Its not really necessary, but it doesnt hurt. I sort of align my 3 blade heads, and with my two blades i align them with the nock so that there straight up and down. Doesnt hurt, and it gives you something to do. If you want to align them though, just heat the head up, screw it in, ad a little more heat to the head and twist till its aligned. If its aluminum, you can heat up the arrow. As for balancing, ad slight pressure to the head to get it " bent" back the direction it needs to straighton out.