You may not be aware of it yet, but taking care of your lawn mower will help to preserve quality performance and functionality. Mower blade balancing is one of the main aspects to pay attention to.
Balancing your lawn mower blades makes sure the machine is working properly and keeps your push mower mowing quietly, evenly, and consistently.
In this Lawn Advisors article, you will learn what mower blade balancing means, its importance, how to sharpen and balance lawn mower blade, as well as how to safely and properly remove and assess them to keep your push lawn mower running in top condition!
What is Mower Blade Balancing?
Making sure the weight of your blade is distributed equally from one side to the other is all that is required to balance your blades.
When you remove more metal from one side of a blade than the other during the sharpening process, the blade usually becomes imbalanced.
The Importance of Mower Blade Balancing
It’s important to know the importance of mower blade balancing because it can affect both the quality of your trim or cut and the wear and strain on your mower.
Because of this, an unbalanced lawnmower blade can result in a number of problems, such as internal structural bolts snapping or losing, giving you more work to do, or producing a lot of vibration, which will in turn place stress on the blade shift, the spindle, and, in most cases, the engine.
Tools and Materials Needed for Mower Blade Balancing
Here are some tools and materials you should keep in hand when you plan to balance mower blade:
- Safety Gloves
- Blade Holder
- A File, Grinder, or Sharpening Stone
- Medium Flat File
- Spanner
- Goggles or Other Safety Glasses
- Steel brush
- Socket Wrench
How to Sharpen Lawn Mower Blade?
Follow these steps explained below on how to sharpen a lawn mower blade to get a clean cut:
1. Assemble all Your Work Equipment
You require both your work equipment and personal protection equipment to maintain the highest level of safety.
A steel brush, a wrench to remove the blade, safety goggles, ear muffs (if you’re using a grinding machine), a bench grinder or sharpening equipment of your choosing, and a blade balancer are among these.
2. Disconnect the Spark Plug
This will stop the motor from starting by accident. Tape the spark plug wire back after removing it from the plug to prevent it from falling back and making contact with the plug.
This could be a good opportunity to examine your spark plugs and, if necessary, clean or replace them.
3. Tilt Mower on its Side
In order to place the carburetor and air filter upwards and avoid any oil or gas from dripping into the air filter, tilt the mower onto its side while ensuring sure it is horizontal and on a flat surface.
After that, while holding the blade, remove the screw by using a wrench to loosen it.
4. Remove the Blade
Wedge a short 2×4 between the blade and the deck to clamp it.
Use a long-handled wrench to loosen the nut. The bolt and blade can be removed by turning counterclockwise.
5. Remove Dust and Debris
Now dust off the rust and debris from your blade using your steel brush. To find out if the blade needs to be replaced, inspect it carefully.
6. Sharpen the Blade
Sharpen the blade along the original angle of each cutting edge using your file or grinder. Make sure to keep the original angle, only file in that direction, and remove an equal amount of steel from each edge.
Don’t sharpen the bottom of the blade, and be sure to remove an equal portion of metal from both sides!
7. Mark the New Blade
Reinstalling a sharpened mower blade upside down after sharpening it is a common mistake made by lawn owners. The blade won’t cut after it is reinstalled upside down.
Before removing the sharpened blade, spray paint it. It will help you in learning how to reinstall it properly.
8. Check Blade Balance
Don’t forget to check the blade balance!
To make sure the blade is balanced, place it on a nail. If a blade part dips, file it off to make the blades even.
9. Reinstall the Blade
Screw in the bolt or nut and reinstall the blade on your lawnmower. In order to press down on the breaker bar and tighten it, insert the 2×4 in the opposite direction.
Make sure the bolt is correctly tightened because a loose blade may cause the engine timing to be wrong, which will make it difficult to start the mower. You can also get professional help to avoid accidents of any sort by getting a lawn mower blade balancer for accurate results.
Here’s the best for the mower blade balancing.
How to Balance Lawnmower Blade After Sharpening?
It’s likely that you won’t evenly sharpen your lawnmower blades if you do it yourself. Uneven sharpening can make a blade heavier on one side than the other, which can lead to heavy vibration, the eventual loosening of certain important internal bolts, and faster engine wear and tear.
Here’s a step-by-step guide that will help to deal with damages:
1. Fasten Blade Over a Nail Head
Put a large nail into a wall plank in your garage or shed using a hammer.
Put the hole in the center of your lawnmower blade over the nail head to balance it on the nail base.
2. Rotate the Blade
Watch what happens if you try rotating the blade a quarter turn to the right. If it maintains its position, it is balanced, and there is no need for concern. It’s a negative omen, though, if it spins back to where it started. Turn the blade halfway to the right once more.
The blade is balanced if it stays in position, but if it continues going back to the bottom, the blade is out of balance and the portion that keeps going back down is excessively heavy.
3. File the Blade
Remove the blade from the nail after identifying the heavy area and secure it to a workbench or other sturdy surface. Make sure you keep an eye on the heavy portion of the blade. File the edges of the blade’s heavier part down with a smooth file.
As you file, make an effort to keep the blade edge’s normal angle.
4. Check for Balance
Remove the blade from the clamp and use a brush or your hands to gently clean it. Return to the joist and set it on the nail head there.
Check to see if the same section keeps falling to the bottom by spinning the blade once more.
5. Repeat Procedure
Reinstall your blade once both pieces are balanced. If not, keep filing the blade and balancing it on the nail alternately until it stays in place on both portions. Reinstall the blade on your lawnmower once you are certain that it is balanced, then use it as normal.
You can look forward to seasons of a perfectly cut lawn if you have the expertise of sharpening your lawnmower blades and balancing.
Mower Blade Balancing FAQ
To Wrap Up
We would recommend mower blade balancing and sharpening at least once a year. In the course of a cutting season, you might need to sharpen your blade two or three times if you usually cut your grass more than once a week.
So if you want to get the most life out of your mower, then keep the blades balanced!
If you still have any questions regarding this issue, please share them in Lawn Advisors comments box below and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.
