# Baroness LM56 #2 for me!!!!



## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

This just arrived today all the way from MN :thumbup:










This is the after of course but I will get into that in just a little bit. Another recent Baroness owner sent me the link to this mower shortly after he got his so I made a reminder to be available so that I could bid on this machine. It was through Proxibid but it was the Ring One-18th Annual Auction in Glencoe, MN on March 30th. From the pictures on the website you couldn't tell a whole lot but it did look like it hadn't been used a lot so I decided to take a chance and put a bid in for it. I was willing to pay a lot more for it but it ended up going for $300 :thumbup: After all the fees, palletizing it and shipping, I ended up paying about $850 delivered to my garage which I think was a good deal.

This is how it was delivered.










It came with everything that my other one came with except it was missing the grass catcher and had the verticutter attachment instead of the groomer. It did come with the roller and frame for the IGCS(Independent Grass Catcher System) which was a bonus. It was VERY filthy and it was covered in dust, grease and there was a lot of debris inside of the reel. I think it was stored in either a covered open shed on in the corner of a building somewhere because it doesn't look like it was used a whole lot as there isn't a lot of wear on the usual spot and the reel and bedknife have hardly if any wear on them. There is a bunch of rust on the edge of the reel and bedknife and some minor paint has flaked off the reel but only in a spot or two.

I sprayed the whole mower down with the Super Clean too and let it soak in there.

























These are after I cleaned it up good and scrubbed the reel with a blue Scothbrite pad and some Super Clean.


















After rinsing it off and getting probably about 90% of the built up dirt off I went into changing the oil(which actually still looked brand new) with some Castrol GTX Full Synthetic 10W-30 and lubed all the zerk fittings with some grease that I have for my other Baroness. After all of that I figured I would try and start it to see what would happen, well, NOTHING happened :lol: The gas at first didn't smell that weird when I opened the tank and there wasn't more than an 1/8th of a tank in there but after I removed the spark plug(which still looked fairly new) and smelled it, is when I noticed that it had an odd smell, almost like turpentine, it just wasn't right so I removed the carburetor and drained all the fuel in the tank. I took the carburetor apart and hit all the jets with a generous amount of carb cleaner. There was a decent amount of gum and varnish in the carb and the bowl and float so I made sure to remove as much as I could. I put it all back together and added some fresh ethanol free fuel and she started on the first pull :thumbup: I made sure all the controls worked properly and the reel and verticutter engaged just fine as well as the hand brake.


















This is what the bad fuel looked like:









The only thing wrong that I have found so far is that one of the bolts/nuts the you loosen to adjust the Verticutter is not the correct one. The plan tomorrow is to make sure all the adjusting nuts break free and are working properly. I'm going to soak them down overnight with PB Blaster so hopefully there won't be any issues. I'm also going to knock the rust off the reel and bedknife and few other areas and then check to see if it cuts paper or not and most likely it will need a lite backlap to get her back in shape and maybe a slight adjustment too. I also plan on removing the light on the front as it is mostly useless and taking off the safety that you have to push down to engage the clutch. I will try to update this thread tomorrow with any updates and maybe some more pictures of the two mowers together.

Overall, I am VERY happy with the mower and I think I got a diamond in the rough as it appears to be slightly used and almost like new except for the fact that is probably wasn't stored in the best of conditions. Considering I got this mower for almost 1/3 of what I paid for my first Baroness, I would consider it a win. I do plan on going by the local Baroness dealer next week to see how much a grass catcher is and I need to order the missing bolt/nut and hopefully that is all I need. I still haven't quite figured out how I'm going to work this mower into my routine but for now it will be a backup mower


----------



## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

Nicceeee! Now you have twins. Looks like you got a great deal MQ!


----------



## TulsaFan (May 1, 2017)

A new benchmark has been set: Not one fantastic mower, but two!!! :thumbup:

I love the idea of you having two of these mowers...Think of all the comparison tests you can do for us! You need to figure how to add a led light to the new one as well. Also, you should investigate switching the transport axles to stub axles!


