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

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

Now That's a Lawn !!!!............................Beaudiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiful !

Thanks BB! It is the reason we love these machines; To use them!

Will you be doing a nice flat yard with some killer couch at the new place?

I still haven't put the photos up of the SC. The more I look at it the more I think I don't have the time to give the justice it deserves.

Hi Simon

I am currently working on totally re-landscaping the front and side gardens and Santa Anna is high on the agenda to plant shortly. The last place I had I bought it with a dodgey front couch lawn and ended up leaving with it being the best looking house in the street. The new owners now just dump their cars on the lawn and couldn't give two hoots about it and sadly it is now the worst looking house in the street and that's just in over twelve months.

Anyway I've currently got all our new neighbours stopping everyday asking questions and giving me lots of encouragement with what I'm doing as they are seeing something new on a daily basis.

On the subject of lawns I've heard there is a new type of couch that is far more shade tolerant than Santa Anna and it has been used on Adelaide Oval due to it being used for both cricket and Footy in both seasons, do you have any clues as to what it might be ?

Yes the old Supercuts are a lot more work to rebuild than a 45 that's for sure. Especially if you want to run the older Villiers on it.

Cheers,
BB

BB,

Turf at Adelaide Oval is definitely Santa Ana couch. It gets over seeded with Perennial Rye Grass for the football season. I have seen that recently Santa Ana is now being marketed as Nullabor Couch.

There are some more shade-tolerant cultivators in the US that claim more shade tolerance (Tif Grand, Celebration), but I think the only cultivator over here marketed is Plateau Couch. That being said it is still going to need 6+ hours of unfiltered sunlight per day to be healthy and dense, particularly with low heights of cut (<15mm).

Simon

Hi SimRice,

Thanks for that.

Sadly I have about a 1 metre wide strip that will basically never see sun during the winter months and that concerns me as I'm sure that it will have that section taken over with that nuisance clover that surfaces during the colder times of the year. Currently as the sun is more in the southern sky the whole area gets sun all day long but if there was a couch that's a bit more shade tolerant then I'd try that instead of Santa Ana.

Cheers,
BB

Hi SimRice, i have sent you a pm in regards to some of the items you used . I would love to make ones of these with a spare 20".

Hi Jim,

PM sent

I am selling the tri-tipped blades in favour of carbide tipped blades.

If anyone is interested please PM me.

Simon

Hi sim rice
As I am very new to all this your yard looks awesome I wish one day mine can look close to yours I just laid couch in my front yard (75m'2) I had to lay buffalo down the side as it gets no sun I will be laying more couch out the back about (150m'2) as I gets closer to spring
My question to you is where to get the carbide tip blades from I have Morrison 500 that's what I was thinking of turning to to a groomer and a SB that is getting a sharpen now have not even started it myself the Morrison has been welded on the sprockets so I was thinking of grinding them off and turning that in to the groomer or would you recommend finding a new SB to use