Mega Size Lawnmower With Moving Blade

Summary

My daughter participates in her academy's theater department for 2 productions a year, Fall and Spring. Each season, they ask me to help build props. This Falls play was "They Eat Sunshine, Not Zebras". Here is a synopsis: When a grass-filled field believed in uniformity, a yellow dandelion arrived to bring a little warmth into their lives. Let's just say it didn't end up all warm and fuzzy.

Being a field full of grasses (each student), the perspective of the stage pieces had to be much larger than normal to account for the scale of the grasses. When it was time to build the lawnmower that makes a sudden appearance at the beginning and end of the play, it had to be large!

Total Expense: $29

Leftovers (not specifically purchased for this project)

Barn siding (4x8ft panels removed from barn for access doors)

Treehouse railing wire and buckles

Scrap 2x4 board

(3) Eyebolts

Paint (flat black, greens, and silver)

Synthetic rope (left over from a 300ft spool for another project)

2" PVC plumbing pipe (left over from house renovation)

1.5" PVC plumbing pipe (left over from house renovation)

Ceiling fan faceplate (left over from house renovation)

12 guage electrical wire (left over from house renovation)

Purchased (specifically purchased for this project)

(2) green carabiners

(2) 2 in. Nickel-Plated Fixed Pulley

(3) 1-1/4 in. Nickel-Plated Swivel Pulley

Total: $29

Inexpensive, quick build, easy to maneuver, and easy to spin the blade. These are the things I needed to incorporate into this design. In the last image, you will see how I propped up my old Lawnboy mower, to get the angle and perspective the design needed be.

Since I had scrap pieces of barn siding, I couldn't make this out of 1 solid 4x8ft panel. That would have been a lot easier, but it wouldn't have been free. The panels were scraps from residing the barn on some places that had seen rotting. The positive of multiple pieces, it gives a little depth to the lawnmower.

The main pieces I needed were the following:

1. oval belly view
2. front wheel foreground
3. front wheel background
4. motor
5. back wheel foreground
6. back wheel background
7. bag attachment piece

As far as painting, I painted all the pieces a coat of flat black leftover from a different play. Then, masked off the green areas and sprayed those places to give a good base layer of green. Again, that paint was left over and had about a half of a can left. The shadows, shading and highlights were all done with acrylic paints. I like to save old brushes that might be a little stiff from years of other projects because they allow me to apply different textures (dabs, splotches, fanning etc)

This part is comical to me. Knowing it only needed to survive the trip to the school, and 30 seconds of stage action, I basically assembled it with old sheet rock screws and probably a few pieces of duct tape. The structure on the back the lawnmower was attached to, I used better construction methods.

I placed a vertical support 1x1" scrap piece of pine in 3 places. The middle is off center, but it is on the center in regards to weight distribution. The right and left pieces are spread out enough to help assist in weight bearing as well. Again, I used sheet rock screws (freebies) to attach the sheets of panelling to this frame.

An additional horizontal piece was added for the future arm that would hold the blade.

The backside looks like a hot mess, but it'll hold.

Since the blade needed to spin for maximum effect, I wanted it to follow a few requirements.

1. be as large as possible
2. from the audience point of view, I wanted it to be in perspective as much as possible
3. be easy for the child actor to spin as they walk under it and across the stage

Atop of the 3 support 1x1's on the backside of the mower, there are (3) eyebolts. Each one has the wire expanding up to an additional straight piece of wood. The use case and reason for this is, each pulley at the end of the wire will remain the same distance apart. If I didn't do this, the pulleys would move independently since the wire if flexible. This would create a very jerky motion trying to pull it across the stage.

Once the lanwmower was hung and the existing curtain line tightened, we installed the carabiners and larger pulleys for the rope to go through and down to the floor. We allowed for enough slack in the rope to so the mower could go all the way across the stage.

Due to copyright restrictions with the writer of this play, live video can't be shown from the performance. However, I have a video of a young actor spinning the blade (see below).

Thanks for looking.