Take control of your QUALITY OF CUT
Patrick ‘Cal’ Callaway, Workshop Manager at the Celtic Manor Golf Resort, says that developing a routine will enhance your greens
DO you, like most others, pay the absolute minimum attention to the quality of cut on your mowers and only look at them when there is a complaint or problems become more obvious? It may surprise you, but if you are responsible for the mowing fleet at your course you hold the key to the quality of cut. A good quality of cut can mean a lot to you,
your course and your maintenance budget. Let’s look at developing a routine that brings with it piece of mind, efficiency and reliability. It is so easy and you can start it now, today. Don’t think about it, do it! All of your mowers come in and you are
there to greet the operators. Hand mowers should be washed thoroughly and parked in a line to save space and avoid the danger of being hit by other machinery. Insist this is the way you want it, every day, from now on. I have in a previous article gone over my ‘commissioning process’ where each machine has its own fleet number. So, take a sheet of paper and the necessary spanners with you and make a start. Make yourself a checklist of maintenance practices to be reviewed on each mower after it returns to the workshop:
• Check each mower for quality of cut using paper and make the required adjustments.
Do not accept ‘what you can get away with’; accept only a good quality, sharp cut with no contact. Anything short of good quality mark down on your sheet of paper together with the fleet number to be investigated.
• Check front and rear rollers.
• Check the height of cut and ensure it is marked on the machine with tipex, wax crayon or any other marking material impervious to moisture.
Work your way through the machines, parking the good ones up where they live, and put aside poor ones to give them some attention. Refer to your list and address the problem
for each machine. Let’s assume that on the machines you have pulled aside the quality of cut is poor. There are several ways to find out what might be the cause:
• Are the reel bearings in good condition?
• Are the blades dull on the cylinder? If the answer is yes, it needs grinding. If the answer is no, ask yourself the following;
• Is the bedknife dull? If yes, does it need grinding? Can it be rapid faced? Does it need replacing?
Address each problem and mark it off your list. As the mowers are set correctly, park
them up and you will soon gain a sense of achievement and be confident that when they are used next there will be no problems. You will also see immediate results in quality of cut from adjusting and checking blade sharpness on a daily basis. You won’t be the only one to notice either - golfers will see an immediate impact on green consistency and ball roll from mowers that have been checked for sharpness and adjusted regularly. ‘When do I have time for all that’ I hear you ask? The short answer is that you have to make time to maintain the quality of your greens, tees and fairways. Once this has been done a few times there will be fewer cutting issues. It is much easier to put right a partly dull blade than one which is completely blunt. Doing a little every day will save time in the long term and, adopting this as a routine, will enable you to monitor the bedknife wear and plan ahead. This routine is also good for fairway mowers - the same rules apply; check each day they are used and make small adjustments.
By adjusting and checking the mower sharpness everyday you will find that the need for attention decreases as time goes by; achieve piece of mind and you will have taken control of your quality of cut.
47
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64 |
Page 65 |
Page 66 |
Page 67 |
Page 68 |
Page 69 |
Page 70 |
Page 71 |
Page 72 |
Page 73 |
Page 74 |
Page 75 |
Page 76 |
Page 77 |
Page 78 |
Page 79 |
Page 80 |
Page 81 |
Page 82 |
Page 83 |
Page 84 |
Page 85 |
Page 86 |
Page 87 |
Page 88 |
Page 89 |
Page 90 |
Page 91 |
Page 92 |
Page 93 |
Page 94 |
Page 95 |
Page 96 |
Page 97 |
Page 98 |
Page 99