# rotary scalp, greens mower scalp, aeration, and a dmged reel ugh



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

So today planned on started my 2018 yard year. Started out great, middle was good but ended on slightly down note.

So last night started my rotary scalp. Got a new honda hrx and it's the best mower ever. I would pay 5x what i did it for it. It cuts so well, and just works, huge *** bag and sucks up clippings like nobodies business. Finished the rotary scalp last night.

Started the scalp this morning with the reel. i tried .1" but no go. I moved it up to about .3". I don't know how many times I pulled the bagging thing off to dump it...but I got about 15 35gallon garbage bags of clippings off the yard...I was hitting some dirt but looked pretty good otherwise. I had ran over the yard 3 times with the reel in several different paths. I was literally, LITERALLY 3 feet from finishing up. Then disaster...i had ran over this place several times...but I hit a damn sprinkler head. with the stupid reel. It wasn't even a hard hit, it just glazed over the damn head. It didn't even break the damn head...but the stupid reel was damaged. Two of the "blades" at the very corner was bent up . I was so pissed. It's a brand new reel.

But i was done scalping luckily, and took my anger out with the aerator. Rented a ride on toro and doing my yard and 4-5 people i know that wanted it done. Aeration is aeration nothing major happened but because it was so low basically turned my yard into mud.

Some pictures from the day....below.

Luckily for the reel I *think* i'll be able to bend it back slightly and still get it to cut since it's at the very edge. It was only bent up about 1/4 if an inch but it's enough to hit the bed knife. See pictures. Is this something I can indeed bend back and go on with cutting? Will I have to replace entire reel? Could it be repaired by grinding?

Speaking of grinding, does anyone in Huntsville know who I could go to to potentially repair it or in the future sharpen a reel?


----------



## Guest (Apr 29, 2018)

doh sorry about those blades..I'd be crying for sure.


----------



## Tellycoleman (May 10, 2017)

Now that's what I call a Bermuda scalp. Keep us posted with pictures. A lot of newbies need to look at your pictures because they are scared to scalp low. Awesome.


----------



## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

Sorry to hear about your reel as it seems to be a thing this year on TLF. This happened to me last weekend too!


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@Tellycoleman

Well I can't lie. Right now it's basically all mud so i'm some slightly nervous...but I know that people will burn their lawn to the ground which obviously takes away all material. At least I have some green...barely...haha


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@Mightyquinn

What did you do? Yeah I'm not happy at all. I'm so pissed at myself.


----------



## Mightyquinn (Jan 31, 2017)

kur1j said:


> @Mightyquinn
> 
> What did you do? Yeah I'm not happy at all. I'm so pissed at myself.


I ordered a new reel and bedknife and the bearings and oil seals. I went with the optional 9-Blade reel over the standard 11-Blade that came with it though. Parts should be here early next week, so hopefully next weekend I will be replacing everything. :thumbup:


----------



## raldridge2315 (Jul 1, 2017)

Well, that just sucks right out loud. I don't know about repair shops in Huntspatch, but I am wondering if it can be heated with a torch and hammered back against a steel backer block.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@raldridge2315 I feel like i could bend it back(potentially). Might try some heat. Honestly it's the very corner. It's not even an inch down the blade on the very corner of 2 blades. I feel i could just get the contact off the bedknife of those two and deal with it. Bedknife seems fine.


----------



## raldridge2315 (Jul 1, 2017)

@kur1j Since it bent and did not break, it's not very hard steel, so heating it shouldn't ruin any temper. I would try bending it back before grinding it down. If you do have to grind then, I wouldn't think you would notice any difference it the cut. I was also thinking that if heated, you may be able to straighten it with a c-clamp or vice grip.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@raldridge2315 That is my thought process i was leading down. Didn't think of heating it up though. I need to figure out what I can grind on it with though. Don't have a grinder or are you saying to have it ground?


----------



## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

I would not heat it. You should be able to tap them back into place, kind of, with a hammer, maybe something to back it up. It still won't be perfect bedknife clearance so you will need to take a file to it and knock down the high spots. Bending it back and spin grinding the reel is an option too.

Don't feel too bad, I trashed a new reel this week too. Like MQ said, all the cool kids on TLF are doing it.....


----------



## Greendoc (Mar 24, 2018)

Now I feel bad. If it were not for me @kur1j would not have tried to scalp all the way down. Essential tools when I am doing this to a lawn include marking flags for any kind of objects and the Landscape Blade. I do my scalping with the LB near anything that is likely to bend the reel if I were to run over it. With the LB, I have caused grass to peel up in sheets as if I were cutting sod. That makes things like wastewater cleanout caps, utility boxes, and any other objects in the ground visible, as well as already scalped so I will not try to run my mower over them. I speak from the experience of having to do this in other people's lawns, where the scalping to covert it to a reel low lawn reveals all kinds of stuff.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@Greendoc Don't feel bad at all. Not your fault. I knew where it was. I had already been over that section multiple times it was already cut to .3" I never saw it.

what I think happened was the head was at a slight angle (i know it was). All my other passes had it going over the head "with" the angle of the head. So the front roller would push it down into the ground more. Well this pass I was going against the angle of the head I feel the front roller bumped over it knocked it up JUST enough for the reel to hit it. What I'm surprised the most about is it basically did NO damage to the head. All it looks like is someone scraped off some plastic in the very top corner of it.

It's frustrating but certainly not something you should even come close feeling bad about. I'll fix it and go on. Hell even if I have to replace the reel I could probably do it in 2-3 hours now instead of 2 months haha.


