Anybody do their own Reel-to-bedknife adjustment on tru-cut?

[ars2210]

Does anyone here do their own? I've done it successfully a few times but didn't get the three cap screws (thats what the manual calls them, but they are really just bolts I think) on each side down tight enough and it came back out of adjustment after a few cuts. So I readjusted and then began to tighten down the screws tighter this time. The strange thing is, that even when you have perfectly adjusted before tightening, once you begin to really tighten them (not super tight, but just pretty snug so they won't vibrate back out) it seems to torque the reel in the middle. This causes you to get contact on the left and right side edges and good clean cutting of the newspaper here, but a completely different contact in the middle where it mostly just pinches and tears the paper. The reel is not worn down or rifled in the middle because as I said, before tightening down all the way, it cleanly cuts paper all the way across the reel on all blades with light contact. Any suggestions??

I talked to Tru-cut and they told me to get the reel adjusted so that it is a little heavier contact than is really needed, then tighten down one side and then the other (even though the manual says to tighten alternately, one screw on the right side, then one on the left, then another on the right, and then the next on the left side and so on) and it should be lighter contact then before tightening the screws. He said its kind of tricky and takes some work to get it right.

I'm still experimenting and will keep trying until I get it right, but I just wondered if anyone else had the same experience and could keep me from wasting a whole weekend on trying to get it right. I actually busted off two of the "cap" screw heads while adjusting and readjusting and had to drill one of them out and was able to use a screw extractor on the other. O well, thanks for looking.

[Five Points]

Not sure if Im of any help but I looked after a golf course for a number of yrs. I called this rifling the bedknife. We replaced the bedknife and all would be well. we had many reels and it happened a few times a season, We always had a spare knives on hand.