Hello All,

I would greatly appreciate some help on this issue.

I was recently given a Mclean 20' 5 blade 3.5HP reel mower. I am
totally new to reel mowers but love the idea of them. I am sick of
the "crop circles" in my lawn from my rotary mower.

As expected a free mower comes with problems. When I adjust the
blades properly the mower makes a horrible noise when I engage the
reel. I tried back lapping with some valve grinding paste. I do not
have a back lapping kit so the way I have to do it is apply the paste
liberally to reel blades, engage the drive, and pull the mower
backwards. This spins the reeel backwards. Now the racket is even
worse ...and when I readjust the blades close enough to cut paper all
the way across it is so binding that I can't do additional
backlapping. I even tried filing the bed knife (also called the
anvil?) at the edges where a ridge had developed from years of the
reel striking the bed knife.

There is no adjustement for the bed knife, only up and down at each
side for the reel. I don't think the mower is worth $50 (new bed
knife) + $125 (sharpen reel professionally).

Any ideas on how I can fix this inexpensively? Am I doing something
wrong?

Thanks much,
-jack