Hi oldmatty,
I think you may open up a can of worms with this thread as there's many different opinions on setting up SB45's.
This is taken exactly from the SB45 operating instructions.
The cutter is correctly set when it LIGHTLY touches the bottom blade along its FULL length. Hard bearing or uneven setting causes excessive or uneven wear on the cutting edges and also places undue load on the engine.
The paper test works well but ultimately you're going to be cutting grass and not paper. Perhaps you can try setting the reel with no contact and then testing the mower on your lawn. If you get down and look closely and the grass is being torn or the leaf blades are being stripped on the ends, that is unsatisfactory and requires further adjustment. If the grass is being cut cleanly like a pair of scissors would achieve, then all is well, even if it won't cut paper.
I once had a reel sharpened by a local mower shop that claimed they had the proper equipment to do a grind. When I got home and put everything back together I couldn't get a good adjustment, I had contact on some blades and not on others. When I rang the mower shop to question them, it turned out they didn't do a spin grind but a single blade grind and managed to get the reel ever so slightly out of round. Never again will I get anything but a spin grind done by an experienced professional.
Michael
