What’s the benefit of that to a shop? Once you’ve gone through your reels and have ground everything true, regrinding or touchups are quick.. very quick and you are assured that your grind is absolutely parallel. Myself and a lot of people grind with other machines and there are ways to assure you have outstanding reels without this setup. It’s just that after trying this it is amazingly easy.

The image to the right here, is of Mark Pilger, CEO of SIP is using their Pii tape to determine the diameter of the reels. The image to the left shows the left and right diameters of the reels of the fairway machine we tested this on. The reel is then put on the grinder and adjusted to grind down the large side first and true it up. This is done in spin mode. The motor that spins the reel can be moved from side to side depending on the reel and automatically changes direction depending on which side of the machine it’s plugged into. It has a counter that can be set for the number of passes across the reel and an auto feed for the grind wheel. So once it was set up and spinning, the reel would go back and forth, each time would reduce the amount of passes on the counter and on each pass the auto feed would turn the hand wheel in about 1.5 thousands.

An exceptional feature of the machine is it can also grind in relief. This is done by adding an index device to the grinding head and changing the grinding stone to a thinner model. Rather then having a guide finger to keep the grinding wheel against the reel it relies on a torque clutch on the drive motor. So you set the clutch, and adjust the index guide to the reel blade and adjust the amount of grind you want. We were able to grind all the relief in each blade in one pass around. The indexer made this an automatic deal.

Mark was grinding the 5 reels on one of our Toro 5410 fairway mowers. These have groomers on the front of the reel and rear roller brushes on the rear. That’s about as many options as you can get on one. We had just done our other mower the day before with another grinder and spin only. These we put in a lot of relief. We’re going to see how they differ over a period of time.

We also tried out their bedknife grinder. To be honest, I was pretty skeptical about it, particularly that it had 2 grinding wheels and motors. That was an eyeopener. To start with, the grinders are fixed and the knife carrier travels back and forth on fixed rails. The whole thing is rock solid and smooth. Most bedknife grinders rely on their simplicity to switch between grinding the top and front face.. This seems to set a new bar because you don’t have to move anything.

The bedknife itself sits on a machined bar and a point (ball bearing) with two in/out adjustments and 2 clamps. Really simple and once adjusted works for all knives in that series. The grinding adjustment is super easy for both the top and front. The angles are selected for each face by inserting a pin in the appropriate hole. They have a special stone to handle the tool steel insert knives we use and a micro mist coolant system to keep the grinding temp down. Like I said, it was an eyeopener to use and incredibly fast..

If you’re looking for a grinder I think you owe it to yourself to try this out. Checkout more of their products at The SIP Website.

We have all heard numerous times that during this time of shrinking budgets, every dollar spent must be spent responsibly. A close look at most equipment maintenance budgets demonstrates oil and lubricants make up only 1-2% of the budget, yet protect one of our most expensive assets, the equipment fleet.

Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM) take many factors into consideration when designating a service interval for any given piece of equipment… L.E.T.S. Load, Environment, Temperature, Speed. Even so, oil does not have a magic switch telling us when its hours are used up. Over time, lubricating oils, which include engine, hydraulic, gear, transmission and others, deteriorate to a point where they no longer offer a piece of equipment the protection it needs and the lubricant must be changed. In many cases, this can be much longer than the OEM’s recommended interval.

What is the only way to safely determine this optimum interval for each piece of equipment?

FLUID/OIL ANALYSIS

Fluid/Oil Analysis is defined by Machinery Lubrication Magazine as… “The routine activity of analyzing lubricant properties and suspended contaminants for the purpose of monitoring and reporting timely, meaningful and accurate information on lubricant and machine condition.”

• It is like a “blood test” for the oil in a piece of equipment
• It can reveal the condition of the oil and…
• It can provide valuable information about the health of the machine the oil is protecting

Through time based monitoring, the condition of the oil is tested for contamination and changes in the lubricant, which can help determine if the oil is suitable for continued use. Analysis also helps monitor the condition of the machine and helps identify the type and severity of wear occurring. This practice can help identify problems early so they can be corrected before permanent and more costly damage occurs. It has been said that 98% of all fluid failures are due to some sort of fluid contamination. This contamination can happen any time, even when the oil is brand new. If a system is left unknowingly contaminated for the life of the OEM drain interval, the results could be catastrophic, often resulting in premature failure of an otherwise perfect system.

On average every $1 spent on fluid analysis has the potential to save $10 on the bottom line (fluid replacements, downtime for repairs, failures, etc.) For our turf equipment with very complex hydraulic systems and diesel engines with a price tag in the thousands of dollars, to me this sounds like pretty affordable insurance and money well spent.

Greg Dinger is the Equipment Manager at The Glacier Club in Durango, Co, and is a Field Service Representative for SWEPCO Lubricants. He can be reached at gregdinger@msn.com

This is the typical split.

This is a bunker rake handle (we try to recycle broken handles) that’s being held in place with vice-grips so I can drill through the basket and into.

This is a set of three. They made it a bit more comfortable to use so I’ve been doing all of them.

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In any case, here’s how to salvage your disks:

Here’s the disk and I’ve already modified it with new nut serts, now I’m replacing those.

This is the pliers and nut serts we use.

This is the nut sert and on this, because I bought some that are a little longer, I’ve put a washer underneath.

This is the finished product, ready to go back on the mower.

Usually I order enough of our hydraulic fluid in 5 gal pails from a company to get free freight. We recently switched to a higher quality synthetic fluid and so far have to get it from a dealer. I really like the fluid but in addition to it cost, the freight is quite interesting. This batch came in 3 pails to one box.. A bit on the creative side although it took two of us to move it from the semi to the utility vehicle..