Tuesday, May 21, 2019

Tool Review -- Oregon No. 42-100 Lawn Mower Blade Balancer


As received from Amazon, it's a piece of junk.




For the balancer to work properly, the needle that the cone perches on must come to quite a fine point. The point is blunt, and ridged at the bottom. The cone exhibits a 'detent' at apparent balance. It might reveal gross imbalance, but the blunt, ridged needle point will tend to conceal slight imbalances.

I chucked the balancer's base in my lathe, and filed a better point profile.


That ought to work.

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I tried the balancer with a blade from an electric lawn mower that I suspected of being slightly imbalanced. I do appear to be getting a slight imbalance indication, so maybe I've got a useful tool now.

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In conclusion, if you're not prepared to have to perfect the needle point of the Oregon 42-100, stay away. It's a piece of slovenly manufacture.

Update -- THURSDAY, MAY 23, 2019

It gets worse. The 3/8" nominal diameter step is undersize for a blade hole for a 3/8" diameter bolt, so such a blade centres poorly. For the type of blade hole pictured below, there's no suitable cone step at all.


One can do as well by balancing a blade on a nail or a screwdriver shank.

'Not impressed. I'll look into returning the thing.

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It's on its way back to Amazon.

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