# Swardman verticutter rebuild working like a beast



## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

I bought my Swardman and got the dethatcher and verticutter cartridges. I use the verticutter last year a little, but I wasn't really happy with the results. Part of it was due to the neglected nature of my Bermuda that I inherited, but I also felt like there weren't enough blades and I didn't like the design of the blades. I wanted something more like a golf course would use, so I found an old Jacobsen greensking 522 that had already had the verticutter conversion done. I bought it sight unseen, and when it was delivered, it was toast. The only saving grace was that the parts were all there for the verticutter conversion.

I took the reel off of the Jacobsen and removed all of the blades and spacers. I did the same thing with the Swardman verticutter cartridge. I put the Jacobsen blades and spacers on the Swardman shaft and reassembled the cartridge. The Jacobsen blades have a square notch and a blade missing so you can easily replace a blade. the square was too big for the Swardman shaft, but the spacers kind of lock them together, so I used a couple of the Swardman spacers on each end to squeeze them together hoping that I could create enough pressure on both ends to keep the blades from spinning freely.

Everything was going ok until I tried to verticut a test section. The Jacobsen blades are 5 inches from tip to tip, but the Swardman blades are 6.5 inches. Even at the lowest HOC setting I was not getting any contact with the ground. I was bummed. I let the stuff sit around all winter while I pouted and got mad about wasting a bunch of money. If I wasn't being such a baby. I could have saved @MasterMech a bunch of money. 

Then spring came, the grass started to green up a little, and I was re-invigorated.  I revisited the project and had an idea. I took two of the Jacobsen blades and overlapped them so that the protrusions on the blades covered the full outside edge of the blade. I traced it onto a piece of paper, but instead of tracing the square center, I laid a Swardman blade over the tracing and transferred the octagonal center hole onto the drawing. I took my drawing to a local place here that does WaterJet cutting for arts and crafts type stuff in addition to commercial parts. The guy cut a blade for me from my drawing for free to see if the octagon in the middle and the holes for the spacers would line up. They did. I explained to the guy what I was trying to build and that I needed this same blade, but I need the outside scaled up to 6.5 inches while the octagon and spacer holes did not move.

He scaled it up and cut a couple of proofs for me. They looked exactly like what I wanted. I put them on the reel and everything lined up. The guy is going to get some metal today and cut me 26 of them. I should have them Tuesday. I am getting excited now. I will post more pics when I get the blades and when I rebuild the cartridge.


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## hsvtoolfool (Jul 23, 2018)

Thanks for this post! Once you test this out, I can't wait to learn if the gas motor version Swardman has enough torque and RPMs to spin so many blades through the thatch layer. I suspect the Electra's fast "Beast Mode" might support such a verticutter attachment better. I'm also curious if it will eat belts, not to mention if the machine's overall weight will be enough to perform as expected. This is such a cool experiment!


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

hsvtoolfool said:


> Thanks for this post! Once you test this out, I can't wait to learn if the gas motor version Swardman has enough torque and RPMs to spin so many blades through the thatch layer. I suspect the Electra's fast "Beast Mode" might support such a verticutter attachment better. I'm also curious if it will eat belts, not to mention if the machine's overall weight will be enough to perform as expected. This is such a cool experiment!


@hsvtoolfool I don't think the number of blades will be and issue. I had one high spot where I could get a little contact, and it seemed to do OK. I didn't get much penetration into the thatch layer, but when I did make contact, the engine didn't groan or anything and the blades spun and cut through the stolons with no issues. Plus I had 47 blades on it at first, and I'm dropping down to 26. The new blades are thinner, also. If there is going to be an issue, it is going to be the fact that mower uses V belt, not chains or toothed belts. The V belts may cause a little bit of slippage if I try to go too deep, or if the thatch is super thick (which it is). I will just have to make a few passes going a little deeper each time until I get it under control.

I'll post when I get my blades. I probably won't paint them, as the paint will just wear of after the first use anyway.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

How deep below the surface are you trying to go? My 522 verticutter will do roughly -0.125". With 1/2" spacing, that's all the little GX120 engine wants. The Swardman is using a larger Briggs or Kawi motor though right? Anybody have the specs on the specific engines Swardman has used on the Edwin 2.0 and 2.1?