----------



## csbutler (Jun 15, 2017)

Tri green will work on John Deere equipment. I believe they will sharpen it also... not 100% on that. They never really would give me a yes or no.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

csbutler said:


> Tri green will work on John Deere equipment. I believe they will sharpen it also... not 100% on that. They never really would give me a yes or no.


Unfortunately the closest trigreen that will work on a greens equipment is like a 2.5 hour drive away .


----------



## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

@@kur1j I was really hoping the one on Rideout Road would do reel mower repair. I'm assuming the one that will work on it is in Birmingham?


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@Movingshrub No, I think the closest one is in Murfreesboro, TN. i tried to stop by and get some parts from the one on rideout and they can't even order parts. I am just assuming but I would guess that since they can't order parts they don't have anyone working on them.

GreenVilleturf.com

Murfreesboro, TN
Service Location
7526 Old Nashville Hwy
Murfreesboro, TN 3712

There might be one in Bham but not sure.


----------



## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

Have you tried any of the local golf courses? I don't have a reel so I haven't reached out, but I imagine they either do their own maintenance or know some place locally that will do the work.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

Movingshrub said:


> Have you tried any of the local golf courses? I don't have a reel so I haven't reached out, but I imagine they either do their own maintenance or know some place locally that will do the work.


I haven't but that was my next move. I could have sworn i saw a few reel mower users on the boards in huntsville :-/.


----------



## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

kur1j said:


> Movingshrub said:
> 
> 
> > Have you tried any of the local golf courses? I don't have a reel so I haven't reached out, but I imagine they either do their own maintenance or know some place locally that will do the work.
> ...


There are a few. I'm just not one of them, yet.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@Movingshrub Better get on that .


----------



## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

I'm waiting for someone with a damaged reel or someone who is moving overseas, such as Skorea or the sandbox, to part with the reel mower at a fire sale price.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

Haha fair enough.


----------



## Ware (Jan 28, 2017)

Movingshrub said:


> I'm waiting for someone with a damaged reel or someone who is moving overseas, such as Skorea or the sandbox, to part with the reel mower at a fire sale price.


That sounds like the kind of seller I would want to take advantage of. :no:


----------



## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

Ware said:


> Movingshrub said:
> 
> 
> > I'm waiting for someone with a damaged reel or someone who is moving overseas, such as Skorea or the sandbox, to part with the reel mower at a fire sale price.
> ...


I work for the DOD, so I could just as easily be that seller at some point in the future, potentially without much notice, so my concern is to avoid getting too deep (monetarily) into an item that I won't be able to use or will have to sell quickly. It isn't a specific intent to take advantage of that group; I'm a member of that group.


----------



## csbutler (Jun 15, 2017)

kur1j said:


> csbutler said:
> 
> 
> > Tri green will work on John Deere equipment. I believe they will sharpen it also... not 100% on that. They never really would give me a yes or no.
> ...


Call the tri green in Winchester tn and ask to speak to Stacey. He is over the service dept and I regularly see them working on greens equipment. Most of the time it's not even John Deere stuff. The last time I talked to him about it he said that if he can get parts for that brand he'll work on anything. I figure the tri green on rideout just doesn't want to mess with it. Winchester is about an hour away depending on were you are in hsv.


----------



## viva_oldtrafford (Apr 4, 2018)

x2 the idea of finding a golf course. We have homeowners / members bring us stuff quite frequently - never a reel mower though. Our mechanics have a lot of experience in reel maintenance / replacement. Here's a link for prospective buyers of used turf equipment.

http://www.turfnet.com/classifieds/category/12-walk-greensmower/?sort_key=date_added&sort_order=desc


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@viva_oldtrafford 
Should I call or should I just show up and ask to talk to a grounds crew manager? I feel if i just call the phone number listed online and I get a front desk clerk they wouldn't have the foggiest clue at what I'm asking haha. But maybe I'm wrong? What do you've recommend doing to get in touch with the right person?

I feel comfortable working on this mower at this point. I've already replaced the reel and bearings. I just need some help sharpening/griding/relief grinding the reel. Granted after I fucked up this brand new reel might need some help to sharpen it back.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@csbutler

Oh awesome thanks for the info. I'm planning on starting my search closest to me and expanding. Im going to call a few of the golf courses around me and see what they say. If I get no luck there I'll definitely be giving trigreen yiu recommended a call.


----------



## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

I would stop by in person and try either the course superintendent or whoever runs the equipment maintenance.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

I've stopped in at 2 and was told they don't do anything for the public at one of them and the other wasn't available. The front desk person left a note for him to call me back but Im not holding my breath. I called 5 or 6 other ones and couldn't get in touch with anyone in the maint. dept. Not holding my breath for any of them to call me back either.

The only thing I found was someone on facebook advertising that they work on reels doing sharpening. I asked a few more details on what he does for sharpening and he said he "We don't normally relief cut. Generally will grind a new bedknife and grind the reel. Assemble them backlap no problems".

Based on that he just spin grinds and that's it. Which from my understanding would be better to be done as relief cutting is almost mandatory for being able to backlap to keep it sharp.

Also how much would be a reasonable price for a spin and relief grind? Is the bedknife grind necessary as well?


----------



## Movingshrub (Jun 12, 2017)

@kur1j try this guy.


----------



## kur1j (Jul 2, 2017)

@Movingshrub

Thanks i'll give them a call. Appreciate it.


----------

