Reg. Grinder vs. Blade Sharpeners

Lee33 · Jan 30, 2009

Me again.

I might be missing something here but both do the same job of grinding away some of the metal to get a sharp edge on the blade. The only difference I can see is the dedicated blade sharpener puts on a 30 degree edge. And... ? What's so special about a 30 degree edge that makes that machine worth hundreds over the regular bench grinder? I always like to buy the best equipment I can afford in whatever business I'm in. Quality tools just last longer but I have a REAL hard time justifying a blade sharpener that sits on my work bench and does nothing but sharpen my mower blades and costs around $500 (give or take a few hundred). A spinning piece of steel rotation at XXX RPM, with a sharp edge, is gonna cut the grass with a clean edge. Right?

What do you guys think?

PTP · Jan 30, 2009

You are right. They both do the same thing.

A murray from Wal-Mart and a commercial grade Toro 21" do the same thing too.

The difference is that the commercial grinder will give you a better edge but, more importantly, it will do it faster. You can get a really good edge with a regular bench grinder but you most certainly will not do it with the speed that a good commercial unit can.

It comes down to how many blades you have to sharpen each week and how much extra time you have to sharpen them. Do you want to get a perfect edge in 2 minutes or in 10 minutes?

ALC-GregH · Jan 30, 2009

I agree with the above post. If I had 20-30 blades a week to sharpen, I'd have a high end sharpener made for the job. With that said, I sharpen the blades on my mower about every 3 weeks and it's only 2 sets so I hand grind and balance.

mowcrazy · Jan 30, 2009

I honestly couldnt agree with you more!!! I use a hand grinder!! On the other hand if you have several mowers and crews you may like having a blade grinder because it would be faster. If you have any luck gettin employees that dont bury your blades in ditches, gravel, rocks your lucky. I talked to an outfit where the owner said he has to sharpen blades on each of his mowers twice or more a week because of this issue. Me on the other hand, I operate by myself and don't have this issue so 30 dollar hand grinder it is.

bohiaa · Jan 30, 2009

It mainly depends on where you use the machine at.....
types of soil play a Major factor here...

in most of my areas were on sand. we might get a month from a set of blades. more like 3 weeks.

we really dont need a fancy blade sharpener. just a simple hand held grinder works fine.
when you do sharpen dont forget to blunt the leading edge.....
If you will notice when you purchase NEW blades the leading edge is flat....
dont sharpen to a razor sharp edge. this only shortens the blade life.

mike r · Jan 30, 2009

if you want perfect balanced and sharp blades magna-matic 8000/1000 combo
don't go there with the bench and angle grinder bit, NO COMPARISON! but I need to make time, 36 sets of 3 blades per week
now, and growing, i don't need to tell you I'm going to do all those blades with a bench or angle grinder am I? NO!
a metabo 4 1/2" angle grinder with an 80 grit wheel would be alright for maybe a set or two of blades, but not practical for me. this is fine, but keep a bucket of water near, so as to cool down that blade. BUY A $200 balancer, as stated in your LAST thread you started.
do yourself a favor, call 1-800-328-1110 ask for gerd, he will set you straight.

Lee33 · Jan 31, 2009

Thanks for the contact, Mike. I did consider all the information in the balancing thread and decided to go the magnet balancer route. As I only have a ZTR and 21 inch mower to sharpen and balance I just could not justify a $500 dedicated blade sharper and $200 Magna-Matic, though. A Mercedes and a Ford both get me to the same location so I opted for the "Ford" balancer at less than half the price - $89 vs. $200. If it doesn't work I can return it but my guts tell me it will work just as well as the over priced (in my opinion) Magna-Matic. Gotta give it a try:

Here: http://www.mowpart.com/Tools-Blade-...Tools-Accessories/c102_103_104/p3493/Precision-Blade-Balancer/product_info.html

Per the topic of this thread - Nobody on this whole forum knows why blades "should have" a 30 degree angle? Man, that's surprising. Come on, guys. Somebody must know.

topsites · Jan 31, 2009

First off I do believe this in no way compares to the argument of balancer vs. a nail,
as for how much better one is over the other I could not tell you exact, but that
there is a difference between the methods and the machines is for sure.

