How to Make a Mechanical Lawn Mower at Home

Owners of private households keep the house area clean. This is an indicator of the status and accuracy of a person. Lawn grass needs special attention, since it needs to be able to not only be grown correctly, but also maintained in a neat manner. It is not difficult to purchase a lawn mower of the necessary configuration and power.

A do-it-yourself mower will be appropriate for owners who want to save money. If you have an engine and available tools, you can assemble the electric braid yourself in a short period of time.

1 General structure and variety

There are several types of lawn mowers:

  • gasoline units;
  • electric;
  • mechanical;
  • rechargeable.

The advantages of the former are work efficiency.

How to Make a Mechanical Lawn Mower at Home

Lawn mower from a washing machine

These are universal mechanisms for grass care. Range of home use and utilities. The advantage of the second is ease of use, compactness. They are powered by electricity, which limits the possibility of operation. Simplicity of construction is an advantage of the third types.

The advantage of the latter is mobility and lack of cable. A possibility of application on the areas from 200 square meters.

Having assembled this equipment yourself, you can study the relevant information. Assembling this unit from improvised materials will not take much time and save your family budget. A mower from a chainsaw, in power, will not be inferior to finished products. Do-it-yourself mower consists of the following parts:

  • knife;
  • control knob;
  • wheels
  • engine of sufficient power;
  • protective case;
  • power cable.

Frame. metal sheet, 3 mm thick. The sheet is reinforced with a frame of metal corners. The engine is located on top, and the protective cover is on the bottom. On the side are axles for wheels and a handle for controlling the mechanism.

DIY lawn mowers

Engines for lawn mowers use two types: flanged or conventional. In the case of the first, the fastening takes place to the sheet by means of holes matching the flange. In the second, two racks from the corner are welded (should coincide with the legs of the engine). The cutting unit is the centerpiece of the mechanism. Consists of a frame on which knives are placed.
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1.1 How to make a lawn mower with your own hands?

As a basis, a finished metal frame is used. The electric motor is used from a household appliance. The main selection criterion is a power of 500 W and a speed of 3000 rpm. The higher the number of revolutions, the more mowing the grass occurs more evenly.

For this purpose, an engine from a chainsaw, a washing machine or from an old vacuum cleaner will serve. When fixing the motor, make sure that the shaft is in the central part of the chassis. The standard handle length is 90 centimeters. Depending on the height of the employee, its height may vary.

1.2 Do-it-yourself lawn mower (video)

1.3 Knife

The next manufacturing step is the knife. It is made of sheet steel. The width of the segment is 20-50mm. The knife should be thin but durable. It can be of two types. The first is in the form of a strip attached symmetrically to the axis of the mandrel. The length of the knife is equal to the width of the grip, which is 30 cm. The ends of the strip are sharpened. The second option. fastened at the edges at an angle of 180 degrees relative to each other.

80mm long knife. To prevent grass from wrapping around the shaft, the cutting edges should be slightly bent down. The knife is bolted to the disk. One-bolt mounting allows the cutting mechanism to fold under an obstacle. Deformation and breakage are excluded. The second is more reliable, but there is a risk of damage to the cutting mechanism. To prevent unscrewing during fastening, a washer is used. a grover and a lock nut.
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1.4 Shaft

The diameter of the shaft is equal to the diameter of the hole. The holes are symmetrical with respect to each other, and cut in advance. A protective cover (casing) is also made of steel. It is a circle with a diameter of 530 mm, a hole located in the middle (the diameter exceeds the circumference of the shaft by 5 mm).

It is welded to the body so as to overlap the shaft end by 2.5-3 cm. It is necessary to protect the shaft and motor from mechanical damage and pollution. Holes are made in the cover to cool the engine. The electric lawn mower from the angle grinder is not inferior in functionality and power to the industrial one.

