MOWER OF THE MONTH
Number Eighty-Four
QUALCAST COMMODORE
The Qualcast Commodore was a popular motor mower from the
1960s for the home (domestic) user. The design was similar to many other
machines of the period, especially models from companies such as Atco and
Suffolk. In fact by this time these three companies were all part of the
same group and there was some sharing of components across the ranges of
the different manufacturers. For example, the Commodore was powered by the
same Suffolk 75G four stroke engine that had been used on Suffolk's own
machines for many years and was also supplied with Atco mowers. The
Suffolk engine was reputed to be very economical and the company's own
advertising claimed that it used less than one pint of fuel each hour.
The Commodore was introduced in 1957 as a replacement for
the Royal Blade which was itself derived from the first Qualcast Motor
Mower of the 1930s. Although there was a progression in the design of
these machines the Commodore was clearly a "modern" mower. It
was more compact and the overall design was sleeker than the preceding
models which were based on even earlier machines. An updated version was
introduced in 1964 and final model entered service in 1967. In 1968 the
14" Commodore was selling for £33-6-6. Qualcast produced a
completely different machine with the same name in the 1980s.
One modern feature of the Commodore was the inclusion of a
self-contained recoil rope start mechanism. The first motor mower had
starting handles. Later models had kick starts but rope start was only
introduced in the 1950s (at least for ordinary mowers) and by the end of
that decade had largely superseded the earlier methods of starting. It was
generally considered to be more reliable and easier to use than either a
handle or kick start.
Another interesting feature of the Commodore was its
clutch. This was activated by squeezing the lever to engage drive. Most
earlier machines had a lever which needed to be released to engage the
drive. The advantage of the Commodore's mechanism was that if the
operator wanted to stop the mower they simply released the lever, which
was much safer than having to positively activate a lever as on earlier
machines.
The Commodore incorporated self-aligning ball bearings on
the cutting cylinder. These helped achieve an accurate cut by ensuring the
cutting cylinder was able to move slightly and maintain the correct
contact with the bottom or fixed blade.
The Commodore is by no means the rarest mower but is
nevertheless held in great affection by many enthusiasts.
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