Planer blades

czechsonofagun · May 17, 2007

Anybody sharpens power planer blades himself? What grinder do you use for it? Any homemade jigs? I would be interested in seeing the setup.

Egon · May 17, 2007

I use a small wet stone power grinder and freehand. It works for what I do but does not compare to a professional job.

Boondox · May 17, 2007

To spare myself the aggravation I bought a spare set and send them out to be sharpened every once in a while. Costs me less than $10 to have them professionally sharpened. On my jointer, I'm giving serious consideration to switching over to one of those spiral helix (Shelix is the brand, for real!) heads with the individual four-sided carbide cutters that can be spun around 90 degrees when they dull. Plus they do a phenomenal job with figured wood like birds eye maple

Pete

gotrocks · May 18, 2007

In the past I cut a saw kerf in a 2x4 that would hold the blades at an angle.
Then clamp the 2x4 with blade secure to radial arm saw, with 6 inch grinding wheel.
Turn the saw so the wheel is at right angle to blade.
Adjust height so the wheel is just touching the blade.
Then with saw running pull the carriage back an forth over the blade.

I set the depth so that just a little "arm" pressure downward would make the wheel contact the blade.

Be careful with the setup that you don't have it so the blade can be snatched into the rotation of the wheel.

If you are not comfortable with this setup, THEN DON'T DO IT!

Egon · May 18, 2007

I have three sets of blades. Two for general work that I sharpen myself and one good set that gets used for finer work. This set gets proper sharpening.

I also freehand hone the blades on my thickness planner as they are a double edged throwaway type.

I like the idea of using a Radial arm saw.

czechsonofagun · May 18, 2007

gotrocks said:
In the past I cut a saw kerf in a 2x4 that would hold the blades at an angle.
Then clamp the 2x4 with blade secure to radial arm saw, with 6 inch grinding wheel.
Turn the saw so the wheel is at right angle to blade.
Adjust height so the wheel is just touching the blade.wheel contact the blade.

Be careful with the setup that you don't have it so the blade can be snatched into the rotation of the wheel.

If you are not comfortable with this setup, THEN DON'T DO IT!

I say, gotrocks, thats smart. I am gonna look into it, turning radial arm saw in a grinder would be helpful for other stuff too.

radioflyertoo · May 18, 2007

I have a Tormek sharpening system I bought from my local Woodcrafters. It sharpens every type of flat blade (kitchen, planer, hand planer etc) depending on what attachemnts you buy. The tool uses a water cooled grinding stone that can be dressed for fine or coarse grinding, plus it has a leather honing station. It's quite useful and for me inexpensive since I do alot of hobby woodworking by hand and I'm **** about sharpness. The complete system is however ~$800.00.

Bob