quick. Nice job so far. I'm sure this will be beautiful as all your work is when it is done.
I agree with Husky on your workmanship Stew, one of these days there will not be any good decks left to be had, and if some of these old decks that are now considered scrap are not kept and saved for the future there will be no more to be had. Then we will be talking about custom making decks from scratch like people are doing now on the real rare items.

I have around 10 decks now some green, some red, and some black ones. Some of them work some do not. a few are just the shells, but they are all rebuild able.

good luck with your project Stew!
 
#23 ·
Picked up a piece of 1/8" x 3" flat steel earlier this week in anticipation of using it to form a new blade surround - it is a little heavier than the original thickness but saves me buying a full sheet of the correct gauge steel and should work ok - definitely a little harder to bend but I think I have come fairly close. The original surround measured 2-7/8" wide so I cut two piece of steel approximately 17" long and then sanded 1/8" of steel off of the one edge - figured it would be easier to sand it than try and cut it with the saws all. Then I drew a pattern on an old pizza box of the shape of the left half of the original blade surround and proceeded to form the new metal into the same contour using the vise and a large hammer. Once I had it fairly close to the correct bends I tapered the outer edge to match the original and did a test fit. Then I did the same thing to form the right half and did another test fit. The bends are not perfect but should be close enough to work. Got the rest of the patches welded in the bottom a bit at a time as I worked away forming the two parts of the blade surround. Still have to tweak the two pieces and clean up the area where they will be welded onto the bottom of the deck.
 

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#25 ·
Got the welds cleaned up and did a bit more straightening on the deck where it distorted during the welding. Also found a couple of other tender areas so they got repaired as well. I didn't spend much time cleaning up the bottom weld where the patch for the gear case support mounts since it is separated from the blade area by the blade surround.
 

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#26 ·
Fantastic work. As rough as your deck looks, it is quite the testament to how well our beloved old tractors and implements were built. I doubt we'll be seeing this type of repair done to any stamped mower deck built within the last 20 years in another 40-50 years. Let alone skilled people such as yourself to do the work required. Looks like your repairs should be good for another 40+ years.
 
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