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Desperate measure
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One man’s solution became a leading turf equipment manufacturer’s answer to a nagging problem in reel mower maintenance.
Jeff Buchko, a former salesman for Jacobsen, hit on the idea of using powerful magnets to secure bedknives to the bedbar of reel mowers during a time of duress when he was faced with liquidating turf equipment from his own business he had started a handful of years ago.
Buchko’s idea, or invention, would go on to become Jacobsen’s MagKnife system, which the company introduced in 2004 amid claims it would revolutionize reel mower maintenance by enabling bedknives to be changed in minutes instead of the usual two hours or more.
Now a product manager for Jacobsen, Buchko considers himself more of a mere problem solver than an inventor ... and a little bit lucky, too.
Buchko sold Jacobsen’s wares in western Canada for five years before going into business for himself. His undoing in that endeavor came when both of his suppliers fell into bankruptcy. Before long his pension and savings were gone, and he was forced to sell his inventory.
It was during tryout demonstrations of a reel mower on successive days that the road to the MagKnife system began. After the first day, he set out to change the machine’s bedknives on the tailgate of his truck to be ready for the next demo. The job was enduring and troublesome because of problems with screw configurations and alignment.
“That’s where the idea grew,” he says. “I shouldn’t have this much trouble to change a wearable part. At that point, I decided there had to be a better way. If it was hard for me, it wasn’t going to be easier for anyone else.”
The notion to use magnets came to Buchko some months afterwards. He knew he was on to something right away.
“When it came time to bring in my idea, I decided to shoot for the stars,” he says of his decision to call a Jacobsen contact from the past, Ralph Nicotera, vice president of sales. “I came in with a product that was going right at the heart of their business — their reels.”
Nicotera was impressed by the concept and told Buchko
to come to headquarters. He did and was greeted by a roomful of research-and-development
engineers. The rest is history.
“In terms of forming an invention, I was simply solving a problem,”
Buchko says. “I don’t look at myself as an inventor; I look
at myself as someone who tries to solve problems.”
Who’s to argue?
— Information for this article was
provided by
Seth Jones, GCM’s senior associate editor
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