Patent ID: 8640588

Claim:
A cutting head for attachment to a rotary vegetation cutting machine, the cutting head comprising: a base for being fixed to a rotary vegetation cutting machine and having at least one pin extending upward from the base; a blade slidably received on said at least one pin; a cover rotatable mounted on said base and having at least one notch in an outer perimeter of the cover, wherein the cover is rotatable in a plane parallel to the base from a closed position wherein the blade on its respective pin is blocked by the cover from being lifted up off of the pin for removal from the cutting head, to an open position wherein the notch is over said at least one pin and the blade is liftable from the pin and removable from the cutting head; a cap positioned over a portion of the cover and fixed to the base by a spool that connects the base to the cap; wherein the cover is biased to stay in the closed position unless manually rotated to an open position; and a lock system including a rigid lock plate that has a handle near an outer surface of the cap, the lock plate extending through a portion of the cap and having a leg that protrudes down into a space in the cover, wherein said space has a lock-notch; a spring that biases the leg into said lock-notch to lock the cover in said closed position to prevent the cover from rotating relative to the leg and relative to the cap, and, wherein, when the handle of the lock plate is depressed into the cap against the bias of the spring, said leg moves out of the lock-notch to allow said cover to rotate relative to the cap to said open position.