Hi guys,

I think I've caused a near fatal injury to the flag ship of my reel mower collection today smashpc

I was angling it over a treated pine log split bolted down in my drive today and It came down a little awkwardly on the sole plate as it angled across it.

As a result it now has a slight high spot in the center of the cylinder as the cylinder blade is turned by hand IE the blades are making a tight contact only in the center of the bed knife as the blades come into contact with it and not contacting as much to the left or right of center.

I haven't had a chance to remove the cylinder/sole plate/bed knife assembly as yet but I did check the clearance straight away to verify that there is a situation happening there.

Is it possible to bend a sole plate?

I have read here on the forum that they can be easily cracked, could this be possible?

In the worst case scenario what is a ball park figure for a 24" sole plate? I feel slightly ill as I have only just replaced the bed knife and had the cylinder sharpened... eek