OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Question On Scott Bonnar Cylinder Mowers SB help

Hello everyone, i have searched long and hard for a site like this.I have just picked up a Scott Bonnar Reel mower. Its a Model SC-04614 Supercut and im looking for any info that i can use to set it up and service/maintain it.

Thanks

Glen,

Is this the manual that you are after?

If so we can upload it to the parts list and manuals area.

Thanks for the reply Bruce. I dont know any thing about these mowers, i picked it up out the front of a house that was having a yard clean.For the grand total of 2 nuts and bolts and some time on the motor she runs.When picked up it had no compression,pulled the head off to find a valve was stuck open. Some CRC and a tap with a hammer freed it up.I have even mowed the lawn with it now, though its not perfect.I will post a pic so memebers can id

Cheers

Hi Glenn and a warm welcome to the site.I also would like to see some photos of your machine. I too have a Model 17 Supercut Scotty, but is electric powered.... They were the Rolls-Royce of cylinder mowers in their day and with a little TLC, they can still cut lawn beautifully

Today i fitted a new catcher i knocked up from some galv sheet metal

Glenn_c I will try to scan the manual and upload it by next week.

Thanks Bruce. I need to know how it all works? I dont realy think that is suitable for cutting buffalo lawn, but after 2 passes it does a great job. Any idea how old it is? Are parts still available?

Cheers all

Hi Glenn_C, What a great looking machine and congrats on your catcher..The Model 17 Supercut (petrol engine) has some features not available on the Model 45 (mine pictured in my avatar) and that is it has 2 clutches....a main drive clutch and a cutter clutch. The advantage of this is that you can traverse across a large area of lawn using the main drive (as they are very heavy) without the cutter engaged or you can mow with the cutter engaged in very tight areas pushing it by hand
without the main drive engaged.
Another good feature is that the cutter can be reversed...(you will find that the front edge of the blade on the cutting cylinder will blunten with use but the back edge will be sharp) you just remove the cylinder,undo the drive dog on the left hand end, swing it 180 degrees, replace the drive dog in the other end and replace....re-adjust the cutting cylinder to bottom knife blade clearance and Voila!! you have a sharp reel once again!!
You can't do that with a Model 45 either (pity.... )
Some parts are rare, but most are still available.
The Model 17 dates from the early 50's.

The guy who mowed my lawn in the very early 1950s used a 4 stroke Atco with two clutches, for the same reason deejay gave. It was about 36" I guess - his smaller Atcos only had one clutch. Incidentally our lawn was buffalo, and the Atcos made it look like kikuyu - really turned grass into lawn. It only took one pass - if you need two passes maybe you need to adjust the fixed blade or resharpen. Some of the yard was on a steep slope, but that didn't seem to worry the Atcos either.

Hi Grumpy,
I was just wondering how you a getting on with the Supercut, and how is your Buffalo grass lawn? Is it doing the job?

Hi Darryl,

It is Glenn_C who has the Supercut. I just posted that when I was a small child in Perth in the early 1950s, my family had a guy with a trailer-load of Atcos come around regularly and cut the buffalo grass, and his (then fairly new) mowers did an excellent job in one pass. I don't recommend buffalo - it is very coarse grass with saw-edges, so little kids playing on it end up covered with stinging cuts, which makes them grumpy (hmm, maybe that's how I got started).

Hi Darryl,

Once i did some adjustments to the cylinder blade, it cuts the buff fantastic. One side of the cylinder was out of wack from the other due to the height adjuster vibrating loose. A quick fiddle and all is sweet

Glenn

Hi Glen_ C, Glad you got that all sorted and that all is well with the machine.

As this thread has not been in use, I will now close it.