A regular grinder takes longer, as for the angle...

Granted, a dedicated blade grinder has the angle pre-set, but the wheel itself
wears and as it does the angle changes, requiring a physical adjustment.

There is no warning the wheel or the machine gives to indicate out-of-angle adjustment requirements,
there isn't even a pre-defined number of hours or sharpenings that after every so many you do it,
instead the adjustment is performed when the operator feels that it needs it, and it is thus a matter of
estimated guesswork at best.

Further, this adjustment in no way guarantees the angle per se, unless it is done
with a measuring instrument which I have not seen on a blade grinder.
The angle is supposed to be correct once the wheel is adjusted to certain specs,
but as wear and tear makes the wheel smaller, who knows for sure?

To me the argument that a blade grinder gives a better angle is moot, it should,
but it all depends how often it is re-set, and just how accurately the re-set is.

That it is more consistent, yes.
And that it sharpens blades faster, more evenly, and the blades suffer less from heat degradation, absolutely.
It is definitely the professional way, also it considerably reduces time spent on this part of maintenance,
hours turn to minutes with a machine that can sharpen a blade every 15-20-30 seconds.
Maybe not quite, but I usually sharpen my 30-odd blades in about 20 minutes.

As for whether it's worth it, I think only you can know that answer.

tomo · Jan 31, 2009

hi
The choice of a dedicated grinder compared to a bench or hand grinder is really simple . A proper grinder will always be better

A Correctly sharpened blade will stay sharp longer 25--50% than one sharpened with a hand held grinder etc
Less time spent sharpening the better

How to measure blade angle, easy compare to a newblade
Set up of RBG or similar , use a new blade touch to stone ,the gind mark will either be to low or high.Adjust stone up or down to suit

:waving:tomo

mike r · Jan 31, 2009

TOPSITES the wheel DOES wear BUT the magna matic 9000 i have has a crank on it, so as the wheel wears, you just crank the crank handle a couple of turns so the wheel just misses the slide table and your all set. NO MATTER WHAT the angle on the blades stay the same.

mike r · Jan 31, 2009

LEE the angle grinder should be fine for you, just like i was saying, keep those blades cool with some water as your doing this, and everything should be o.k., just remember to
use the balancer while your sharpening. the link you have there i looked at, should work out great for you.

mike.

RLC12065 · Feb 1, 2009

ALC-GregH said:
I agree with the above post. If I had 20-30 blades a week to sharpen, I'd have a high end sharpener made for the job. With that said, I sharpen the blades on my mower about every 3 weeks and it's only 2 sets so I hand grind and balance.

you only sharpen your blades every 3 weeks???????? i feel sorry for your customers.

B&D Lawn Care · Feb 1, 2009

Feelin the love. As a solo operator the angle grinder works for me.

RLC12065 · Feb 2, 2009

seems like alot of solo guys use the fact that they are solo as an excuse for either used equipment or terrible service

nosparkplugs · Feb 2, 2009

RLC12065 said:
you only sharpen your blades every 3 weeks???????? i feel sorry for your customers.

Who are you to be telling anyone the schedule they should be sharpening their blades. Last time I checked customers did not check blades of grass the see if their torn or cut:laugh:. I will run blades until their dull, for me that can be longer than 3 weeks or less depending on the application. I change them on site, and spend a saturday sharpening blades. During the week blade sharpening is a LOW priority.

B&D Lawn Care · Feb 2, 2009

Hmmm haven't seen anything about terrible service.