Shaft with knife for lawn mower

1.5 Wheels

The number of wheels is selected individually. Ability to choose 3, 4, 2 wheels. The two-wheeled electric scythe is more maneuverable and fights grass in the most inaccessible places. You can use the existing ones or do it yourself. As raw materials, plywood or bearings are suitable. The larger the diameter, the better the mower moves around the soil.
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1.6 Engine

For this purpose, any serviceable unit is suitable. Drill, vacuum cleaner, chainsaw, washing machine will come in handy. The ideal power is one kilowatt. This makes it possible to sharpen the knife less often. The main principle of choice is the area of ​​grass capture. The larger it is, the more powerful the engine should be.
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2 Advantages and disadvantages

The main advantage of a home-made electric lawn mower is its cost, the ability to construct it yourself from improvised parts. In the event of a breakdown, repairing a lawn mower with your own hands will cost less and take less time than it will be done in a specialized workshop.

The disadvantage is the threat of electric shock and injury by the cutting mechanism. Precautions must be taken to prevent the latter.
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2.1 Safety

Carefully insulated wire connection points are a basic safety rule. The insulation must be intact. A cable with double insulation is used to power the motor. The mower must have a grounded housing.

Homemade Solar Powered Lawn Mower

A home-made lawn mower is used in good condition, the worker is in protective clothing and shoes. This will eliminate injuries. Operation takes place in dry weather. Adhering to the safety rules, the mower will allow you to keep your lawn in order without endangering the health of the user.

Video: How to Make a Mechanical Lawn Mower at Home


Lawn mowing Echo will ensure order on your favorite lawn in the yard and beyond. A mechanical lawn mower is the most efficient way to treat a territory. Making a lawn mower with your own hands from a washing machine, the owner saves money through the use of improvised materials. Do-it-yourself lawnmowers from a chainsaw are an alternative to branded units.

Device description

A home-made mower consists of an engine, knives and a convenient handle. Since the engine is powered from the mains, you will also need the longest cord with a plug and a switch. For convenience, wheels should be attached to the bottom of the mower. And in order to keep all this together, you need a frame.

Parts selection

The most important question is where to get the engine to assemble the lawn mower. Virtually any serviceable engine from an old household appliance or power tool will do: a drill, vacuum cleaner, angle grinder, chainsaw, even a washing machine. An engine with a power of five hundred watts is suitable, although a power of 1 kilowatt or more would be an ideal option. this will allow working at lower engine speeds and sharpening knives less often. In any case, the selection of the engine is interconnected with the diameter of the knife and the overall dimensions of the lawn mower. In short. the larger the area a homemade lawn mower should capture at a time. the more powerful the engine should be.

The next important detail is the knife. This is almost the main working detail of the mechanism, and it depends on the quality of the knife how long your mower will work and whether it will please the results. Therefore, to make a knife, you need high-quality solid steel. In shape, the knife can be one continuous piece up to 50 centimeters long, with a hole for a screw in the center, and sharpened on both sides, possibly slightly curved, following the example of branded lawn mowers. Another option is a compound knife, when two small metal sharpened pieces are fastened to a strip of steel with bolts or by welding. Also, the strip of steel from which the knife is made can be curly, usually in the form of a trapezoid. this protects the knife from winding grass. And finally, the most unusual knife. a solid round sharpened disk.

The craftsmen advise such a form for safety reasons. a knife made of a strip of steel can break and hurt when hit by a stone or a stick, and almost nothing threatens the whole metal disk. The handle for a lawn mower can be any. It is common practice to use the chassis from old strollers. this solves three problems at once. the wheels, the frame, and the handle. In the absence of an old stroller at hand, the handle can be welded from a metal pipe or even made from a shank from a shovel.

The power cord can be taken from any household appliance that has failed. In principle, with a short cord length, it can be pulled to the network through extension cords. The wheels can be adapted from a pram or a large machine, or cut independently from a thick wooden board, or use the wheels of an old vacuum cleaner. For the frame you will need a piece of metal or thick plywood. It is also worthwhile to make a protective cover so that repairing the lawn mower with your own hands is required as little as possible. Good material for the casing is metal.

Lawn mower assembly

First of all, you need to make a frame for the engine. To do this, take a metal sheet with a thickness of at least three millimeters. The size of the frame is selected based on the length of the knife, but the maximum width of the lawn mower rarely exceeds sixty centimeters. Thus, you need to cut a square of metal with a side of 50 or 60 centimeters. In the center of the square you need to make a hole for the engine. The flange motor is attached to the frame with the shaft down. If the engine is with ears, then additional fastenings need to be welded to the frame.

