Accuproducts History
I think it fitting to begin this series of blogs by yours truly, with a little history of the Accu-Gage. In 1980, I was a superintendent at a country club in Ann Arbor Michigan. At that time, most superintendents doubled as mechanics as well as agronomists. I was often setting up and adjusting mowers for reel tension and height of cut. After some study in the matter, it occurred to me that I could use a dial indicator and a specially designed indicator head to better and more accurately set the height of cut. I purchased a Mitutoyo indicator and went to a local machine shop with a design. The picture below shows our first attempt.
The above ACCU-GAGE is the very first one we sold. It was sold to a man by the name of Joe Brink from a golf course in Laurel Nebraska. Some years later, we got a call from him about another product we manufactured and I offered him a new ACCU-GAGE in exchange for this one. He gladly accepted .
As you can see, it is pretty basic. The first six we made had nobracket. The gage was simply screwed into a bushing which was pressed into an aluminum bar. Here is a close up of the indicator head which enabled measurements to the cutting edge of a bedknife, a feature still used today. Naturally, this setup was a little fragile and subsequent models incorporated the familiar “L” bracket to secure the gage attachment to the bar. That was the first of many improvements and many other tools to help set up mowing equipment.
