Why you should always balance your mower blade

[Mick]

Ok, so just about anyone thinks they can put a sharp edge on their mower blade using various methods, a Bench grinder, angle grinder or manually with a file, and any of those methods is fine if it give you a good edge.  But the important thing that gets overlooked by most people is the balancing of the blade.

Why you should always balance your mower blade

You've probably seen on youtube or read elsewhere that having a out of balance blade can damage or wear out the engine crankshaft bearings, but to be honest this is only part of the problem.  The vibration caused by a out of balance blade will effect every moving component on the machine, right down to parts inside the carburettor. 

Anything that moves will be subjected to wear, so I'll list a few of the effected parts, axles, levers, float pins, throttle shafts, throttle linkage, handles, drive parts, height adjusters. Anything that moves will wear prematurely because of vibration. 

Then there's some tin parts which don't move but bend and vibrate, such as tin mower decks, brackets, control plates handles, which could crack and fail due to excessive vibration.  So there you have it.  Don't just sharpen your mower blade make sure it's balanced, and get it checked properly. 

Please Note: If you think hanging the blade via the center hole, on a pencil or a nail on the wall that won't work, the blade has to be checked at the center of the hole. Anyone who say this does work is completely wrong, so save yourself some money and grief and get your blade sharpened and balanced professionally.