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Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

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Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby AJB Temple » 06 Jan 2022, 16:48

With recent mower travails We decided to get a quite wide back up cylinder mower to cut paths and deal with the ornamental water garden areas. Just picked up a Ransome Marquis 51 (20") cylinder mower with 5.5hp Honda engine. Machine looks not very old and is in very good nick. Runs perfectly but I will give it a service, and sharpen the blades when I find out how. Weighs a lot - I can't lift it on my own. Huge grass collection box.

Anyone have any experience of these things? I've never had a cylinder mower and know almost nothing about Ransom as a brand - I thought they made great big ride on commercial machines for parkland and schools.

Paid £180 for it so if it's no good I will just chop it out again.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby Andyp » 06 Jan 2022, 17:19

The old lawnmwer club https://www.oldlawnmowerclub.co.uk/ is the place to go for more info. They are a great bunch and very helpful.

Mine are all sans engine. Although I no longer have that many.

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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby Malc2098 » 06 Jan 2022, 17:26

I have an old Ransomes Marquis rusting in my back garden with a Briggs and Stratton motor. I think it might be an 18". FTAGH for restoration or spares.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby NickM » 06 Jan 2022, 18:08

I agree that the oldlawnmower club forum is a great resource for these (and may other mowers).

I restored my FIL's Marquis a few years ago. It's got the Villiers sloper engine on it which is a nice motor. It ticks over REALLY slowly which always makes me smile. I also got another one with the B&S motor on it and used that for spares.

One of the harder issues to repair is when the roller seizes up so the two halves don't spin independently. It makes it very hard to turn the mower. That had happened to my FIL's so I used the roller off the spare mower and never attempted to free up the seized one. I think the technique is to soak them in a barrel of diesel or similar and then make up a clamp for one half and a long bar for the other half to try to get them moving.

This is mine nearly finished:

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I don't think you'll manage to sharpen the cylinder very well yourself. I think it's best to send it off and get it done by someone with a grinding machine designed for these blades. I got mine done locally, but if I recall correctly there's someone who offers their services on eBay for a good price and came recommended on the mower forum.

We've got an area of flat lawn which I think used to be a tennis court back in the day. I only use the Ransom on that bit of the garden because it is a bit of a faff and hard work and we've got too much grass to do all of it. It's nice to have the stripes for high days and holidays and the occasional game of croquet (although the lawn really needs a serious rolling for that)!
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby AJB Temple » 06 Jan 2022, 18:25

It doesn't really look like any of those. It looks like this:

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Based on the engine model it appears to be about 5 years old. Don't think it's really a domestic machine but I don't have any real knowledge. From what I can see new ones are about £3,500, which seems like a lot for a walk behind mower.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby EssJay » 06 Jan 2022, 19:36

Hi Adrian

If everything is working ok on that machine £180 was an absolute steal.

To regrind the cylinder is a mower to the dealers job unless you have a specialised cylindrical grinder but you should be able to replace the bottom blade yourself if it's dull. It's a bit difficult to type out but I'll try, at either end of the cylinder there should be a screw, these are for setting the cylinder onto the bottom blade. Tip the mower back and slide a piece of paper between cylinder and bottom blade at a slight angle, once you get a clean paper cut the distance is set correct, too tight and the engine will stall, too loose and it wont cut grass.

I cut grass for a living so hope that helps

Steve

PS should have added a 6 blade cylinder is for normal cutting, a 12 blade cylinder for very fine cutting.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby AJB Temple » 06 Jan 2022, 20:33

Thanks Steve. Everything works and it starts on first pull. Throttle runs smoothly. The brake lever works and clutch is fine. I thought I could just run a diamond file along each spiral cutting edge on the cylinder to touch it up and remove any burrs. In truth I don't actually know if it needs sharpening (it all looks fine but can't try it as the ground is sopping wet) so I will do the paper test that you suggest. I will just do an oil and filter change and whatever else is suggested in the handbook (128 pages ffs).

Lacking your expertise I don't like mowing very much - it's worse than haircuts as it looks good when just done but not so much the next day - and the Stiga ride on mulches so at least there is no traipsing to the compost area. Mulching is a fine idea in theory I suppose but our grass must be cut at least once a week or it's too long and leaves clumpy bits.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby Trevanion » 06 Jan 2022, 21:22

AJB Temple wrote:Anyone have any experience of these things? I've never had a cylinder mower and know almost nothing about Ransom as a brand - I thought they made great big ride on commercial machines for parkland and schools.


No experience of the cylinder mowers whatsoever, but the Ransome name is a very interesting one with a long history when you start looking into it

Allen Ransome 1833-1913 (The woodworking machinery engineer) was the son of James Allen Ransome 1806-1875 (The agricultural machinery engineer). Allen's son, James Stafford Ransome 1860-1931 wrote the very rare "Modern Wood Working Machinery", "Cutters & Cutter Blocks" (Both of which I own) and some other books about his travels around the world as an engineer designing sawmills, as well as articles in "The Engineer" magazine.

James Allen Ransome (agricultural machinery engineer) was the son of James Ransome 1782-1849 (agricultural implement engineer) who was the son of Robert Ransome 1753-1830 who was also an agricultural implement engineer.