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

Also, @tblood , do you remember if there was a bed shoe/bar mounted to the 522 when it was setup as a verticutter? I've run mine both ways. Just curious how yours was setup.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

@MasterMech There was not. I also have the Honda engine, grass catcher, transport wheels, and grooved front roller left over from the 522, if you are interested. I know we are 5 hours apart, but I'd give you a good deal, if you are interested.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

tblood said:


> @MasterMech There was not. I also have the Honda engine, grass catcher, transport wheels, and grooved front roller left over from the 522, if you are interested. I know we are 5 hours apart, but I'd give you a good deal, if you feel like riding.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

tblood said:


> @MasterMech There was not. I also have the Honda engine, grass catcher, transport wheels, and grooved front roller left over from the 522, if you are interested. I know we are 5 hours apart, but I'd give you a good deal, if you are interested.


You either been reading my posts and paying attention or you just plain read minds. I'll send you a PM.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

Here is a pic of the old setup.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

tblood said:


> Here is a pic of the old setup.


I see no grass shield in that setup. Converted her to a rear throw they did!


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

MasterMech said:


> tblood said:
> 
> 
> > Here is a pic of the old setup.
> ...


I had already taken that off. :lol: I took the picture to reference the spacing.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

MasterMech said:


> How deep below the surface are you trying to go? My 522 verticutter will do roughly -0.125". With 1/2" spacing, that's all the little GX120 engine wants. The Swardman is using a larger Briggs or Kawi motor though right? Anybody have the specs on the specific engines Swardman has used on the Edwin 2.0 and 2.1?


I have the Briggs version. I don't remember the specs on it. As far as depth goes, The Swardman has a setting for -.5". I bet that even at that depth, I don't hit soil on the first pass. I just need to remove the thatch one layer at a time.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

I'm picking up my blades this afternoon. Woo-hoo!


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

Got it put together. 22 blades with 10 teeth each versus 12 blades with 2 teeth. I'm going to try a small section of my front yard. Wish me luck.


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## LawnDetail (Apr 15, 2020)

Look forward to see how this works out for you.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

Ok. I didn't have a lot of time to test it out, but I di learn some stuff. I had the mower setup like I would for regular cutting and I set the depth at +1/4 inch. I lifted the front of the mower up, started the blades and let the mower down. The motor groaned a little and the blades cut good for about a foot before the lack of weight caused the blades to lift and ride on top of the grass, which then causes the mower to be propelled at the speed of the reel, not the speed of the rear drum. HUGE DIFFERENCE. It almost pulled me out of shoes the first time it happened. Every time this happened, I would have to back up and start again from where the blades lifted. It did a decent job, but it was aggravating.

I decided to put the gas at full throttle and just pull against it mower and try to control the speed by feathering the rear drum control handle. This worked a little better, but was a lot more work and I felt like the belt for the rear drum was stressed. I also go lazy when the blades came up and i just pulled the mower backwards to where it started. I notice a much better result going backwards. My laziness gave me an idea that i will share in the next post. In the picture below you can see the results of my first couple of passes. The farthest left was with the mower pulling me. The farthest right was me pulling against the mower.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

I decided to take the rear drum drive belt off, set the throttle at full speed and manually pull the mower backward. WAY DIFFERENT RESULT. The engine did not complain, and the blades never lifted. I also didn't pack the thatch back down nearly as much because the grooved fron roller was the last the to go over the grass.

This was one pass in a single direction while the pictures above show a pass going down and back over the pass.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

It wasn't a large test area, but I think pulling it backward is the way to go it is no more work than trying to manhandle the mower going forward. It also produced some beautiful sprigs that I am going to be able to use to fill I. Some areas where I have recently removed some raised beds.

Based on the small test here, I am more than satisfied withe the results. I knew going into this that my grass was in pretty bad shape and that I was going to have to do this in small sections anyway.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

These results are just from going in one direction, no cross cut yet. It is supposed to rain for the couple of days, so I wont get to mess with it again until Saturday at the earliest.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

MasterMech said:


> How deep below the surface are you trying to go? My 522 verticutter will do roughly -0.125". With 1/2" spacing, that's all the little GX120 engine wants. The Swardman is using a larger Briggs or Kawi motor though right? Anybody have the specs on the specific engines Swardman has used on the Edwin 2.0 and 2.1?


The engine is the Briggs 550 127cc 5.5hp.


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## hsvtoolfool (Jul 23, 2018)

Thanks for the detailed update!



tblood said:


> ...the lack of weight caused the blades to lift and ride on top of the grass, which then causes the mower to be propelled at the speed of the reel, not the speed of the rear drum.


