Oregon Precision Blade Balancer, Balances Blades After Sharpening, Universal Metal/Aluminium Design Improves Longevity of Mowers, For All Lawnmower Blades, Husqvarna & More (42-047), black/red

If you’ve been using a cone type balancer or a nail in the wall this will be a huge leap forward. The balancer was delivered in an Oregon brand box with “made in Italy” on it. The fit and finish is more than I expected at this price point. I’m a hard to impress machinists with over forty years experience in the shop and I don’t find any fault with this balancer. I took it straight out of the box, hung it on the wall and it works great. Nice smooth bearings and well designed. If you’ve never had a well balanced mower deck your in for a treat. I would suggest you mount it some distance away from where you are grinding your blades to prevent metal grinding dust from collecting on the magnets. I mounted mine with 1/4-20 wing nuts so I can store it in the original box when not in use. Anything magnetic in my shop gets covered with grinding or plasma dust pretty quickly. It’s a delicate instrument and if you respect it like one it will function as designed indefinitely. One thing that the instructions provide didn’t mention was the ability for the balancer to check blade length. Believe it or not of six blades I sharpened today two of them didn’t have the mounting holes drilled exactly in the middle. They were both about a sixteenth of an inch off which added up to one side of the blade being an eighth of an inch longer or shorter. Now, there is a better one on the market for a couple hundred dollars but this balancer is very accurate and will balance a blade down to the last brush stroke of paint. Actually, if it were any more sensitive than it is you might go nuts trying to balance a blade? If you have someone on staff doing nothing else other than sharpening mower blades the more expensive balancer might be the best option for you. I read all the negative reviews before buying this one and I just don’t see any of those issues. The only way it could be any better is if it did the grinding while I was sipping coffee. Thanks

Short version: This tool is well made, it's easy to use and it takes the guess work out of balancing a mower blade. Long version: I have a Land Pride mower deck that I run on a Kubota tractor as well as a walk behind Honda mulching mower. That's 5 blades in all that need to be sharpened and balanced at least once a year! Mower decks cost thousands of dollars and have expensive bearings and gear boxes, and a good walk behind isn't cheap either at $500 +. A balanced blade or blades is important for any mower, and this tool helps to keep them working at their best while reducing possible future maintenance or repair. As the photos show, all three blades on this mid-mount mower deck are nicely balanced after sharpening. The instructions allow for a maximum of 15 degrees past horizontal to consider the blade balanced, but it's easy to get the blades to within 5 degrees or less. I tried changing the position (rotation) of the blades on the bearing to see if the balance point changed but it remained constant regardless of position so I know this tool is well made. I recently purchased a rotary mower for my other bigger tractor so will have to figure out a way to use this tool for those asymmetric blades. It shouldn't be too hard to make an adapter. This tool isn't for everyone and there are certainly less elegant and cheaper ways to balance a blade, but if you want to buy an excellent balancing tool that's not made in China, a tool that does a great job of helping to balance a blade after sharpening, a tool you only have to buy once and use it for life then this is it.

It's good, it's really well made, nice. For the average homeowner like me ( one car garage) it has a couple of problems. 1) you have to fine a good place to mount it so it's usable. 2) It sticks out from the wall, you don't want it in your way. 3) you need to cover it, so it doesn't get dusty and effects the smoothness of the bearings. Picture this, on your wall you have some thing sticking out with a rag on it. not a good look. 4) It's kind of expensive. It's a nice product, no doubt. But for my garage it's to big, to in the way. So now I am going to mount it and unmount it to use it:( I have always used the small cone type balancer, they work well. This product is better, 100%, just not very convenient for me. I think the All American Sharpener Mower Blade Balancer would had been a better choice for me. It's similar to the small cone type balancer, just more accurate, and it's out of the way when not in use. Great product for the pros and homeowners with room.

