Bill Freeman wrote:

Is your mower a mulching mower? Does it have a discharge chute
attachment that forces the discharge back onto the blade? Just adding a
mulching blade will not make a mower "mulch," per se. What's your brand
etc.?

Yes. It's a Simplicity Regent Hydro12, with 36" cut. (somewhere around
a 1996 model year) It has a 'mulching kit' on it, which really consists
of just a plate across the discharge chute. Worked well at first, but
for the last few years just will not chop up those clipping.


DaveL wrote in message
...
News Man wrote:

You may have the blade mounted backwards or upside down. It happens. I
know (first-hand). It's easy to check.

I'm sure it happens, but I've checked that at least 3 or 4 times....



"DaveL" wrote in message
...
DaveL wrote:

Bob wrote:

"DaveL" wrote in message ...

I have tried all the following with no success:

You did many unnecessay things as far as your mulching problem is
concerned.

You said you changed the blade. There is a special mulching
blade,
different from normal blades.

The new blade I tried was called a 'gator' blade.

The second thing is that the blade
must be kept very sharp for maximum effectiveness. By very
sharp, I
don't
mean new blade sharp, because most new blades are not sharp. I
mean
knife-like sharp. The edge doesn't hold long, so blades need
to be
sharpened frequently.

I normally have the blades sharpened at the local hardware store.
When
they are done, they have all the nicks ground out, but they are not
knife sharp. I'll have to see what kind of an edge I can get on
them.

Well, I spent quite a bit of time and put the best edge I could on the
blades. They were not razor sharp, but there were knife edge sharp- I
wouldn't have wanted to run my finger down one.

Cleaned the deck again when I was working on the blades. Bearings are
all snug, there is no up and down or side to side play in the shafts.
The blades pass each other with about 1/4 inch clearance. The belt
appears OK, and I retensioned it.

No improvement. It's almost as if the airflow under the deck is
blowing
the clipping into the ground down the middle of the deck. It leaves a
trail right down the middle. Multiple passes over the same area in
different directions only move the clippings around.

There has got to be something simple I am missing, but I sure can't
figure out what it is.......