band blade sharpener

[Russ]

Any advice on buying a band blade sharpener. Looking at a
W-37 ABG Automatic profile sharpener from U-Cut Enterprises.
There was a cheep one at Linn  but this one looked good at the logging show. Thanks  

[Preston]

Hello Russ
Well it depends on the size of bands you want to sharpen! We have a fully automatic sharpener and tooth setter love them both by mighty mite! The only problem is we up graded to a bigger band a the automatic grinder will not take them but the toothsetter will! And we found out that the gullets are dif. on dif brands of blades so if you plan on styicking with a certain brand make sure the sharperner will take it! We got lucky and our sharperner will take most dif bands but not the one we use now! We find it more profitable to get ours sharpen were we purchase the band! But the tooth setter we have love it its so so percisted that its not funny! Anyways there some helpful hints and we are selling our set together as we don't have time to do our own!
Preston

[Tom]

I'm not familiar with the sharpener and U-cut hasn't any information on it on their site.  I did find it on two other sites

http://www.pacifier.com/~dbmach/products/sharpeninglist.html

http://www.wrightools.com/profile.htm

Based on these two sites, it seems to be a good sharpener.  It sure is heavy.  I found no price.  It follows the same configuration as those two sharpeners that I like, Woodmizers and Cooks.

It appears to be a dry grinder like Cooks.  Woodmizer provides  pump for cooling of the grinding surface.

If you think you will change configurations often, the quick change of the cam is nice.

Some folks use 3/4 pitch blades and this sharpener doesn't take less than 1 inch.  But, it does sharpen 1-3.5 inch blades which covers most of the popular thin kerf sizes.

The AC motors probably lead to most of the weight. The important thing is the blade clamping configuration. If the blade isn't held tight, it doesn't matter how well the rest of the machine is built.

I wonder what size stone it uses and what type is recommended?

[MrMoo]

Russ,
I have the W-37 ABG it is made by Wright machine on the west coast. When I first got it I was sharpening 12' 0" bands and it worked well for that length band. I now sharpen 19' 1" bands and the blade guides that came with the grinder could not handle that length band. I called the company & they acknowledged it would not work but they didn't give me any support either.
I started looking at building a table with bigger blade guides but was running out of time. As it turned out Logmaster sells sharpening equipment and that grinder is part of the package they sell. I ended up getting a table & guides from them and now now have the sharpener working well.
You may want to contact Logmaster and talk to them about sharpening equipment too //www.logmaster.com
I find that it is nice to be able to resharpen the bands.

Mike

[FeltzE]

I've got a cooks grinder and a Dino Setter. I have had good results with the grinder it has lasted well for me but I may need to get a new push arm for it as this one is starting to wear the bushing out.

I set up a woodmizer sharpner for a friend, I wasn't impressed with the hp of the grinder motor. It takes  a little longer to sharpen a blade as you can't grind quite as much in the first pass. Although it does a fine job.

My dino crank type setter does a great job on .042 blades but dosn't like the thicker .049 and larger ones!

Some time when I feel more argumentative I'll give my spiel on why you should sharpen your own blades...

Eric

[Tom]

Eric,
The bushings can be bought at a hardware store and replaced if you wanted to do that. Sometimes you can find rigid copper pipe that will fit too.

I like the idea of the Dyno but never saw one operate that would hold the blade steady through the process.  Cook's is my favorite for a shop but Wood Mizer has a good idea for one that you can use in the field.   It's small and Direct Current too.

Want to talk about sharpening one's own blades?  Stand in line.  I'm a definite proponent of that. :D

[Russ]

Thanks for the feed back. The blades I'm using now are lenox
1 1/4 x .042 x 1.1 [tooth] 7/8 tooth space. 13' 11" with the stock set of the roll. I've used morse and timber wolf also  but have better luck with these. You think I could use the mighty mite, Preston ?

[dmcc]

Anybody using the TimberWolf semiauto setter? It sure looks good on their product video.

[cut2size]

I use the timberwolf setter and probably would use a resharp program if I didn't have the setter.  It takes about 2 minutes to set a blade (thats both sides).  I don't have to turn the blade inside out, and I can still read a paper after I'm finished setting. 8) 8)
David

[Preston]

Sure Russ
We use 1 1/4 blades along with the 1 1/2 blades! The larger blades we love for the hardwood!