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Collection, Preservation and Display of Old Lawn Mowers

Qualcast 16" motor mower

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Can anyone tell me when the 16" Qualcast motor mower was first made, as I have just obtained one.  It only has one driving chain which drives the cylinder and the back roller .  The starting handle is on a clip on the handle bars, and the side frames are cast iron with a large cut out on one side.  It has a midget villiers engine with a spark plug to one side and is very basic.  I look forward to your comments.

Dusty Miller

stonethemows Mon, 18/07/2011

Dusty,

As I understand it production of these machines started just before WW2, but most date from after the war, presumably from about 1946 on. You say yours is an early one but I thought single chain machines were a bit later, where is the fuel tank on yours ? I think pre-war ones had the tank mounted between the handle bars.

Regards,

Colin

hillsider Mon, 18/07/2011

MP007: Qualcast "Sixteen" Motor Mower

Hello Dusty & Colin,

I may be teaching grandma/pa to suck eggs here but take a look at Mower Profile 007 there is some info there, although I realise you may have seen it already,  

Good luck with the mower.

Ray.

 

Keith Wootton Tue, 19/07/2011

The earliest dated brochure/advert I have seen is 1935. In the text it clearly states that “every machine made in 1934 was sold”. So the machine was definitely being made and sold in 1934 and perhaps even earlier although I suspect from the way the brochure is written that 1935 was only the second year of manufacture.

The brochure also says that “the 1935 model contains a number of new features” including “improved drive by double chain” implying that the earlier version was single. All of the other Qualcast 16s I have seen have been double chain so this can only mean that only the very early models (ie 1934 and possibly older, if such machines exist) are the single chain version.

Here's a shot of my own version of this mower, also with the single chain drive.

Notice also the position of the petrol tank, between the handles, and the bigger grass box with different shape to the later models. What you cannot see is that the adjuster for the thrower plate has a single nut in the centre whereas later models had a nut at each end.