OutdoorKing Repair Forum Forums Repairs and Maintenance Questions on Walk Behind Lawn Mower Frames Question On Scott Bonnar Cylinder Mowers grooming cylinder to suit a scott bonnar 45

hi! all I had a grooming cylinder made by golf and bowling in vic, to suit a 45/17 some pics below cheers steve....

That looks like a sort of rotating scarifier, Steve. Are you trying to aerate, cut the roots, or what? If you ran that over a patch of kikuyu, I think the results might be tragic.

hi grumpy no its definitly a grooming cylinder the blades on a scarifier are spaced apart more u could say grooming is a form of light scarifering which is performed to take out straggly lateral growth a scarifier is for deeper thatch removal and i wouldnt dream of using it on kikuyu im a couch man cheers steve..

Hi Steve, that looks very well made, mate. Can you please post a pic after it is fitted.
I presume that the sole-plate with the bottom blade are removed, if so, what stops the side plates of the chassis from flexing? I have been told in the past that the sole-plate whilst attached provides some of the frame integrity.

hi deejay, yer your right about the sole plste it stays bolted on but the bottom blade is removed from the sole plate. I was thinking about making up a cover that could be hinged off the front of the catcher and rest on the deflector and made out of perspex so one can see the load being carried by the catcher, its just an idea see pick below its a south african made protea, groomer/scarifier thay are a dead sert of the late scott bonnar 45 hehe well scott bonnar did have lawn mower agencies in south africa in years gone by kind regards steve.....

http://www.rivendell-projects.co.uk/products.htm protea range

Steve, since removing and reinstalling the fixed blade from its holder normally requires a re-grind of the blade afterwards, due to distortion of the blade, this sounds as if you keep a special sole-plate to use with the groomer, and install them both as a set when you want to do a grooming job. The only alternative I can see is to keep a dedicated mower that is more or less permanently set up with the groomer installed. It that the way you see it too?

g day grumpy, thats what im intending to do have a dedicated 45/17 as a groomer without a bed knife. There is a link at the bottom of the last pic i posted! that takes u to the range of proteas, their scarifier is like the scott bonner 46 scarifier kind regards steve...

Sounds like you are getting pretty serious, Steve. I'd have thought you'd only be inflicting that kind of agony on your lawn about once in several years - are you planning to use it for contracting?

Yeah grumpy, having a permanent grooming set-up at your fingertips is pretty serious....Even a lot of Bowling Clubs share theirs....
Steve, thanks for clearing that up re the bottom blade, I do agree with grumpy tho...you would need to use a spare sole-plate, as removing and replacing the knife blade and re-grind would be a pain in the butt!!

Devoisi, love the grooming attachment!! I have Plateau Couch which is a strong laterally growing couch and would find this attachment very useful, would use is quite often and would set a devoted machine up with the attachment for regular use as you have said you will do!

I am no guru on turf management but for those who arn't familiar with high quality maintenance of turf, Devoise has built a domesticated "verticutter" for the most manicured lawns.

I have attached a link to a great article that explains the use of a verticutter.

Here is an extract;

"It is recommended that verticutting be done several times a
month, if possible, especially during the spring and fall when weather conditions are favorable. Some superintendents verticut as often as once a week, going in two directions each time"
"The secret of this operation is to set the units so that the blades are very shallow, just nicking the surface of the turf. If you can see the grooves the machine is making, it is cutting too deeply. Many golf course superintendents
use 1/16 inch as their guide for this operation"

Here's the link..

http://turf.lib.msu.edu/1970s/1979/790906.pdf

Deviosi,

Your blade width seems to be a lot thicker that the South African machine and yours also have blade tips - similar to a circular saw. I would have thought the grooming process would be more suited to the thinner blade without the tip??

Hi Aussie! just to let u know the groomer works well it pulls all the dead thatch/laterals up into the catcher no problem. The blades fitted to my groomer are tungsten tipped the protea has spring steel blades im in the middle of pulling it apart for the once over regards Steve.

hi! All i have finished my resto on my scott bonnar, 45 grooming mower. with a rebuilt 3hp briggs new rings valves refaced the ring gap and valve gaps were way out had a strange thing happen when fitting the engine on in the middle bolting it down i noticed a crack a few mil from the edge of the rear chassis rail running the length of the bolt mounting holes for the engine i couldnt believe my eyes it seems that the petrol tank bracket that is secured with a bolt at the base of the engine was a bit proud of the engine base so when i was tightening the bolts the tank bracket was pressing down onto the rear chassis rail causing it to crack along the bolt holes this came at a time when i was putting it back together yesterday not to be beaten engine removed rest of mower protected from sparks i got the 4 inch grinder and v groved the crack stick welded it. cleaned the rail up then i noticed the rail had bowed from the heat I thought fs@#!$so i heated the area a little and levered it up next time supportTHE CHASSIS RAIL before any heat applied couldnt seem to ajust the tank bracket so i filed it flush with the engine base anyway a few pics attached below cheers steve,,,

Steve, are you saying you bought new rings for a standard bore, and had a problem with the ring gap? Sounds as if the gap was too small, since if it was too big you couldn't have done anything about it.

Way back in the 1950s and part of the 60s you had to expect sometimes to take a file to the rings to get the gap exactly right, but in those days machining standards were woeful. I haven't heard of anyone having to file ring gaps in decades. What brand were the rings?

Hi Steve, Wow!! You've done it again mate. on another fantastic job. It is a credit to you.
Would like to see a video of the beast in operation if you could post one Steve.
Once again,

no grumpy, Im not saying that i had problems with the new ring set im saying that the old rings had a gap that was the thickness of a ring i dont recall the exact gap but 2 mm was close upon mesuring the cylinder bore it fell well in the servicable mesurments using a dial bore gauge the ring gap was spot on with the new rings the valve gaps were 3 times bigger than thay should have been .....

I have had ring gaps up to about 3 mm on 2 strokes that would run but without much power. Hard to start, too.

I don't see how the tappet clearance could have been so large unless someone had ground down the stems to create that much clearance. If that happened, you'd have to replace the valves - cutting the seats that much deeper to reduce the clearance would have left the seat inserts too weak, and shrouded the valve heads as well.

anyway the engine is starting and running well yer deejay i will get a video up soon cheeers steve....

Thanks Steve, we will all look forward to seeing it.

just to let u know deejay that the groomer works fine the photos below are on a not much cared for lawn i will need to adjust the grooming cylinder down some more to get it lower the problem being i don't want the sole plate to touch the ground so to get the best setting i will lower the grooming cylinder down as much as possible then use the height adjuster from there on cheers steve...