Do I actually need a blade balance?
- Thread starter BackyardBrian
- Start date
Skippydiesel
Well-Known Member
If you sharpened less your blades would last much longer.Your training/theories are myth ie not based in science.
Old Gweilo
Member
Maintenance questions with respect to "any" equipment touch upon what Economists refer to as the Law of Diminishing returns. Since the more you put into maintenance, the less, ( or later), you you can expect to incur repair or replacement costs, maintenance is generally a good idea. That said, no amount of maintenance will defer repairs or replacement indefinitely. The question becomes how much $$ do you want to put into maintenance in the interest of deferring replacement or repair incrementally longer. The answer, unfortunately, is it depends.
Future repair and replacement costs are all but impossible to predict with any accuracy. Furthermore, they tend to present with a certain degree of urgency. When equipment or vehicles break down, work and transportation stops until the situation is resolved. For this reason I tend to lean heavily toward the maintenance side of equipment running costs as maintenance is something I can plan for including shopping for needed materials and tools often getting either or both on sale. Repairs, by contrast, have me at a repair shop with my wallet out begging the owner / manager to take me in "today". You don't need to be Donald Trump to know this is not the best of bargaining positions to be in. Savvy guys with home workshops full of tools they know how to use may scoff at this rationale but you can bet their Accountants or their kids' Teachers, who only know enough to check oi levels before starting the engine, won't.
I change oil at the end of every season regardless of the running hours on the machine and I sharpen and balance blades whenever I have time to do it even when the sharpening / balancing takes less time than removing and reinstalling the blades. I use a flapper disc on my $30 grinder and don't try to grind out nicks. I just sharpen and balance and my blades will probably outlast me, (I'm old). This also allows me to detect and remove debris like string around spindles or small pockets of grass residue accumulating under the deck before problems develop and while the job only takes minutes to do.
Maintenance overkill = virtually free. A day at the shop when you've bribed the Manager to take you next = not so much.
Future repair and replacement costs are all but impossible to predict with any accuracy. Furthermore, they tend to present with a certain degree of urgency. When equipment or vehicles break down, work and transportation stops until the situation is resolved. For this reason I tend to lean heavily toward the maintenance side of equipment running costs as maintenance is something I can plan for including shopping for needed materials and tools often getting either or both on sale. Repairs, by contrast, have me at a repair shop with my wallet out begging the owner / manager to take me in "today". You don't need to be Donald Trump to know this is not the best of bargaining positions to be in. Savvy guys with home workshops full of tools they know how to use may scoff at this rationale but you can bet their Accountants or their kids' Teachers, who only know enough to check oi levels before starting the engine, won't.
I change oil at the end of every season regardless of the running hours on the machine and I sharpen and balance blades whenever I have time to do it even when the sharpening / balancing takes less time than removing and reinstalling the blades. I use a flapper disc on my $30 grinder and don't try to grind out nicks. I just sharpen and balance and my blades will probably outlast me, (I'm old). This also allows me to detect and remove debris like string around spindles or small pockets of grass residue accumulating under the deck before problems develop and while the job only takes minutes to do.
Maintenance overkill = virtually free. A day at the shop when you've bribed the Manager to take you next = not so much.
grumpyunk
Well-Known Member
I got a set of 'sand blades' from PSEP dot BIZ for my AYP 42". They have lasted a pretty long time here in GA. I think I have had them in use for over 10 years. Memory says there has been one sharpening over that time. They are a lot thicker gauge than what is normally supplied from the factory. As I recall, they were priced just about the same as regualr blades.
My cutting area, (not a 'lawn') grows whatever comes up and can live with whatever rain is provided and whatever nutrients it can drag out of the dirt. IOW, no fertilizer or sprinklers, so it is full natural whatever that gets trimmed. The blades have been more than I expected, and I would buy them again without hesitation. tom
A lot people think they know better and some people want to sell you something.
A screwdriver is a blade balancer and it's all I have ever used.
Other people say don't balance them at all and it's a waste of time.
It's your call.
grumpyunk
Well-Known Member
In the past, I used a Philips screwdriver with a round shaft to balance the blades. It sorta worked. I finally bought the balancer your image shows. It works. It even indicates if the balance is correct front-to-back. Most times a little bit of trimming will bring it into balance that doesn't cause the mower deck to vibrate. This little tool is worth the price if you don't want to invest in something more expensive. Honestly, it works pretty well for something as low budget as it is. Lots better than a screwdriver or ratchet wrench extension.
I'm running the same spindles on my Cub Cadet Zero turn that I bought new in 2011. I keep a spare set of blades sharpened and swap out about 3 times a year. Sharpen my blades with 80 grit flapper disc and I use my eyeballs as a balancer. Have never had a problem. Keep spindles greased and mower maintained.
