What Brand of reel and bed knife grinders would you buy? Cancel The title field is required!

1. Brent Venenga

   

   0 posts
   
   11/18/2016 8:11 AM

   If you could buy a new set of grinders what would you buy? Also what would you include in your purchase to do it right the first time and to make the job easy and efficient.

   
   
   
   
2. Michael Kriz

   

   0 posts
   
   11/18/2016 9:11 AM

   Hands down SIP
   http://sipgrinder.com/

   
   
   
   
3. Keith Lamb

   

   3 posts
   
   11/18/2016 9:11 AM

   We have Foley's, but really liked the SIP grinders I had at my last course.

   
   
   
   
4. Jeffrey Sexton

   

   0 posts
   
   11/18/2016 10:11 AM

   We love our Foley's.

   
   
   
   
5. Joshua Sawyer

   

   0 posts
   
   11/18/2016 2:11 PM

   I have SIP grinders...I like them a lot and they are significantly cheaper. A nice ad-on was a pneumatic front facer for the bed knives. It runs on a replaceable sand paper like pad...really nice for touching up the bed knife while on the machine.

   
   
   
   
6. Paul Double

   

   37 posts
   
   11/18/2016 9:11 PM

   We have Foley and they have been great. We have the Foley AccuMaster 652 with touch screen controls and Foley 610 bedknife grinder. They may be more expensive, but well worth it. Only takes a few minutes to setup reels and get a true grind with no coning of the reels. After setup you punch into computer how much you want to infeed, how many times, and hit the start and let it go. If you like to relief grind, you leave the reel in the grinder and takes only couple minutes to setup for relief and you put into touch screen how many blades on your reel, how much infeed per cycle, how many cycles, and hit start and let it do its thing. I have used many other brand grinders, but prefer the Foleys by far. Our unit is 10 years old and 2 years ago was the first time we had to put money into it as we had to replace the touch screen, but that has been it. Great service if you ever have a question.

   
   
   
   
7. Andy Jorgensen

   

   1 posts
   
   11/19/2016 7:11 AM

   We have two Foley grinders. We don't grind nearly as much as we should, but when we do they get the job done and very quick. One unit is about 20 years old and other than some minor repairs, it has been bulletproof.
   
   We demoed one of the SIP grinders and was really impressed with what it could do. I would seriously consider those as well the next time we are in the market.

   
   
   
   
8. Bob Pruneau

   

   5 posts
   
   11/20/2016 7:11 AM

   I have Bernhard 3000 . Very happy with them . Easy quick set up .

   
   
   
   
9. Karl Harris

   

   0 posts
   
   11/21/2016 7:11 AM

   I've had Foley's for years started out with 388 single blade manual reel grinders then 630 automatic spin reel grinders that lasted 18 years and now 653 automatic touch screen reel grinder that I believe after looking at and demoing all different ones is the best and one and only for me. I love the new 653 reel and 672 bedknife grinders I have now and would recommend to anyone. They are expensive but you get what you pay for and if your time and grinding accuracy are important to you and your golf course then I would go Foley.

   
   
   
   
10. Stephen Tucker

    

    0 posts
    
    11/22/2016 7:11 AM

    I have owned and used them all so here are a few of my thoughts. I believe there are goods and bads with all of them though.
    
    Foley - Slow, easy to learn but not a fan of measuring off the center of the reel shaft. Not the most accurate way of grinding a reel. The bedknife grinder is as simple as it gets to use just not the most accurate.
    
    Bernhard - Quick, easy to learn and teach. The reel grinder is good they do get some hickups on occassion depending on the model with the electronics (I had the 5000). Not a fan of the bedknife grinder.
    
    SIP - Quick, takes some time to learn and understand the process but certainly the most accurate. Bedknife grinder "imo" is bar none the best out there because of how it grinds the bedknife from the pivot bolts so the distance from pivot bolt to front edge is the same on both sides.
    
    Here is my explination on the SIP bedknife grinder a few years ago: https://youtu.be/cGo2jm11s4I
    
    Obviously this is my opinion I always recommend demoing them all to make your own judgement on what you feel you can get the best results with.

    
    
    
    
11. Karl Harris

    

    0 posts
    
    11/23/2016 7:11 AM

    Stephen [quote">Foley - Slow, easy to learn but not a fan of measuring off the center of the reel shaft. Not the most accurate way of grinding a reel. The bedknife grinder is as simple as it gets to use just not the most accurate.
    
    Is this based on old Foley units? Have you even looked at or tried the new Foley 653 reel grinders? I find the my new foley to be the most accurate and fastest setup grinder made. How do you set up you reels to grind if you don't go off the center shaft? How is the bedknife grinder not accurate? Just curios.

    
    
    
    
12. Robert Hall

    

    0 posts
    
    11/23/2016 7:11 PM

    in one word.... FOLEY

    
    
    
    
13. Wade Borthwick

    

    0 posts
    
    11/24/2016 12:11 PM

    Find what works best in your situation considering budget, techs skills and experience, space and any other considerations I have missed. Take the time to think and talk about it, we are rational because we talk. Be aware of all the biases that we have as humans one of the stronger ones is the narrative bias. While anecdotes offer a nice personal feel they can be given more weight than they deserve. Don't go with your gut, use your research. I run Bernhards, they work for me.

    
    
    
    
14. Stephen Tucker

    

    0 posts
    
    11/25/2016 5:11 AM

    Agree Wade - They all sharpen reels and they all do it differently as I said above you have to do what works best for you. In regards to the question about the bedknife grinder I am a fan of grinding from the pivot bolt where the bedknife mounts to the machine. This will allow you to grind the correct distance from the bolt to the front edge of the knife on both sides. When we gauge grinding the front edge of the knife by pulling it up to flags we are basing the distance off of whoever made the bedknife and "assuming" the bedknife mounting holes were drilled straight in the bedbar and that the pivot bolt holes were drilled exactly the same on both sides. However having said that the Foley bedknife grinder is fast and very easy to teach so I have purchased them in areas where that was the most important thing for that property. As Wade said there are a lot of conditions that can favor one over another I just gave my account of my experience and my preferences but that means very little at your property that's why you have to demo them all and come up with your own conclusion. Hope that makes sense.
    
    Edit** Sorry forgot to answer other question, my experience on the Floey reel grinder is from the older model I have seen the newer version at the show but don't have any experience using that one on a day to day basis as of yet.
    ST

    
    
    
    
15. Frank McQuiggan

    

    2 posts
    
    11/28/2016 6:11 AM

    I have used three different machines since I started working on golf courses. I have a Foley 630 spin/relief grinder now and Foley 670 Bed Knife grinder, they work great easy setup and I get great results from them. I have used the Bernhard machines in the past and got the same results from them as the Foleys. The best machine for me was the one I had at my first job which was a SBR900 from system Ettrich in Germany. One machine did all, bed knife, and spin and relief grind with one set-up. Made my life very easy only having to do one set up to get it all done. When the reel was put back down on the floor it was ready to go back on the machine. Spin, relief and bed knife ground all in less than 20 minutes cant beat it.