Such a frame can be made from boards or plywood, but metal is still preferable, since it is less prone to deformation. The casing is designed to protect the engine shaft from debris and grass clippings. The simplest casing can be made from a metal can. complex options will have to tinker with. If the finished cover is high, it will protect the electric mechanism of the mower. If not, then to protect the connections with the wire, you need to make another casing.

The casing is put on the motor shaft. Next, a sharpened knife is put on and the whole mechanism is fixed with a bolt. Next, wheels are attached to the frame. To do this, corners with holes drilled in them should be welded onto the frame. The diameter of the wheels is selected so that the knife passes at a height of five to seven centimeters above the ground. If the knife goes down, it is likely that it will get stuck in the ground. At a higher height, the grass is crushed, but not cut.

Regardless of what the handle is made of, you need to straighten the growth of the one who will most often use the lawn mower. Usually the optimal handle length is about 90 centimeters. The final stage of work is the connection of the power cord. Do-it-yourself electric mower is ready, you can test it on your own summer cottage. In order to protect against cut grass, a net is mounted over the lawn mower.

The second option is to make the frame a special curved shape. This technique described the assembly of a lawn mower to a standard shape. Options are a lawn mower from a drill, on which a wide knife is fixed instead of a drill. In this case, the drill itself needs to be attached to the frame with a handle. the advantages of such a home-made lawn mower are that you do not have to fool your head with the cord connected. the drill mechanism is used. Secondly, such lawn mowers can be used to cut grass under trees and near curbs.

In a similar way, you can make a lawnmower from a chainsaw. For it, you need to prepare a special frame frame, for example, weld it from pieces of pipe. Next, move the chainsaw engine onto it. The network has both drawings and videos on fastening knives to such a lawn mower. Due to the power of the engine, a lawn mower from a chainsaw copes even with a small shrub.

Video “Overview of the handmade lawn mower”

Video review of a hand-made lawn mower.

The advantages and disadvantages of a homemade option

The main advantage of self-assembly of the lawn mower is its low cost and environmental friendliness, because for it you can use units of faulty equipment, starting from a chainsaw and ending with a table lamp. Otherwise, the advantages and disadvantages depend on the parts used. As for the engine, the masters actively recommend asynchronous. for low noise. But this is not an absolute option, for lack of asynchronous, anyone will do. After all, mechanical cleaning of the grass is much more convenient than manual, so that noise can occasionally be tolerated.

Some craftsmen categorically do not advise taking the engine from a vacuum cleaner, because it quickly overheats, and in this case, they advise the engine from a chainsaw or angle grinder. The correct casing with holes or from a frequent metal mesh helps to combat engine overheating. The disadvantage of homemade mowers is the inability to control the height of the knife. Although, if desired, and skill, this flaw can be addressed.

To make the knife happy and dull as rarely as possible, use stainless steel. To save the motor shaft from damage, the knife must be sharpened unevenly. make it sharp to the edge and not touch it in the place of contact with the shaft, since the grass near the attachment point of the knife and shaft is still poorly cut, but rather soaked and wound on the knife. Significantly improve the homemade lawn mower with additional options. an adjustable handle length, safety bumpers that prevent the knife from touching the ground or a grass catcher for mowed grass.

Operational Safety

A home-made lawn mower requires careful safety precautions. This is due to the fact that the tool is electric, and with the presence of knives. The first thing to do before turning on the mower to the power grid and starting work is to check its serviceability, the sharpness of the knives, the reliability of the fastening of all the bolts, the free wheeling. It is highly advisable to collect garbage on the site, as stones or wooden blocks can cause a breakdown of the lawn mower or injury to the mower. Children or pets must leave the work area.

The proper use of the mower is to push it away from you. If there is a need to stop working with the lawn mower for a while, and then return to it, then it is necessary to disconnect the mechanism from the power supply, and not by the button near the engine, but unplug the plug. And most importantly, working with an electric lawnmower is strictly prohibited in the rain or on wet grass. Cleaning or repair can only be carried out with the mechanism turned off and cooled down. Subject to these simple rules, a self-assembled lawn mower will delight you for many years to come.

Video “How a lawn mower from a juicer works”

This video shows how a self-made lawn mower made from a juicer is excellent.