How much equipment and money do you have tied up in making sure that your lawnmower blade is perfectly balanced according to Newtons law of physics? I have a 16 penny nail. It was free.
Where to sharpen blade?
- Thread starter beardown34
- Start date
How much equipment and money do you have tied up in making sure that your lawnmower blade is perfectly balanced according to Newtons law of physics? I have a 16 penny nail. It was free.
Carscw
Lawn Pro
I guess you are missing the point.
AS SOON AS THE BLADES TOUCH THE GRASS they are no longer in balance.
Somewhere on here is a test that was done. Three different ways to balance a blade and all three had the same outcome.
By putting a spindle on the wall and securing The blade to it ( basically what you high tech gadget does) gives the same balance as the nail.
Thousands of people never balance their blades and never have any problems because of it. We are cutting grass not flying to the moon.
When a blade is cutting the grass it is not touching the grass with the same force thru its whole turning area causing a unbalanced atmosphere.
So explain to me why a blade needs to be in perfect balance when it only stays that way till it touches the grass?
Carscw
Lawn Pro
I will assume you have some kind way to check and calibrate you perfect blade balancer? Or do you assume that it is dead balls on?
I tend to trust the blade manufacturers over a company that sells a balancer and claims it's the best and only way.
Maybe I will invent a high speed blade balancer as that would be the only way to achieve true balance.
I tend to trust the blade manufacturers over a company that sells a balancer and claims it's the best and only way.
Maybe I will invent a high speed blade balancer as that would be the only way to achieve true balance.
Ric
Lawn Pro
Here's a little article you may like reading.
How NOT to Balance a Blade. A lot of You Tube videos tell you to hang your blade on a nail hammered into a wall. Bad, really bad advice. Think for a moment ... the blade is bolted on to your mower using the center of the bolt hole and then rotates about this center point, doesn't it? So does it make sense to use the edge of the bolt hole rather than the center? Of course not!
To be accurately balanced, the blade MUST (a) use the bolt hole and (b) be perfectly centered in this bolt hole. Now think about just how good a tool is a nail. It has no bearings, so it has no precision nor the smoothness only a precision machined tool with precisely machined bearings can provide. Due to numerous reasons, a nail is a joke. Would you let your tires be balanced mounted off center on the balancing machine? If you are using a nail, don't be offended - just try something better than a nail and you too will laugh at using a nail.
Why not use a "stepped cone" balancer, after all You Tube videos say use these so they must be OK, right? Wrong. A stepped cone has several per-determined step diameters which almost never precisely fit the exact diameter of your blade bolt hole. So like a nail, the blade most likely is off center. And like the nail, this balancer has no bearings, lacks precision machining, and seems to wobble forever. Add to this what you have set the cone atop - is the bench or table perfectly flat so you can get precise readings at the end of the blade? I doubt it, so you probably settle for "good enough". But it isn't - it isn't if you care to keep from ruining crankshafts or deck spindles
How NOT to Balance a Blade. A lot of You Tube videos tell you to hang your blade on a nail hammered into a wall. Bad, really bad advice. Think for a moment ... the blade is bolted on to your mower using the center of the bolt hole and then rotates about this center point, doesn't it? So does it make sense to use the edge of the bolt hole rather than the center? Of course not!
To be accurately balanced, the blade MUST (a) use the bolt hole and (b) be perfectly centered in this bolt hole. Now think about just how good a tool is a nail. It has no bearings, so it has no precision nor the smoothness only a precision machined tool with precisely machined bearings can provide. Due to numerous reasons, a nail is a joke. Would you let your tires be balanced mounted off center on the balancing machine? If you are using a nail, don't be offended - just try something better than a nail and you too will laugh at using a nail.
Why not use a "stepped cone" balancer, after all You Tube videos say use these so they must be OK, right? Wrong. A stepped cone has several per-determined step diameters which almost never precisely fit the exact diameter of your blade bolt hole. So like a nail, the blade most likely is off center. And like the nail, this balancer has no bearings, lacks precision machining, and seems to wobble forever. Add to this what you have set the cone atop - is the bench or table perfectly flat so you can get precise readings at the end of the blade? I doubt it, so you probably settle for "good enough". But it isn't - it isn't if you care to keep from ruining crankshafts or deck spindles
That sounds good and all, and if I were at dealer and he gave me this speech I would be like wow I need to buy a balancer with bearings and a laser and has a button on it that makes the room I'm in have zero gravity. But most of us know that using a nail is ok. This article also says that a cone is not accurate either, so if your presenting this as evidence to be true on how to balance a blade correctly then you have not balanced a blade correctly either.
Carscw
Lawn Pro
Ok so my spindle on the wall is the best way to balance a blade because the blade and the shaft are a perfect fit.
This is good reading. Like I have said when using a cone the blade does not sit good on the cone and the table or bench it sits on needs to be level and you need a way to verify that both ends of the blade are the exact distance from the table.
For a blade to be in perfect balance you would need to not just balance end to end but also side to side ( front to back )
Bottom line is all we can do is get it close.
that's some serious equipment (that's what she said)