That's what I was most worried about. Lots of close blades with more tines creates lot of surface area. It takes a lot of machine weight to run that many blades. I looked up the Graden GS04 16" wide model: it's about 360 lbs. Our Swardmans weigh less than half that.

The Graden also uses counter-rotating blades, which is exactly how you got yours to work by dragging it backwards. So that may be the critical element regardless of machine weight. We just need a way to run the Swardman blade backwards. If the belt was only long enough, you can just twist the belt to reverse the direction. The Electra would probably just need a firmware upgrade,


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

hsvtoolfool said:


> Thanks for the detailed update!
> 
> 
> 
> ...


I agree that the counter rotation was a significant factor, but I also believe that removing the drive belt for the rear drum and being able to control the forward or rearward momentum of the mower helped a lot as well. After I posted last night, I tried going forward without the drive belt for the rear drum and still got good results. Not as good as going backwards, but the blades did not jump out of the ground nearly as often The weight may not be as big of a factor as previously thought. I also don't think that number blades contributed to the issue. I had the same issues using just the 12 Swardman blades.

Bumping the number of blades up did fix one aggravating issue for sure. After I made the passes, there was not one runner that wrapped around the reel. With the fewer blades and fewer teeth, I had to stop often to untangle the runners from the reel. In either direction, the blades never stopped spinning, so that was a plus.

I feel like this is a viable setup. My grass is just in terrible shape. Once I get it under control, I don't think any of these issue will be of any concern going forward. It is going to be a long process, though. I have a half acre that I have to get under control with a 22" machine. Once the weather begins to stay warm consistently, I will begin the process of verticutting and leveling with sand. I will probably do it in 1-2K feet chunks.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

To give you an Idea of how badly the grass had grown over itself, I pulled some plugs from an area that had no bare spots to use in another part of the yard. When I pulled them out of the plugger, the grass blew away and I was left with plugs of dirt with no grass. Not even any roots. Where the grass is healthy, I can pull a 6 inch plug and the roots are hanging down another couple of inches.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

It may be a while before I get to experiment any further. This is the current state of the crack yard. It is still pouring rain, too.


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## LawnDetail (Apr 15, 2020)

tblood said:


> It may be a while before I get to experiment any further. This is the current state of the crack yard. It is still pouring rain, too.


OMG !!!


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Quick, grab the bathing suits! How long will that take to drain once the rain stops?


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

bernstem said:


> Quick, grab the bathing suits! How long will that take to drain once the rain stops?


It will mostly be gone in a few hours, but the thatch is so thick in some areas that it will be squishy for a week. The guy that farms the land behind us has also plowed up a berm along the property line, so it can't escape that way. I have to wait for it soak in.


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## bernstem (Jan 16, 2018)

Hmm, good thing you are building a better verticutter...


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

bernstem said:


> Hmm, good thing you are building a better verticutter...


I'm seriously considering digging in a catch basin and putting so popup drains in once I get the grass under control. I can take the opportunity to try to improve the grade a little while the yard is torn up, too.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

It stopped raining about 30 minutes ago.


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## hsvtoolfool (Jul 23, 2018)

Dang dude! You need to grow rice, not bermuda!


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

hsvtoolfool said:


> Dang dude! You need to grow rice, not bermuda!


No doubt. Its all gone now except for the low spot around the tree. We are supposed to finally get some sustained warm weather, so I need to get out there and dethatch before the grass takes off.


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

tblood said:


> MasterMech said:
> 
> 
> > How deep below the surface are you trying to go? My 522 verticutter will do roughly -0.125". With 1/2" spacing, that's all the little GX120 engine wants. The Swardman is using a larger Briggs or Kawi motor though right? Anybody have the specs on the specific engines Swardman has used on the Edwin 2.0 and 2.1?
> ...


Awesome - Thanks!


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

I figured out what the issue was. When I had the hoc set at +1/4 inch, the front roller was 1/2 off of the ground. I set it +3/8 inch, and I was able to leave the drum drive belt on and still cut a few sotolns. I set it to +1/2 inch, and that was the sweet spot. I can leave all belts on and all I have to to is lift slightly (I'm talking about 1 finger on each paddle), and I got the exact result that I was looking for. I will need.to go just a hair more aggressive in order to get some of the runner and stems, but over all, I'm satisfied.

Before and after.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

The pictures decided to post in whatever order they wanted. The bottom is before.


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## tblood (Aug 7, 2018)

The other side.


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