It's all rather complicated though as there's been a few companies with "Ransome" in the name that leads back to that family in one way or another but I believe the only technically surviving company is "Ransome and Marles" which made quite complex bearings, who are now owned by NSK bearings in Japan.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby AJB Temple » 06 Jan 2022, 23:06

That's interesting Dan. Clearly some long history there.

Steve, my wife has pointed out that in the grass box is another cylinder and a piece of bar, wrapped in cardboard. This blade unit has 10 blades (not 12 as per your post above) and seems to be the same fitting as the one that is in the machine now. I wonder if they are interchangeable? The guy who sold it to me didn't know much about it, as he preferred his ride on. He had it for 2 years and hardly used it. He is a car collector and clearly fastidious as the mower is spotless. The wrapped up cylinder looks as if it's never been used. Maybe it is for cutting faster? I cant quite fathom what the flat bar is for. Will have a proper look when I service it. There are some dents in a metal cover on the left side (possibly hides drive chains?) so I will pop that off, knock the dents out and possibly re-spray that part. Mine has wooden split rollers on the front, but there is also a single piece plastic one that came with the 10 blade roller. Maybe they have to be fitted together for some reason. The wooden ones will get a a sand and lacquer possibly.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby EssJay » 07 Jan 2022, 06:28

Adrian

They can be 10 or 12 bladed cylinders and if it's come with one of those then it's even more of a bargain, clearly he didn't know what he was selling value wise or just wanted it out the way.
The cylinder with the 10 blades on isn't for a faster cut it's for a finer cut think bowling greens etc and if the flat bar has a series of holes in it, it sounds like a spare bottom blade.
Not sure why you have the plastic roller but if you have a lathe and need to make any more they're normally beech.

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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby Andyp » 07 Jan 2022, 08:12

The more blades in the cylinder the shorter the grass has to be before it will cut well. One of those in my picture was a multi bladed bowling green mower. If the grass is longer than the gap between the blades you will struggle.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby NickM » 07 Jan 2022, 08:46

AJB Temple wrote:That's interesting Dan. Clearly some long history there.

Steve, my wife has pointed out that in the grass box is another cylinder and a piece of bar, wrapped in cardboard. This blade unit has 10 blades (not 12 as per your post above) and seems to be the same fitting as the one that is in the machine now. I wonder if they are interchangeable? The guy who sold it to me didn't know much about it, as he preferred his ride on. He had it for 2 years and hardly used it. He is a car collector and clearly fastidious as the mower is spotless. The wrapped up cylinder looks as if it's never been used. Maybe it is for cutting faster? I cant quite fathom what the flat bar is for. Will have a proper look when I service it. There are some dents in a metal cover on the left side (possibly hides drive chains?) so I will pop that off, knock the dents out and possibly re-spray that part. Mine has wooden split rollers on the front, but there is also a single piece plastic one that came with the 10 blade roller. Maybe they have to be fitted together for some reason. The wooden ones will get a a sand and lacquer possibly.


Is the bar the bottom blade? They're usually (and best) sharpened as a pair. It's possible there are two pairs of blades so that one can be away for sharpening whilst the other is being used.

As mentioned above, you can't take much grass off with these. You either need to mow very regularly (daily would be best - you won't get away with doing it weekly in the growing season for example) or bring it down with the ride on before going over it with the cylinder (which is what I do).

Yours looks like a very modern version and is a cracking bit of kit. Complete bargain!!!
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby AJB Temple » 07 Jan 2022, 10:34

Well, this has proved to be very interesting to me. The garden is open for charitable fund raising several times a year, and for those days I take much more care with the grassed areas, and thought the cylinder mower would be good for that. I don't mind mowing certain parts each day when the garden is opening and just before, but otherwise I don't have time for that. Once a week with the ride on is usual.

This year more areas may be allowed to grow long for wildlife and a pattern of paths mown through from the outset. Still pondering as at the end of the season it makes a right mess cutting them back.

I thought the mower was probably a bargain. The man selling it knew that too, but he needed the space in his workshop and money was not in any sense a factor for him. It is quite a nice piece of equipment and I may well make it look neater as I like to look after my tools.

Grass grows fast here as we recycle fish waste to water the garden areas, hence the 10 blade cylinder may be unsuitable now that I know what it is for. The metal bar clearly is the bottom blade now that I've looked at it following advice here. Appears almost new but the 10 blade cylinder has been used and has a sticker on showing that it's been resharpened. Apparently, I found out today, this mower was originally bought for a cricket pitch but was replaced quite quickly (one season he said) with a larger one made by Denis (Dennis? or something like that) and sold for a song to the man who sold it to me. I can't imagine cutting a whole cricket field with this thing so maybe it was just for the wicket and nets, but I don't really know.
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Re: Anyone familiar with Ransome cylinder mowers?

Postby NickM » 07 Jan 2022, 13:22

AJB Temple wrote:This year more areas may be allowed to grow long for wildlife and a pattern of paths mown through from the outset. Still pondering as at the end of the season it makes a right mess cutting them back.


We do this as well. I really like having paths through the short grass.

We used to get someone in to cut down the long stuff at the end of each Summer but he let us down one year and I ended up buying a flail deck for my ride on which works well. The benefit of being able to do it myself is that we can try letting other parts grow long knowing we can cut them back at any time. I let a few bits grow last year which I probably won't do again. They looked good for a bit but the rain knocked them down and then they looked a mess.
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