RLC12065 · Feb 2, 2009

nosparkplugs said:
Who are you to be telling anyone the schedule they should be sharpening their blades. Last time I checked customers did not check blades of grass the see if their torn or cut:laugh:. I will run blades until their dull, for me that can be longer than 3 weeks or less depending on the application. I change them on site, and spend a saturday sharpening blades. During the week blade sharpening is a LOW priority.

nospark, if you choose to sharpen blades every 3 weeks good for you buddy. personally i don't run my business that way, i prefer my customers to have healthy lawns cut with sharp blades. anytime i see a lawn cut with a dull blade it leaves a white film on the lawn from the dead,white ends of the leaf blade. i make it a point to educate that homeowner to the lack of quality work that their present lawn care company does and more than once they've hired me because of it. my company actually mows lawns at least 7 hours each day and mows about 18-20 lawns a day, if we only sharpened blades every 3 weeks i'd be an embarrassment, but hey it's your business. from my 14+ years of lawn care experience i know that you should sharpen blades after about 8-12 man hours of mowing. i understand that alot of lowballers need to mow 10-12 hours a day in order to make up for their low prices so quality usually suffer, ie dull blades. nosparks, the reason i'm so successful is because of guys like you in my area, i eat them for lunch.

unityroad · Feb 2, 2009

Hello, For what its worth.... The blades on all mowers get touched up every nite period. It gives us the chance to look over the mowers. Damage,twine on the spindles. All mowing euipment checked over, you can spot issues early on before they become downtime. People will run over stuff whatever, swear they didnt. It pays to maintain all equipment daily. All equipment is cleaned, (steam Jenny) by people who know what and how to clean the mowers. The trucks are cleaned up. So excuse the folks who do it tri-weekly, most likely they only bath them-selves when the "customer" says they stink......

RLC12065 · Feb 2, 2009

unityroad said:
Hello, For what its worth.... The blades on all mowers get touched up every nite period. It gives us the chance to look over the mowers. Damage,twine on the spindles. All mowing euipment checked over, you can spot issues early on before they become downtime. People will run over stuff whatever, swear they didnt. It pays to maintain all equipment daily. All equipment is cleaned, (steam Jenny) by people who know what and how to clean the mowers. The trucks are cleaned up. So excuse the folks who do it tri-weekly, most likely they only bath them-selves when the "customer" says they stink......

thank you unity road, well said, i totally agree

nosparkplugs · Feb 2, 2009

RLC12065 said:
nospark, if you choose to sharpen blades every 3 weeks good for you buddy. personally i don't run my business that way, i prefer my customers to have healthy lawns cut with sharp blades. anytime i see a lawn cut with a dull blade it leaves a white film on the lawn from the dead,white ends of the leaf blade. i make it a point to educate that homeowner to the lack of quality work that their present lawn care company does and more than once they've hired me because of it. my company actually mows lawns at least 7 hours each day and mows about 18-20 lawns a day, if we only sharpened blades every 3 weeks i'd be an embarrassment, but hey it's your business. from my 14+ years of lawn care experience i know that you should sharpen blades after about 8-12 man hours of mowing. i understand that alot of lowballers need to mow 10-12 hours a day in order to make up for their low prices so quality usually suffer, ie dull blades. nosparks, the reason i'm so successful is because of guys like you in my area, i eat them for lunch.

Were did you get Lowballer:laugh: :nono:

I agree with you on the necessity of sharp blades, I change often myself, I don't have an exact number of hours though:laugh:, I do change them immediately if their dull, and I often change blades multiple times during the week. I just don't keep a log book on.

Ditto on the being hired for good work, that happens to me, often. I try to avoid getting into bashing the previous LCO, even if their work is not perfect. i have seen that method fail with competeitors I call it "nitpicking".

i use the Wells RGB 3/4hp sharpener with the ceramic wheel, and the edge I get is perfect, and stays sharp longer as it dulls. Sharp blades never make up for underpowered machines either.

Reg. Grinder vs. Blade Sharpeners

Lee33

PTP

ALC-GregH

mowcrazy

bohiaa

mike r

Lee33

topsites

tomo

mike r

mike r

RLC12065

B&D Lawn Care

RLC12065

nosparkplugs

B&D Lawn Care

RLC12065

unityroad

RLC12065

nosparkplugs

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