With a few extra hours of ‘piddling time' Saturday afternoon, I decided to try and solve a mower problem at the house. As I tinkered Saturday afternoon on my latest monstrosity, a push mower built from spare parts. While it wasn't Frankenstein's monster, after spending several hours on a project, it does tend to take on a life of its own. I prefer to call it Frankenstein's mower.

It all started after the handle fell off of the push mower last season. It broke in half near the bottom while being used and fell to the ground. I had patched it previously using sheet metal screws and pieces of metal, but it had grown much too weak to support the stresses of mowing the bank beside and behind the house.

It was still running reasonably well when the handle was lost, but there seemed very little point in trying to tow it around with a piece of rope or shove it about with a rake or other implement. Being a junk collector, I decided to save it, parked alongside the Weedeater that fell apart around the same time, in the netherworld for dead and dying equipment that is also known as the back of my house. After leaving the mower behind, I opted to go and try to find one during a late season sale, only to realize that such objects can't be had for under $100. In fact, the average cost for a nice high-wheel mower was somewhere around $150 on sale.

Suddenly, I decided that I would use my string trimmer for the job until I could find a reasonably priced replacement. The mower tends to do a better job and things generally go well when it works properly. It saves time and effort versus the string trimmer, especially on the long straight banks behind the house.

However, sometimes financial concerns can outweigh convenience, especially for a piece of equipment only used for 30 minutes or so every other week.

I soon found that replacing the mower with one roughly equivalent might not be something that happened instantly. Considering that most people are just as broke as I am and holding on to that reasonably good mower they've been using for four or five years, the supply isn't what it once was.

I came up with my plan sometime later after a moment of inspiration. Well, I actually tripped over the old mower on the way to get a bucket from my collection and wondered what I might do with it.

That's when I remembered seeing another old mower behind a friend's house.

The lonely mower, which may have once been red, sat abandoned on a back deck. The oil cap had been removed and the engine was filled with murky-looking water mingled with sludge.

However, on further inspection, I discovered that the handle was nice and solid and the wheels and other parts seemed to work fine. After gaining his consent and blessing to take this lawn ornament away —he was planning to throw it away when the moon was right, when the mood hit him or at least when his wife had complained about it enough— I promptly parked it beside the one with the broken handle. Now I had two mowers over which to trip. A sense of accomplishment overtook me.

There it stayed for several months until one industrious afternoon I decided to try to remove the engines for a part swap. All three bolts came out easily from the mower with the bad engine. When I started to do the same process with the mower with the good engine, the one with the motor that I intended to use, two of the mounting bolts sheared off inside the mounts. Even so, the motor was off and I was able to scrap the broken body of my old one. I removed the pieces that looked useful, like the safety cable and throttle adjustments, wheels and handle pins, and discarded the rest at the landfill, along with the motor from the new body and the oil I drained out of both machines. I unsuccessfully tried to remove the broken bolts using locking pliers and other means, to no avail. So, after soaking the bolts with penetrating oil, I once again left my project idle for several months as I pursued other interests. The mower body, which now had no engine, was left sitting in front of the building for several months. Instead of being a lawn ornament for my friend, it was now serving quite nicely as one at my own house.

While a friend with a penchant for creative mechanics was visiting last week, we decided to try to remove the broken bolts without marring the threads.

We started with a small drill bit, punching a hole in the center of the broken bolt, and then moved up to two larger bits. After drilling through most of the bolt the third time, I was able to turn it out with the locking pliers, leaving the threads intact.

However, on the second broken bolt, the end was more rounded off from my earlier efforts and it broke away as I attempted to turn it. Nonetheless, we were able to drill a hole through it and create a mounting hole. I subsequently purchased two new bolts and lockwashers of the original size and also picked up a smaller bolt, tap and lockwasher for the third hole.

I was able to attach the engine without undue effort.

I had to switch the cable from the old mower to the new one in order to hook up the shut off switch, but I wasn't able to hook up the throttle since both the cables I had were broken. Who needs anything other than full power anyway?

I had the spirit of Dr. Frankenstein at heart as located the blade and attachment parts. I sharpened and balanced it as best I could and attached it to the mower. The parts and pieces scavenged from the lawnmower graveyard had come together to create what I hoped would be a serviceable mowing machine. As I looked around, I realized that I had somehow misplaced or discarded the engine cowling. I can't really tell yet since my building is still in a mess. I don't even have everything in it yet and none of the storage areas are done. Most everything litters the floor and everything but a few available walking spaces.

Since the engine's pull cord was in the top of the cowling, I couldn't try to start it up. Maybe I should say that it used to be in the top of it, since I remember breaking the rope trying to start the motor before removing it from the other body.

As usual, this project was turning into more of a chore than I ever would have intended.

I pushed the mower off to one side of the building and opted to find the cowling as I cleaned up the interior, which likely won't take place for several more weeks given my schedule. Oh well, maybe I'll have it done before mowing season ends again.