Do I actually need a blade balance?

B

BackyardBrian

Active Member
Alright so a couple weeks in with the X350 and Im already down the rabbit hole of blade care lol. Cut looked a little uneven last mow and figured its time to pull em, sharpen, put em back.
Watched a bunch of vids and now Im more confused than when I started. Half the guys say just stick a screwdriver through the center hole, eyeball it, if one side dips down grind that side till it sits level. Other half swear you need an actual balancer or the vibration will kill your spindles over time.
Then I came across this blade balancer. Its magnetic, mounts on the wall, you set the blade on the cone and it tells you which side is heavy. Looks way more accurate than the screwdriver trick but part of me wonders if Im overthinkin it for a homeowner rig thats only cuttin 1.5 acres. Or should I just skip the whole sharpen and balance thing and drop a fresh set of blades on instead? Wanna hear what you guys actually do.
 
Full disclosure, I am from the NO blade sharpening camp. I acknowledge that a sharp blade will require less hp to cut, than a blunt. This may translate into marginally faster cutting, but will have almost zero impact on quality of cut. (Note: This does not apply to drum type mowers).

The reasoning is simple:
  • The blades cut by impact.
  • The main factor in cutting, is the speed of the blade, not how sharp it is (see above statement). Always run the deck at Maximum RPM. Check that the engine is developing the rated RPM according to the manufacture.
  • In most situation's the blade will only stay sharp for a relativly short time . The rest of the time it is bluntish, negating the time & money spent to sharpen.
  • One of the videos made a big point about the blade tip wear. The tip, or at least a 15-25mm in from the tip, is where 99% of the cutting is done,. Sharpening further in towards the centre is cosmetic ie a wast of time. I very much doubt that squaring of the tip has a significant impact on cut efficiency.
  • Sharpening blades just accelerates wear and shortens the life of the blade. This costs you money for very little short term gain.
  • Blade sharpness will not correct misaligned blades / deck, which results in uneven cut.
  • Blades that are severely damaged, bent, warn short or cracked should be relapsed as a matter of urgency/safety. Sharpening such blades will not improve cut quality.
  • Replace blades as a set ie all deck blades, not one at a time.
NOTE:
  • Blades should be balanced to reduce vibration, which causes accelerated wear on bearings & is annoying/fatiguing to/on the operator.
  • There is little benefit in the fancy static balancing device, featured in the videos. A balanced blade will go out of, precise balance, quite quickly, due to damage, corrosion and adhering organic material.
:devilish:
 
I've just hammered a nail into a stud on the inside of the garage for a balancer but never had an unbalanced blade to be truthful. For my old school riding mower, $49 buys 3 sets of blades off of eBay. IMO blades don't need to be razor sharp but they do cut better after a quick sharpening, especially if you are the guy like me who runs over lots of fallen branches and tree roots.
 
Some blade hole shaped don't work well with nails or screwdrivers through the holes. Thinking the 5-6-8 sided star shaped holes. And some holes are oval. And if the nail or screwdriver are not perfectly level can effect what is perceived as balanced. Are the magnetic zero friction bearing balancers nice, yes, But they can be so sensitive in some cases that getting a blade perfectly balanced could be maddening. And the truth is if the blade is relatively close it it good enough.
 
Yes those magnetic balancers are very sensitive. Even the weight of a paper clip can throw things off sometimes. Patience is key using them and experience. At one time they actually make adapters for the blades with none rounds holes for cone balancers.

As IL said you can get very close to prefect balance but the blades don't have to be prefect as the first time you cut it wear and either get closer or further away. Just like razor sharp edges dulls very quickly the time you cut grass.

To really drive those that prefer prefect balance, check new blades they are not prefect balance either.
 
I'm not in the "blades must be super sharp" camp, but I AM in the "blades need to be well balanced" camp. I appreciate a smooth operating mower. A couple of years ago, I found that the RPMs on my push mowers were low, so I set them, and they vibrated like crazy. I balanced the blades with one of those cheap cone balancers. They still vibrated. I tried 2 or 3 times, and never got rid of the vibrations. So I bought one of these:


After balancing with that, the vibrations were gone. I have multiple push mowers and multiple riders, so I justified buying that balancer based on the number of blades I have. For a single mower, I'd probably just buy new blades.
 
BackyardBrian said:
Alright so a couple weeks in with the X350 and Im already down the rabbit hole of blade care lol. Cut looked a little uneven last mow and figured its time to pull em, sharpen, put em back.
Watched a bunch of vids and now Im more confused than when I started. Half the guys say just stick a screwdriver through the center hole, eyeball it, if one side dips down grind that side till it sits level. Other half swear you need an actual balancer or the vibration will kill your spindles over time.
Then I came across this blade balancer. Its magnetic, mounts on the wall, you set the blade on the cone and it tells you which side is heavy. Looks way more accurate than the screwdriver trick but part of me wonders if Im overthinkin it for a homeowner rig thats only cuttin 1.5 acres. Or should I just skip the whole sharpen and balance thing and drop a fresh set of blades on instead? Wanna hear what you guys actually do.
Click to expand...
I have one of those, wall mounted balancers, love it and an Oregon blade sharpener as well
 
BackyardBrian said:
Alright so a couple weeks in with the X350 and Im already down the rabbit hole of blade care lol. Cut looked a little uneven last mow and figured its time to pull em, sharpen, put em back.
Watched a bunch of vids and now Im more confused than when I started. Half the guys say just stick a screwdriver through the center hole, eyeball it, if one side dips down grind that side till it sits level. Other half swear you need an actual balancer or the vibration will kill your spindles over time.
Then I came across this blade balancer. Its magnetic, mounts on the wall, you set the blade on the cone and it tells you which side is heavy. Looks way more accurate than the screwdriver trick but part of me wonders if Im overthinkin it for a homeowner rig thats only cuttin 1.5 acres. Or should I just skip the whole sharpen and balance thing and drop a fresh set of blades on instead? Wanna hear what you guys actually do.
Click to expand...
You can pay a whole lot more for this device, but I am not sure if it a whole lot better. Couldn't be happier with how my mower runs after using this device. Recent Convert, Cheers, Ray

 
You can spend all the $$$ you like and wax lyrical about sharp blades being so much better than dull however you can only ignore physics, you cant avoid it.

Static blade balancing (thats what you are doing with a nail or fancy magnetic device) is only the start of the balancing jerney. The next step is dynamic balancing, which takes into account the rotational forced acting on the system. If your dynamic balance is out, no amount of static balancing will fix it. :devilish:
 
Skippydiesel said:
You can spend all the $$$ you like and wax lyrical about sharp blades being so much better than dull however you can only ignore physics, you cant avoid it.

Static blade balancing (thats what you are doing with a nail or fancy magnetic device) is only the start of the balancing jerney. The next step is dynamic balancing, which takes into account the rotational forced acting on the system. If your dynamic balance is out, no amount of static balancing will fix it. :devilish:
Click to expand...
Haha, you got me! That's a new concept for me. Then how can I be great at dynamic balancing?
 
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