I have seen where several posters have reel mowers (with engine). I have a Tru-Cut and was wondering how often you all are having to sharpen the blades (reel and bed knife)? Maybe Okgrassguy could chime in?? I was hoping to get buy with once or twice per year, but am finding it needs more than that. The place I use to sharpen it charges 75.00 per time. Is there a less expensive way to go?

Thanks

If you are getting it sharpened make sure you get a relief grind on it and not a cheaper spin grind. 75$ is a good price for a grinding. I use a local golf course mechanic. I pay him about 70 bucks drop it off and have it back razor sharp in a day.

A good grinding should last a typical homeowner 5-7 years. You may have to backlap yearly. But thats noi sharpening it just freshens up the edges.

I say pay what you have to to get a good skilled person tho grind and adjust it. If you let a bozo on it your reel is toast. my guy used to work for jacobsen and goes to a class yearly by Jacobsen to keep him up to speed.

Also are you paying 75 for a backlap or grinding. If your backlapping more than once a year you may need to get it ground properly, as I said a good grinding should last 5-7 years with yearly backlapping. Chances are you have no relief left on the blade and your out of adjustment on the bedknife/reel clearance

OKCDan uses the same fellow I do so he may have something to add.

If you are mechanically inclined there are some good articles on backlapping and adjusting reel mowers. I backlap and adjust my reel but leave the grinding to the pro

This is a good article to start with. Keep in mind backlapping dosent replace a good grinding and proper adjustment. It justs freshens up the reel and bedknife between grindings


http://grounds-mag.com/mag/grounds_main ... lap_reels/

Thanks for your help Okgrassguy. I just bought the mower last Spring, used it all Summer, and had it sharpened in August. Cutting my perennial rye all Winter and early Spring has dulled it again. I was just concerned about having it sharpened too much too often and wearing down the blades. I guess I need to find out exactly what the guy is doing and ask about backlapping/adjusting etc...
Thanks again!

I agree with everything okgrassguy said. Specifically, the part about knowing (or finding out) what your guy is doing to the reel. The local Tru-Cut dealer here in OKC (Pro Power) only does backlapping. I don't ever take my mower to those guys to pay 'em $75 for that. I change the oil myself & when the reel needs grinding, I take it to the same guy at the local golf course where okgrassguy takes his.

Call around to golf courses, ask for the maintenance shop & ask questions. That's where you'll find someone who knows what they're doing.

Here's some excellent info detailing how to backlap yourself, but was originally written to reply to a guy with a McLane reel. I'll also insert more specific info for the Tru-Cut with regard to adjusting the reel.... a slightly different setup, using bearing eccentrics.

posted by: ggoyeneche on 07.10.2006 at 07:20 pm

McLane 20" and 25" used a fixed cutting bar and rotate the reel in or out relative to the cutting bar. The reel bearings are supported by two bearing plates which pivot on bolts toward the rear of the frame, The front bolts tighten in slotted holes in the side frames. By moving the front of the bearing plate up or down, the reel is positioned further or closer relative to the bed knife.
Before you loosen or change anything, scribe match marks on each side frame along the bearing supports. This will allow you the get back to your starting point.

I prefer to backlap by hand with Clover compound, starting with a medium-coarse grit (#120) and finishing with a fine (#280). McLane sells a backlapping attachment for power backlapping ($90) but I don't recommend. The actual rotating of the reel takes about 5 minutes by hand and 2 minutes with the engine, so you only save a few minutes. Preparation, setting, and clean up will take you an hour or so. Trimmer and Tru-Cut tap the end of the reel and sell a crank handle which threads into the reel. Although McLane only sells something similar for their 17", you can use a large pair of vise-grip pliers to grab the sprocket and spin the reel.

Start by adjusting the reel so that it is just barely making contact with the knife. Make sure that you are even all the way across. Tighten up and then spread the coarse Clover across each reel blade. Now start to turn the reel backward (hence term backlap) for a couple of minutes. If you are no longer making contact, move the reel closer another few thousands and repeat. Next wipe off all compound, reset to slight contact, and apply fine Clover. Crank the reel, check and reset as required, and then wipe clean.

Now you need to clean the reel and bedknife thoroughly of any compound. Suggest you use spray solvent and a garden hose. Use a brush with the solvent to ensure you remove everything. Make sure you don't point your water stream directly at the bearings.

Now you need to set do a final set of the reel to the bedknife. Move the bearing plates until you almost have contact. In this case you don't want metal to metal, but rather want .002 or .003 clearance. When you've got it right, tighten up. Now take strips of newspaper and be sure that each reel blade cuts like a scissors at three or four points against the bedknife.

Done properly this should be good for one or two seasons of homeowner use, unless you have a very sandy and abrasive environment. You shouldn't have to get an actual regrind of the reel and bedknife for 5 years or so. When you do get reground, make sure you get a "relief grind" on the reel.

