Fantastic + Suggestion
First a disclaimer: I am a weekend hack and not a professional lawn care guy or a guy who sharpens blades as a business. I simply wanted to sharpen my own mower blades instead of paying to have them done. I like having freshly sharpened blades 1x/month for mowing my 1 acre yard. As you can imagine, the costs were adding up these past 10 years. So I tried just about everything this Spring/Summer…angle grinder jigs, angle grinders without jigs, bench grinders, bench grinders with Ballard’s Blade Assist, etc. I have tried a lot of things and just never felt like it was the “best”. I have logged hundreds of hours on YouTube watching videos for recommendations of “the best way to sharpen mower blades”. :) To be honest, the price point is kind of crazy for a weekend hack like me, but after researching and talking to professionals, I decided “WTF” and bought it. I am extremely happy I did! Being able to rest the blade on a platform and get the perfect 30 degree angle couldn’t be easier. I have now sharpened about 15 blades with it and loved it so much I have also now ordered the dust collector, etc to make less of a mess in the garage. I have also ordered the wheel kit, work light, wheel shelf and blade holder. One might accuse me of going over the top with this purchase (and they would be absolutely correct), but I will never have to buy anything again! As a bonus, it doesn’t take up much floor space in the garage and I can move it around easily. So now that you know it is worth every bit of the price tag, I wanted to offer a suggestion to Magna to make it even better. The stock stationary platform is only 12” long. My mower blades are 18” long and therefore I just never felt steady and secure when sharpening them. So I went out and bought a 24” by 4” by 3/8” piece of UHMW plastic and fit it to the base such that I had 18 inches “before” the blade and 6” after. Worked well, but as you might guess the plastic was not rigid enough when getting out past the base. The next step in my endeavor was to get a 24” by 4” by 1/8” piece of cold-rolled steel and fit it to the stage under the UHMW plastic. BINGO…has the length and rigidity I needed to confidently lay the blades flat and push back and forth to grind a nice sharp edge. It looks a little goofy hanging out a little further, but man oh man does it feel sturdier and give me more confidence in holding and pushing the blade straight. @Magda-I am sure this would be a very simple add-on and I am telling you it would be much better looking than the one I put together.
