Sharpening & Balancing Cub's Fastattatch blades

[Zork]

Good day everyone. I recently purchased a XT2GX54D with a fabricated deck and the fastattatch blade system.
My research indicated the fastattatch blades required dealership balancing or a special insert to balance if one is sharpening at home.

I finally purchased a sharpening and balancing kit that would accept the typical star/round blade mounting holes but I was concerned about my new Fastattatch blades. I am happy to report it also works on my fastattatch blade system.
I have successfully tried fastening the Fastattatch blades to the sharpening tool platform.

FYI- My balancing standards appear better than these factory blades as they are not equal in weight and the blades are off balance according to this balancing device.

 

[5030]

Nifty looking machine but one thing I NEVER do is sharpen mower blades. I just replace them with new ones when they get beat up. Not that expensive to begin with and much less time consuming to just renew them. Do the same thing with my big shredders as well. here we have sandy soil and the sand erodes the blades pretty quickly so again, easier to replace than sharpen.

 

[Zork]

I can appreciate that method for sure, but none of the blades I have ever purchased were sharp. And 30 degrees is the standard, but I've eyeballed 45 degrees and that works best at slicing and dicing and has a good debris tolerance. I've use six mowers and with exceptions of the newly acquired Fastattatch (@ $100) and the large finish/rough cut mowers, the aftermarket blades for the smaller units are cheap enough to replace when they are dull. But, like you I have debris and I prefer my blades sharp. I have original spindles in them all and they are all over 30 years old.

 

[5030]

Lawnmower blades in general are NEVER sharpened to a knife edge. They are 'sharp' when there is a small flat on the blade itself. A sharp edge will not cut properly at speed.

 

[RjCorazza]

I have looked at similar sharpening tools, but still like my steel jig for its simplicity. I do use a nice balancer like yours.
Glad you were able to find a setup that works with your blade mounts.

 

[5030]

To the OP, I'm curious as to what a QD blade looks like. Far as I know, there are only 2 types of blade mounts, the through hole type that relies on the clamping force of the spindle nut to secure them and the stamped star type that fits on the machined star interface on the spindle. The Cub I used to own used the through hole type and my wife's Cub ZTR uses the star type blade.

My Kubota F series front mount uses a through hole blade with 2 cupped washers and the spindle nut to secure the blades and you torque the nut to a specified torque to secure them. The Kubota replacement blades are oddly cheaper than the Cub blades for some reason that I don't know, but they are.

For sometime now, I've been buying my blades from ASC as they are less expensive than at my dealer, even with shipping included.

 

[Zork]

To the OP, I'm curious as to what a QD blade looks like. Far as I know, there are only 2 types of blade mounts, the through hole type that relies on the clamping force of the spindle nut to secure them and the stamped star type that fits on the machined star interface on the spindle. The Cub I used to own used the through hole type and my wife's Cub ZTR uses the star type blade.

My Kubota F series front mount uses a through hole blade with 2 cupped washers and the spindle nut to secure the blades and you torque the nut to a specified torque to secure them. The Kubota replacement blades are oddly cheaper than the Cub blades for some reason that I don't know, but they are.

For sometime now, I've been buying my blades from ASC as they are less expensive than at my dealer, even with shipping included.

I checked my posts and I don't see the "QD" you referenced, but maybe it was a typo/autocorrect that was edited.

 

[5030]

I checked my posts and I don't see the "QD" you referenced, but maybe it was a typo/autocorrect that was edited.

Your thread title says Cub fast attach blades.... So, do you have the hole or the star?

 

[RandyT]

Your thread title says Cub fast attach blades.... So, do you have the hole or the star?

The Cub Fast Attach is a new proprietory more S shaped hole. As illustrated in the OP post fitting into the sharpening jig toward the bottom of his post. Currently no aftermarket versions exist due to patent issues. Stens had to stop selling them because of this issue recently.

 

[tomplum]

You have a nice enough rider, but I've grown to truly loath the fast attach blade system. Granted, it may have been blades that haven't been off in 2-3 years and the mechanism is packed with dirt and grass. Best advice for you going forward, take steps to protect retainer so it moves when you need it to. Some kind of spray protection maybe? Or change the spindles so you don't have to pay hostage pricing for light blades. I do however like Cubs low lift blade design and their Extreme blades do well.