Specific info on the Tru-Cut:

Your Tru-cut uses the same type of reel and bar system as the Trimmer, whom they copied from.
The bar is fixed to the frame and the reel moves realtive to the bar by rotating the bearing housings. The bearing housings are eccentric to the side frames and are clamped by a ring and three bolts.

Start by scribing match marks on the side frames and the bearing carriers. This will allow you to go back to your original setting, and also see how far things have moved. Many times, you get very little movement with a sharp whack, and then things break free and very little pressure causes the reel to move a lot.

Now loosen the bolts on the ring to finger tight, and use a drift punch to rotate the bearing carrier so that it cams the reel closer to the bed knife. Go in small increments and make sure you move both sides the same amount. Ideally you want to be .002 to .003 away from the knife. Retighten and check with strips of paper for a scissor cut at at least six points along each blade in the reel.

If you can't get it adjusted properly from blade to blade and/or side to side you will then have to backlap or even have the reel and knife professionally ground.

If you do grind, I recommend that you have the reel relief ground. A spin grind is a little cheaper, but doesn't lend itself to follow on backlapping.

The only thing I need to add is that I disagree with the use of a drift punch to turn the bearing eccentrics, I prefer the use of the proper tool, a spanner wrench. You can purchase them online at McMaster-Carr.

They look like this:



Good day, Dan

Thanks again to all for your advice...it is much appreciated.

It was mentioned in the above article, but I wanted to re-emphasize the importance of a relief grind. A reel and bedknife can be kept fairly sharp IF the reel has a relief grind. The importance here is the surface area ratio between the bedknife cutting surface and the SUM of all the reel blades cutting surfaces. For example, if you have a 7-bladed reel that has been spin ground then the bedknife cutting surface is being ground down 7 times more than each of the reel blades. A reel with a spin grind will simply wear out a bedknife when you backlap. Ideally, the cutting edge (contact width) of a reel blade should be 1 millimeter or less. That said, the bedknife is the primary, and most important cutting edge of a reel mower. You can still obtain a decent cut with a somewhat dull reel and a razor sharp bedknife. I own both a relief grinder and bedknife sharpening equipment so keeping my reel mower razor sharp is easy. Regardless, I still use backlapping to maintain the razor sharp edge. The main reason is that backlapping, if used properly, will not only maintain the cutting edges, but it "hones" the cutting surfaces to mate for a uniform cut.

Shy of having sharpening equipment, the following is the best advice to keep your reel mower sharp.

1) Maintain the proper reel to bedknife contact. The should be checked after every mow and adjusted if necessary. Your cutting edges will last a lot longer.
2) Get your reel relief ground and your bedknife sharpened or replaced annually.
3) Backlap BEFORE your cutting surfaces are dull. If you wait until they are dull, if is much harder to get them reasonably sharp again.

FirstLSK, we’d like to give you a formal welcome to the forums – enjoy the company! Tell us a little about yourself – you appear to be adept with your machinery

Thanks for the welcome KC and hello to everyone. Lots of interesting and good information on this forum. I have enjoyed reading all of it and I look forward to sharing ideas with all of you.

Little bit about myself:

Location: Joshua, Texas -- Southwest of Ft. Worth
Occupation: Engineer
Turf: manicured hybrid bermuda + back field area that I am working on getting native bermuda to propagate to cover.
Primary Turf Equipment: Jacobsen greensmower for manicured turf. John Deere x304 for back field native bermuda.


Here are a few recent pictures of my never-ending work in progress:

My girls and I two weeks ago:



A close up shot (I need to get a golfball shot like Dan):

Looks good, I see you got the same reel mower I do.

When'd you get a Jake?

Last August, I got from a course in Texas. Its a beast

Yes sir. All reputable reel mowers will give you a very high quality cut (much higher quality than any rotary) but the Jacobsen design provides the most precise and consistant cut, bar none. I also have a McLane reel that I use in the spring for knocking down the dormant and semi-dormant turf. The Jacobsen doesn't come out of hibernation until full green up.

okgrassguy, I need to take some close pictures of my greensmower and post them. I did some minor re-engineering on it last winter to make it a little better for a home lawn vs. a putting green.

My message is to First LSK who posted a message on May 29,2008 which said, "I own both a relief grinder and bedknife sharpening equipment so keeping my reel mower razor sharp is easy." I would like to ask this gentleman where he purchased this sharpening equipment and the approximate cost of it. Any exact addresses and /or phone numbers of where to buy quality reel sharpening equipment is appreciated.

Shirley,

I purchased my sharpening equipment through Luber Brothers in Arlington TX. They are the Jacobsen dealership that I purchased my mower from. It wasn't cheap -- a few thousand dollars.

http://www.luber.com/index.html


I maintain both of my reel mowers and sharpen several of my neighbors reel mowers for $50 a pop -- or often something of a greater value in trade. Maybe someday it will pay for itself but I really don't care. I just wanted to be able to keep my reels razor sharp 100% of the time. Sharpening a reel is very easy with the proper equipment.