Lawn Mowing Brush Cutter

1. Field of the Invention

The invention relates generally to cutters and lawn mowers and more particularly to a lawn mowing brush cutter.

2. Description of the Prior Art

The latest art, Geist et al. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,708,967 and 3,826,068 teach lawn mowing by means of swinging wires with no brush cutting capabilities. Brush cutting prior art, Roy et al. U.S. Pat. No. 2,722,955 teaches a sling carried rotating saw blade on a handle for sythe-like use. Wood, U.S. Pat. No. 3,690,051, teaches centrifugally operable blade tips for mowing grass, as does Goserud, U.S. Pat. No. 3,715,874, which adds a cammed action with a scalloped base plate to push loose uncuttable items out of range of a retracted blade. Wheel traction grass mowers cut grass with toothed cutters by superimposing circular blades, one over the other with stationary fingers guiding the strands therebetween for clipping, as in Hurley, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,110,058, or as in Lee, 2,504,268 where the cutters are arranged tangentially and in Kelsey, 2,625,784 where a larger plurality of cutters are used in linear arrangement without stationary upper saw teeth. A single sawtoothed cutter is also traction driven without opposing teeth as taught in Harwell, U.S. Pat. No. 2,202,774 and can be considered inoperable to cut grass unless power driven to obtain a necessary speed of rotation. All the above do not teach a recessed saw blade, the recess sides being employed as guides and a stabilizer. The only brush cutter is different in structure, function and result to such an extent that the invention is not even suggested.

An object of the invention is to provide a machine for brush cutting and with a slight manual modification for lawn mowing.

Another object of the invention is to provide a machine that is safe to operate on rocky ground and that is self stabalizing in operation.

FIG. 1 is a perspective view of the invention with partial covering cut away;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the saw blade with scythe blades;

FIG. 3 is a partial perspective view of the front of the invention rigged as a brush cutter; and

FIG. 4 is partial perspective view as in FIG. 3 with the machine rigged as a lawn mower.

Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, the invention comprises a four-wheeled cart 9, a power supply 10 mounted on said cart between rear wheels 12, and a circular saw blade 14 mounted forwardly on cart 9 and connected to power supply 10 for being horizontally driven in rotation thereby above the surface on which the wheels rest.

Cart 9 comprises a chassis 15 supported on large rear wheels 12 that support the weight of power supply 10 and a rearwardly extending handle 16 that is used to manually propel and direct the cart. Front wheels 18 support the front of the cart and saw blade 14, partially, said wheels being smaller than the rear wheels for ease in raising from the ground in changing direction of the cart by depressing the handle 16.

Power supply 10 is a small internal combustion engine that is adapted to drive a belt 19 connecting the power supply to drive a vertical shaft 20 on which saw blade 14 is horizontally mounted forwardly on the cart with respect to said power supply but rearwardly of front wheels 18. A protective belt cover 22 shields the belt from external interference and restricts it in case of breakage. Base 24 is fixed to chassis 15 to protect blade 14.

Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, removable recess adapter 32 and recess cover 34 are provided for use in cutting brush and cutting grass respectively. Recess adapter 32 provides an insert that defines a recess in the front of the cart ahead of saw blade 14. The recess guides brush into cutting engagement with said saw blade, stabilizes the front end of the cart when cutting brush and shields the sides of the saw blade against casual engagement with foreign matter as a matter of safety. Bolts 36 hold recess adapter 32 in place by engaging in screw threads defined in the cart.

When grass is to be mowed, scythe tips 28 are diametrically bolted to saw blade 14 after recess adapter 32 has been removed from the cart. The recess cover 34 is then secured to base 24 by bolts 36. No recess is defined by recess cover 34 and the scythe tips 28 mow a wider swathe of grass that does not require the assistance of a recess for stabilizing the front end of the cart.

The conversion from brush cutting to grass mowing is effected easily and in a minimum length of time by the removal of two pairs of bolts and a recess adapter 32, and adding a pair of scythe tips 28 to saw blade 14 by means of bolts 30' and protective cover 34 by means of the same two pair of bolts 36 that were removed with said recess adapter 32. Reversing this process places the apparatus in its original condition for original use.