Item arrived same day it was ordered and balancer came double boxed and bubble wrapped so it did not have any damage from shipping. I soaked the two bearings in 91% rubbing alcohol and then lubricated them with three and one ptfe, cleaned the internal bore and the sliding parts, and reassembled everything. Spindle rotation now spun freely however the spindle was out of balance and the heavy side stopped repeatedly to the bottom. to balance the bare spindle with no blade i put 2 small aluminum rivet washers from Lowes on each shaft that holds the magnets to the aluminum mounting plate. Washers were placed on the threaded bolts on the back side of mounting plate and the magnet bolts were long enough for at least a couple washers if needed. Was able to file sides off the washers to make small weight adjustments. I added 2 aluminum washers to all the magnet bolts and then filed or subtracted washers to balance the bare spindle. I was able to get it precise enough that the assembly would stop at different locations when it was spun and not creep backwards from any imbalance as it was rotated by hand slowly . Mounted it to my overhead storage rack next to my tool box with a 1" by 2" birch board. The design is so i can remove the top two bolts and store the balancer and the wood mounting bracket in my home office out of the dust and grime of the gargage and out of the humid conditions of Florida. Using the balancer today i did put a small index center punch mark at one spot between the magnets to index the spindle to 12 oclock when mounting the blades. the blade centering bearing housing does rotate inside the aluminum magnet housing so it will vary somewhat.Balancer is very accurate and i found that if i could get the blade to balance between the 2 to 4 oclock position it was close enough. both sets of double blades for my honda hrx (two blades stacked for mulching and cutting) were out of balance enough to hang vertically at the 12 - 6 oclock position. This tool out of the box does a very good job and if you take the time to balance the bare spindle it will be more accurate than most people have the patience to balance their blades to. one final note! All the literature was Oregon Branding ,including the instructions. However the product was made in Italy. Tecomec i am guessing.

Nice unit. Needed to retighten arbor bolt. Was clicking a little before retightening. Works great now!

There is a utube video testing lawn mower blade balancers. There conclusion was that while a nail was good the Oregon blade balancer was better. Other utube videos on sharpening lawn mower blades suggest that, why bother, just buy new blades. The manufacture of my preferred blade stop making them. I have used different lawn blades over the years. I finally found a mulching blade that I liked. Unfortunately the manufacture stopped making them so I had to start resharpening the used blades I had not discarded. I was unable to find a shop that I liked to sharpen my blades so I started sharpening them myself. My three bladed mower is 25 years old and I see no reason it should not last many more years. I do paint the underside of my lawn mower deck with rubberized tuck bed paint. While the Oregon blade sharpener is expensive it does reduce vibration on the blade shaft bearings. I sharpen my blades once a year. I keep the balancer boxed up until I am going to use it and then put it in my vice and level it. The Oregon Blade Balancer is a quality tool for shops and people who want to make their lawn mower last. This tool, unlike the nail, has a rod for checking blade straightness. A valuable additional tool. This Oregon Blade Balancer was made in Italy.

Seems like a solid quality at. Fraction of the price of the Mag balancers. There are lower priced Chinese knockoffs but I was worried about the quality and reviews I was reading. Oregon is a quality name and I’ve been very happy with all I’ve bought from Oregon so I went for this. While more expensive than the Chinese knockoffs it appears to to solid quality with great fit for the blade bend detection bar and quality of magnets, etc. Unit works great and very happy with this and much easier to use than the bench top top like balancers I’ve used in the past. Word of mention though this type of balancer is very sensitive and takes a little longer given the minute adjustments you’ll continually make to the blade where this balancer shows blade is off…..almost too sensitive for mower blades it seems but that’s a different story. Very happy with this purchase and looking forward to using it for a long time.

Oregon Replacement Part PRECISION BLADE BALANCER # 42-047 is a very accurate device for balancing lawn mower blades. My mower has 3 blades, so sharpening and balancing them can be a time consuming task. I read a review about this balancer being made for Oregon to the Oregon specs by another company overseas and decided to order the unit, since Oregon stands for quality products. Other brands were a bit cheaper that were made like this one, probably from the same company, but not to the Oregon specs such as the magnets, slide, and bearings. I am very pleased with the balancer. It seems to be very durable and well made. It is very sensitive to the blade's balance, a lot more than the cone-with the pointed pedestal from the hardware store, that I have used for years. Also; a lot more costly than the pedestal type. The magnets are very strong and well placed for holding the blade. The guide cone slides out to align with the center hole in the blade. I used it on round-hole & 6 point star-hole blades. It should work with the Y and H shaped openings too. If the cone fits the opening, it should work. Push the blade against the cone and slide in until blade contacts the magnets, release the blade and let the blade come to a horizontal level. If not level then you must take off some metal on the heavy end and try again. This balancer is very sensitive, so you may want to get the blade balance close to horizontal and not dead on, use your own judgment. I had one blade that was off a little with the Oregon balancer, but level with my old cone- pointed pedestal balancer. The bent blade detector works fine too. My blades were ok. Hope this helps....