----------



## touchofgrass (Feb 17, 2017)

Mightyquinn said:


> The plan tomorrow is to make sure all the adjusting nuts break free and are working properly. I'm going to soak them down overnight with PB Blaster so hopefully there won't be any issues. I'm also going to knock the rust off the reel and bedknife and few other areas and then check to see if it cuts paper or not and most likely it will need a lite backlap to get her back in shape and maybe a slight adjustment too. I also plan on removing the light on the front as it is mostly useless and taking off the safety that you have to push down to engage the clutch. I will try to update this thread tomorrow with any updates and maybe some more pictures of the two mowers together.


Ummmm...
1) what the heck, man...you'll need to better explain why you need two mowers of this size if you aren't even going to alternate them. A 'backup' implies that this thing will only get used when your 'primary' is out of commission. So it's just going to sit in the garage and impede my already tight parking spot? Not cool :lol:

2) please don't spend our entire FIFTEENTH Anniversary playing with your new mower !!!

Your wife must really love you to put up with this...you're one lucky guy, MQ


----------



## Shindoman (Apr 22, 2018)

Nice score.
A man can never have too many mowers. Especially ones as fine as a Baroness.


----------



## touchofgrass (Feb 17, 2017)

Mightyquinn said:


>


Also, she looks naked without all the TLF logos all over her :lol:


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

MQ, did you tell TOG about the new topdresser that will take whole parking spot? It ships next week.

:-D


----------



## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

g-man said:


> MQ, did you tell TOG about the new topdresser that will take whole parking spot? It ships next week.
> 
> :-D


LOL!!! I would rather have a greens aerator if I was going to take the whole parking spot


----------



## touchofgrass (Feb 17, 2017)

g-man said:


> MQ, did you tell TOG about the new topdresser that will take whole parking spot? It ships next week.
> 
> :-D


 Oh, you're cute...lol...little do you know it's a two car garage so if anything, his'll Be sleeping out with the elements before that happens. Haha haha


----------



## touchofgrass (Feb 17, 2017)

Mightyquinn said:


> g-man said:
> 
> 
> > MQ, did you tell TOG about the new topdresser that will take whole parking spot? It ships next week.
> ...


Don't even toy with me @Mightyquinn and you know I have told you to find one at one of your auction sites and then we could build a shed and get all this stuff out of the garage.


----------



## g-man (Jun 15, 2017)

:thumbup: That's reads like approval of the greens aerator. :thumbup:


----------



## SGrabs33 (Feb 13, 2017)

g-man said:


> :thumbup: That's reads like approval of the greens aerator. :thumbup:


And a new shed! What a wife @touchofgrass


----------



## touchofgrass (Feb 17, 2017)

SGrabs33 said:


> g-man said:
> 
> 
> > :thumbup: That's reads like approval of the greens aerator. :thumbup:
> ...


And @Mightyquinn better know it!!! Haha


----------



## gpbrown60 (Apr 7, 2018)

Nice find! :nod:


----------



## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

I didn't get as much done with mower as I would have liked today but I was able to check all the adjusting nuts to make sure they moved freely and weren't frozen on the bolts. One of the adjusting nuts to raise the HOC is a little stiff and the threads look a little worn but I plan on getting a die for it to clean up the threads and it should be good to go :thumbup:. One of the adjusting bolts/nuts are missing and they put another bolt/nut combo in there so that will need replaced and I already ordered replacements for it from McMaster-Carr. The nuts aren't exactly the same but close enough for me, plus I will have extra, just in case. For what it cost for the extras would have cost me for one from Baroness :lol:

I also tested out the cut of the reel and bedknife and all it needed was a slight adjustment down on the right side and it was cutting cleanly across the whole width. I'm still going to give it a quick and lite backlap to get that razor sharpness that we all love  I also ordered a new hour meter as the one that is on it is dead as they only have a 5 year battery in them from the factory.

I found this picture this morning, so you can have an idea of all the crap that was in the reel when I got it:










I hope to get a little more done tomorrow after church but I guess we will wait and see about that. I don't plan on taking it out for a maiden voyage until I have it as close to 100% as possible.


----------



## dfw_pilot (Jan 28, 2017)

Great find, MQ - glad this one turned out to be such a gem.


----------

