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71_Bronco

How Do You Sharpen Your Blades?

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71_Bronco

Just curious how you guys sharpen your blades for your mowers. Do you use a special piece of machinery? Angle Grinder? Bench Grinder and a steady hand?

 

I recently came across a Foley 398 blade sharpener / grinder that I am thinking about picking up, looks like the unit below. Has the cone shaped blade balancer too.

 

foley398.gif

 

Not sure if I need this type of equipment or if my money is better spent elsewhere. The seller is asking $100, but would take $80.

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WVHillbilly520H

If it works not a bad price they do keep the blade at the correct angle  but you could recoup your investment next year sharpening and balancing blades in your neighborhood, to answer your other question I just use an angle grinder with flap wheel holding the blade in a bench vice then use one the aluminum cone balancers,Jeff.

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WHX??

4 inch angle grinder & cone balancer. I wouldn't mind one of those if it would save some time & like Billy says let the neighbors know.

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JoeM

I'm with Jeff, the flap disc works great.

Edited by OILUJ52
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Pullstart

I typically find a good patch of stones, and let them true themselves up....  :eusa-think:

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The Tuul Crib
11 minutes ago, pullstart said:

I typically find a good patch of stones, and let them true themselves up....  :eusa-think:

Rolling?

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Pullstart
6 minutes ago, The Tool Crib said:

Rolling?

Any way I can get it!  

 

I usually actually use an angle grinder.  With the 42” deck, I didn’t even remove the blades most th time, but there wasn’t a whole lot of real estate on those things to begin with.  Now that I have the 52” Scag, I’ll probably lift the front with the cherry picker, pull the blades and try my hand at filing them in.  I try to stay away from rocks with that thing!

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Skipper

:text-yeahthat: I have done it that way countless times too. But a belt sander is what I use now.  Much faster, and easy to make a straight blade on with the correct angles etc.

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pacer

I use a 4 1/2" grinder with a 36grit disc ---- and I quit trying to balance long ago after taking about 1/4-3/8" off perfectly good blades hunting that sweet spot. And I cannot tell a bit of difference in deck smoothness. This IS on the horses and misc other tractors/push mowers -- with the high blade speeds on the ZTR's it would be much more critical.

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WVHillbilly520H
1 hour ago, pullstart said:

I typically find a good patch of stones, and let them true themselves up....  :eusa-think:

Sounds like back home in WV I whooped a bunch o' blades back then...pics from last weekend I loosened them up with the Kioti and FEL instead of your method Kevin :ROTF:

IMAG5119.jpg

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stevasaurus

I use the 4" grinder and a long heavy file with the blade in a vise.  As for balancing, I hang them on a 16 penny nail.  :occasion-xmas:

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Pullstart

You got stones alright...

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Tractorhead

 

@wvhillbilly520H

 

looklike you have some  "rolling stones" :lol::ph34r:

sorry... 

 

a small angle grinder with an 80 flap disc to sharpen in vice and 

a simple a nail for centering.

if blades has light rips or damages (Impacts more as 1mm)  - just exchange, no mess...

 

I Think about, to rework my mower Deck with Butterfly knifes with quick changable blades...

like the drum blades on huger Drum mower Systems.

Ended to bottom with a Slip plate as cup-spring.

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dcrage

I  with Pacer on this. I use small angle grinder with 36 grit. I also don’t worry about balancing. I do make sure to make approx the same # of passes on each end. Have not noticed any change in deck performance or vibrations. I do hit rocks and sticks. There are nicks in the blades. I do NOT remove them each time I sharpen. 

 

For $80 I would take a chance on that sharpener. It can’t hurt. 

 

Edited by dcrage
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WHX??
5 hours ago, pullstart said:

I typically find a good patch of stones, and let them true themselves up....  :eusa-think:

You don't really do that do ya or you just busting my stones? :laughing-rolling:

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Sarge

I had been using flap wheels but recently switched to the 3/16" thick 4.5" Ceramic fast cutting wheels from CGW (Camel Grinding Wheel) - they cut extremely fast and don't build up nearly as much heat on the heat-treated blade steel.


That's a really cheap price on that Foley sharpener - if the stone is still good I'd already own it.

 

Sarge

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