Tools Of the Trade SOIL


You only need to regrind a unit when it’s no longer sharp, not because the grinding method you’ve chosen dictates it!


Now the true picture as to how much time is required to keep your cutting units sharp is beginning to emerge.


And of course the time frame has to be multiplied by the number of cutting units you might have!


On the basis that an average working day is 8 hrs, if you owned 24 cutting units and chose to spin and relief as example 1, you would only spend 6 working days (48hrs) sharpening your units compared to 15 working days (120hrs) if you chose to spin grind only. A saving of 9 days!


If you owned 24 cutting units and chose to spin and relief more thoroughly as example 2, you would only spend 7 days (56hrs) sharpening your units in a season as opposed to 18 days (144hrs) with spin grinding. A significant saving of 11 working days. And of-course the figures increase proportionally for any club owning more than 24 units.


So back to the original question - How long does it take to grind a cylinder? It could be floor to floor in 10mins, it could be floor to floor in 30mins. However, the true answer is that depending on the method of grinding you choose you could reduce your grinding time from a month to less than a week! Method of grinding is of much greater significance than the actual speed of grinding! In addition with an accurate spin and relief grinder you can be confident that you are returning the cylinders to the original manufacturer's specification, which has to be the optimum level of sharpness.


Further benefits of relief and spin grinding


There are occasions when a cutting unit has been damaged from contact with debris for example, or heavily coned, when it would take considerably less time to grind if it was first relief ground and then spun ground! This is because you can remove far more metal when relief grinding using coolant than you can dry spin grinding. This has a direct bearing on how heavy a cut you can take. Relief grinding without the benefit of coolant creates a build up of heat which will cause the metal to lose its hardness making it impossible to retain a sharp edge. Also, when you relief grind, there is not the impacting effect on the grinding wheel which you experience when spin grinding which, again, reflects on how heavy a cut you can take.


Another advantage of relief grinding is that your cylinders will last


considerably longer than they would if they were spun ground only. When you grind a relief on a unit you are removing metal from the back of the blade therefore the diameter of the cylinder is not effected. The cylinder diameter is only affected when you spin the cutting land onto it, as already established a unit which has been spun ground only, has to be ground at least 3 times more often, which equates to them wearing out 3 times more quickly.


To B or not to B (Back lap that is)?


Back lapping is one of those contentious areas where some people champion its merits and some bemoan. Like spin grinding it can be a quick, albeit temporary, fix! However one point that should be made is that if you do back lap as part of your cylinder maintenance programme then your units must have a relief angle. The relief angle is essential to force the cutting paste to the cutting edge; without it you will only succeed in sharpening the back of your cylinder blade, in other words its non-cutting edge.


Setting Up Your Units


On the recommendation of some manufacturers, such as John Deere and Jacobson, units should be set up to have no contact between the cylinder and the bedknife. Other manufacturers, including Toro, suggest that set up should, ideally, have very light contact between the cylinder and bedknife. Unfortunately, if you only spin grind, this very light contact is almost impossible to achieve! This is because the cutting land is the full width of the blade, unlike the small land which is achieved when you relief grind. This has a very undesirable effect on the bedknife because contact generates heat which, in turn, produces even greater contact. In other words the bedknife loses its sharpness far quicker and, therefore, needs to be ground more often and replaced far more frequently.


Spin grinding is only a quick fix and like all quick fixes it has its limitations! Short term gains are nearly always long term pains. Don’t lose sight of a very important point here. You only need to regrind a unit when it’s no longer sharp, not because the grinding method you’ve chosen dictates it!


A distant cousin of the Turf Doctor, this tool is ideal for taking cores from the playing surface and gauging the underlying soil.


Simple to use, the information


that can be gleaned from a few simple cores taken out across an area is usually very important. The soil profiler can be used to


determine compaction, drainage and black layer problems, soil structure, excessive thatch and, of course, depth of rooting as well as any layering and root break.


PROFILER


The prices range between £30-£60 depending on the type of profiler you buy. Some come as simple 35mm diameter core samplers, while others are rectangular in shape, providing a wider sample of soil profile. The samplers can usually take a core/sample out of the ground between 175mm-300mm deep; clearly showing the current status of the root zone, as well as it’s past history. Across all sports surfaces, the soil sampler can give you a pretty accurate history of waterlogging, previous top dressings, renovations and even construction.


the ground, examine the thatch layer to see if it’s spongy and holding water, take a sniff of the profile to see if it’s anaerobic and measure the root mass in the soil to see if there is good penetration.


The soil and core can be placed carefully back in the hole afterwards, leaving the turf undisturbed for play.


Once a sample has been taken out of


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