Rotary Cutter Balancing rotary cutter blades

[greg_g]

If anyone has any good balancing ideas, or can recommend a scale that would be suitable for this, I'm interested.

Can't quite follow your balancing technique, but weighing them is no problem. For less than the cost of one replacement blade, you can buy a digital postal scale. Mine weighs up to 60 pounds in 0.1 ounce increments. When shopping for one, I saw up to 70 pounders for under $35. Matter of fact, there's a 52 pounder on eBay right now for ten bucks.

//greg//

 

[skipmarcy]

I've sharpened my 6' Howse blades on the unit about 3 times a season for 10 years and never had a balance problem - one set of new blades in that timeframe. When I bought those new blades 5 or 6 years ago I heated & bent the little ears up to help with lifting the grass some too and caused no balance problems.

 

[have_blue]

Long story short, I wouldn't take any extrordinary measures to balance bush hog blades.

Agree 100%. I grind my blades on the machine too, and try to grind them equally to maintain a ballpark balance. If I ever get vibration that feels as though it could be doing damage to the gear box (or the seat of my pants) I will attempt to balance them. No problems so far in 9 years.

Dirt dobber nests on the stump jumper will probably cause more imbalance than unequal blades.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Check to see if you have a bent blade. One swinging lower than the other by an inch will cause vibes.
larry

 

[Farmwithjunk]

Check to see if you have a bent blade. One swinging lower than the other by an inch will cause vibes.
larry

YEP! And it's easier to bend a blade than one might think. A well placed rock of the right size will do the trick. They can get between the end of the blade and the deck, bending the blade just enough to shake the daylights out of a mower. BTDT, tossed a BRAND NEW blade in the scrap pile......

 

[wedge40]

I have an OLD Bushhog SQ72. It's built to last and I think the heavier the machine the better it will tolerate out of balance blades. If you have a light duty machine then it wont take as much to feel out of balance blades.

Wedge

 

[Transit]

Make a simple beam balance scale out of a piece of 2x4. Or if you have an accurate scale, weigh them. I've found it takes a big difference to cause vibration. I suppose because of the low rpm. It's not like a lawn mower blade that will shake the engine apart.

Sorry Ken, my 5 ft King Kutter spins at 2,000 rpm more or less.

 

[SPYDERLK]

Sorry Ken, my 5 ft King Kutter spins at 2,000 rpm more or less.

Less if it has a 5' cutting element vs two 2.5' elements.
larry