What is a Bench Plate?

AccuProducts Bench Plates

Does your shop have a bench plate?  A Bench Plate is a precision ground aluminum plate that allows us to level and parallel a cutting unit.  Why is this important?  Doing this allows the rollers and the cutting edge to be on the same plain.  If they are not parallel when you make passes with the mower you will be introducing a mismatch.  If two cutting units side by side have a mismatch you can easily have a surface that will effect ball movement.  The lower you cut, the more important it is. 

   

Have you ever rolled a cutting unit on concrete and noticed it rocked?  This is the easiest way to tell if a cutting units rollers are not parallel.  Now with the newer styles of cutting units that hold their position much better you need to have a bench plate to truly tell where each unit is at.

How is it used?

***Important to remember*** 

This is assuming you have properly ground the reel first and there is no taper in the reelstock.  Grind your reels first then put them on the bench plate for the best results

With the bedknife removed you place the cutting unit on the plate.  You have the cutting edge of the reel on the raised surface and put slight pressure on the rear roller.  Try to slide a feeler gage or piece of paper under the rear roller.  If the paper fits on one side or another the roller is not parallel to the cutting edge.   If you are setting up a Toro DPA cutting unit you can loosen the side plate bolts slightly then allow the frame to settle into proper position.  For older cutting units you may have to bend the frame slightly to achieve this. 

Cutting edge on raised surface

sliding paper under roller

Side plate bolts 

Other things to keep in mind

Rear Roller Adjustment Kit-

This kit (part # 114-4630) allows you to adjust the roller on a DPA cutting unit.  Manufacturing tolerances are very tight and simply loosing the side plates is often enough.  If it is not and you are cutting at very low height of cuts.  I would suggest you install this kit on your greensmowers.  Is is an eccentric for one side of the roller and allows roller adjustment.  One kit per cutting unit is needed. 

Kickstand #119-8010-03

The Kickstand-

If you are setting up a DPA cutting unit, you should be using this make sure you do not adjust the bedknife contact while the reels are sitting on the adjustment nuts.  Failure to do this will often result in the contact amount changing once the reel is flipped back down.  

the Cutoff Bar mounting holes are slotted for adjustment

The Cutoff Bar-

This small piece of metal is adjustable based upon your conditions.  The gap between this plate and the cutting edge determine the airflow and clipping dispersion of the cutting unit.  This should be adjusted as your reels wear.  If you find your clippings are not making it into the baskets properly, adjust this bar. 

Bearings-

This is the most critical part of any reel, and I don’t think they get near enough attention. The bearings in the reel and rollers determine if we can achieve proper HOC and keep it.  If you have run out of .010 in both your front and rear roller, you could be seeing a +-.020 (not to mention the reel bearing) Try to cut a green below .120 with that much variance and you will notice very quickly.  You can easily determine bearing run out with a dial indicator, or an AccuGage.  

Picking the Brain

I want to go over how to use the Standard Control Module (SCM) to diagnose a machine.  The SCM is called many things, the brain, the computer, the box, etc, but what we need to know is that what goes on inside is not magic, but logic.  At the core of the SCM it only understands inputs (what we do) and outputs (what the machine does).

The SCM does a lot of cool things, It controls the basic functions of the machine, handles the safety interlock, replaces relays, and shows us what is going on with the machine.  The best thing about an SCM is that you do not need any special tools to do basic system checks.  That is what those lights are for.

Procore 648 SCM

While there will be different decals on different machines, there are some things that will always be the same.  First, there there are three boxes on the decal.  One box has a red LED, this is the power light.  When ever the key is on the red light should be on. No Red LED = No power check fuses, battery etc.  

Next is the big box on the opposite side of the power light. (or everything not in a box)  These lights show us the inputs, or switches that are open or closed.  (The switches on machines with an SCM all go to ground)  Some examples of these switches are, over temp, seat, neutral, PTO, and head position switches on a Procore.  The decal has a symbol to show us what switch it matches up to. 

Last is the smaller box.  This is for the outputs, what the machine does when the correct inputs are met.  Outputs are things like solenoids.  Example, when we are in neutral, in the seat, the PTO is not engaged, and we turn the key to crank, the output light for crank will light.  

7200 SCM

Above you can see what the lights look like on a 7200.  The reason there are two lights for the temp is because this machines uses a two step shutdown.  The first light comes on and the PTO will shut off, the second light will come on and shut down the machine.  

I think the most useful situation for using the lights is in a “no start” situation.  You can easily check the safety interlock, and see if the SCM is sending the correct outputs.  

The most common machines to use the SCM are the 7200, 3500, Procore, 4500 & 4700 (years 2004-2008)

Here is where to find it-

7200 right side panel

Procore 648 SCM 

3500 SCM