OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Restoring, Customising and Modifying Reel-Type Mowers Scott Bonnar 45 17" Resto

Got it in one Grumpy.

For the groomer to be effective it needs to be used regularly. It's not a verticutter or a scarifier, but it's designed to just nick into the canopy opening up more growth points, keeping the plant shoots closer to the crown rather than on the end of the stems.

That being said I have seen similar machines with verticutter blades and some with flail-type scarifier blades.

This will be a dedicated machine purely for grooming, with my 20" handling the mowing duties. So the blade coming off the sole plate isn't a big deal.

Hi grumpy and SimRice,
I agree with grumpy's thoughts here, SB Model 45 soleplates are thin on the ground at present, and the thought of having to remove the bedknife every time the grooming reel is fitted really worries me...

If the sole plate, which is made from cast iron, suffers a crack or is damaged in any way during this procedure, they will be very expensive to replace

News Flash: I have just found a second hand 17" soleplate, I will PM you with the details.

PPS: Bruce has sourced some brand new, they are listed in the ODK Online Store...Click HERE

I think people will be very interested in how it goes together, how it performs, and how it lasts, SimRice. There will probably be many lessons learned and improvements made along the way. Then as the design and operating technique become more explicit and refined, you might find you have a growing number of imitators.

Hi SimRice,
I have sent you a PM with the details.
With a dedicated soleplate for installation with the grooming reel, provided that the front roller is mounted in position, the original soleplate with the bedknife attached can be swapped out with no impact on the machine alignment.
Please let us know how you get on...

deejay and Grumpy,

I agree with you regarding taking the blade off the casting every time you wanted to use the machine in this configuration. If it was a scarifier and you used it 2 times a year then it might be doable, but this will be used as a groomer once per week.

Hence it will be a stand alone groomer, with that cartridge in the machine all of the time. The only foreseeable time it would be used as a reel mower again is if my primary mower developed a terminal problem that I could not fix easily in a few days. Obviously if that were the case I would have to have my reel man reattach the blade and machine the face. Not a very practical or cheap thing to do unless it was absolutely necessary.

I have in my possession 60 blades, so hopefully I can get some work done this weekend on the shaft and get it back into the machine.

Simon

Hi Simon,
Looking forward to seeing the pics of it all together mate,
glad to see it will be a dedicated machine.

All done.

It has come together really well with no real issues. I gave it a light run tonight, and set the blades at 5mm above soil level. Considering that I want to maintain my lawn at 6mm HOC this season, hopefully this will prevent the leaf from growing too far off the stem and creating that spongy puffy look at this low HOC.

Aside from the fact my grass looks more like a beach than lawn at the moment, here are some pics:

Hi SimRice and ODK members,
That machine looks just brilliant, and I'm sure will generate a lot of interest on the forum. Thanks for posting the pics mate!
My on an excellent job,

Looks great Simon, please let us know how it performs once you've used it a few times. Very interested in doing something like this myself.

Well done on a beautiful job!

Thanks Darryl and Rolla

So far so good. Since I scalped my lawn and put some sand down it will be a few more weeks before I start to see the full benefits.

I will keep you posted.

A good article here that explains how it works.

http://www.bladerunnerfarms.com/sit...3/Controlling-Scalping-with-groomers.pdf

Hi SimRice,

Im only new to the forum and a relative newbie to the world of cylinder mowers. I picked up a 17" SB45 a few months back now and absolutely love it. Its in pretty good nic but i'm doing my research to get a little more familiar and restore it in the near future.

With recently laid new turf, I have been endeavoring to get the lawn looking nice and lush with a low cut (albeit leaning what to do and what not to do along the way). Seeing your post for the first time tonight about your groomer, I am curious to hear some follow up on how things are going and what the results have been for you. Would appreciate it if you could give me and of course the other forum members an update.

Cheers

Hi Bartles82, and a warm welcome to the forum. Its always nice to have another Scott Bonnar owner on board.
We all like to see pics of new members machines, instructions for posting pics using the forum 'Inline Uploader' can be found HERE
If you are considering a restore at some point, we can help with an appraisal of the machine and help with the resto.
Once again, to OutdoorKing.

Hi Bartles,

Thanks for taking an interest in the thread. In terms of the low HOC on your lawn, just check what lawn variety you have, as cutting some varieties (like buffalo) low can do more harm than good. If you have couch, well then you can pretty much mow as low as you wish as this type of grass performs best at heights of cut below 20mm. The downside is when you get lower than 15mm the frequency of cutting is now 2-3 times per week in the peak of summer. For me, I love it and the look it has when freshly mowed.

In terms of getting it down low, I find its best to just scalp it down to a level just lower than you wish to maintain at the start of spring and bag all the clippings and debris. Then start mowing at your maintenance height and watch it get super dense as it fills back in.

I will be out with the groomer and reel tomorrow so I will post some follow-ups of how the lawn is progressing with the new toy.

Hi SimRice,
You are probably aware of this but, just a heads-up, be careful of using your good reel mower when that much sand is around...it will blunt your reel and bedknife faster than Superman.
Most greenkeepers have an old machine in the shed they use on the greens after top dressing with sand, just for that purpose.

Hi Darryl,

Yes great point. The sand can be a huge issue as it is very abrasive it can take an edge off the reel in no time. The sand on my lawns are now well below the HOC and I normally irrigate the morning that I wish to mow as it keeps it down rather than being sucked up into the reel.

This will be the first proper cut at the 6mm so keen to see how it looks

Hi SimRice,
Glad to see that you're on top of it....Looking forward to seeing the pics when all complete mate!

Update;

The groomer and reel work fantastically. The only downside is that it takes twice as long to do the lawn, as I use the groomer first then mow with the reel afterward. I might need to play around with the depths on the groomer, today I only had it just nicking into the canopy, but I might experiment with going a bit deeper next time. The groomer is also great for getting all the sticks and leaves off the lawn before mowing with the reel.

There is still a little bit to fill in so it's not 100% back yet, but give it a week and it will be there.

Hi SimRice, and thanks for posting the pics.
The lawn looks like you're bringing it in nicely. So glad that the groomer is working well...I guess that it will take a little time to sort out the right depth, but hey! you're having fun!

The groomer will probably pick up various foreign objects and flick them out of the way too, which will protect the mower reel from damage. My neighbour's kids like to throw lots of things over the fence when they are in their pool - it doesn't worry me because I use rotary mowers, but it would be a major concern if I had a reel mower.

Quick update on the groomer. I have been playing around with blade depth, and it seems to be most effective at blade height just above the soil depth. I have also been using a plant growth regulator (Primo Maxx), and with the groomer I can get away with mowing only twice per week at this height.

This is what comes out into the grass box of the groomer