The promised deck info post. Back a couple weeks ago when I posted the redesign of the frame to accomodate the deck, the reason was the sheet metal detail was completed.
At one point, I had thought of repurposing a deck just to get everything going, but the mods to a rusty nasty deck would have been more extensive than just going from scratch. Also, the thought of cutting all the sheet steel with a sawzall was less than motivating. Instead, I took the CAD drawings and sent them to a local shop I found on the internet. They came back with an extremely attractive quote to laser cut them, including material for $50. It took a couple weeks, but the quality is outstanding. They are in Lima, NY and are very easy to deal with. Nice folks too.
Smidgens Inc
I sent them a DXF of what I wanted in 16 ga steel, no need to worry about layout as they optimize it automatically.
Here is a shot of the battery tray and a couple of pieces for the belt guards. The flat piece shows the slots cut in to facilitate bending without a brake. The small guard is shown after bending in the vise by hand. A few tack welds will hold it well.
Here is a shot of the underside of the mower deck. The two hoops were bent by hand and tacked together, then the bevel was attached to the top by tacking on the inside and running a full bead around the outside ( you can see the HAZ ). The lower rim is tacked on, but not yet fully welded.
Here is the (mostly) finished product. The lower rim is fully welded, both joints are ground smooth. The exit chute is also formed and welded on.
Next up are the belt guards and mounting the alternator.
After painting, the wiring comes next and we're getting very close...
