PART FIVE - UPDATE - Exceller Collect-O-Matic

Member Paul C was astute and lucky to acquire an Exceller Collect-O-Matic in
early 2016. This was the second version of the mower, still powered by Hurricane
(before the Victa engine), and with significant upgrades from the original model
(see discussion above).

This was the most advanced Australian designed and manufactured lawnmower of
the 1950s, and should be considered the Holy Grail of vintage Australian rotaries
for a very simple reason - it was a decade ahead of anything else on the market.

Like all of these machines that have come to light, the catcher was missing,
but apart from that, it was in amazing, original condition.

A couple of surprising and unknown features have come to light. The first was
that, not only was the height adjustable from the handle, but there were handle
height pre-sets for operator comfort:-

[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]

The biggest - and most important - surprise was the blade holder design.
It would appear that aerodynamic lift was achieved, not necessarily by blade
design, but by an alloy three-bladed blade holder! Like the truly revolutionary
British Rotoscythe of 1932, this mower created lift via blade holder design.
This change was probably introduced in late 1958 (best guess).

I do not believe the current blades on the machine are originals, but are
later stepped and fluted types - like Supa-swift blades. We still do not know
what the original blades would have looked like, but they probably had small
flutes as shown in the patent illustration.

[Linked Image]
[Linked Image]

The History Forum is lucky to have this new insight to the most-amazing if AUS vintage
mowers. Again, a big thank you to Paul C for this (also for the great photos).

The rest is history.
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Jack