Carbide toothed circular saw blade sharpening?

[Satamax]

Well guys, it's for my firewood processor. But blade wise, it's more like a circular sawmill. 

The big French sharpening company quoted me 278€ 339$ for sharpening and tensioning my blade. 1 meter diameter about 40" blade. 84 teeth iirc. 

I find that quite dear. Cheapest blade i can find is 800€ 976$

How much does a swingmill sharpener costs? I wonder if i could get by with something like this? Anybody with another idea?  

Thanks a lot guys. 

[longtime lurker]

What's the tooth pattern? Plenty of options for a flat top grind but it gets a little more complex for ATB.

[mike_belben]

Crosscutting is a lot easier than with the grain.  


You could put a carborundum grinding wheel on an angle grinder and clean them in by hand until the blade is used up, then replace or glue new segments on with silver braze, which ive done in industrial applications.   Just make up metal angle gauge for sharpening profile and some sort of jig for retoothing.  

[moodnacreek]

Crosscutting is a lot easier than with the grain.  


You could put a carborundum grinding wheel on an angle grinder and clean them in by hand until the blade is used up, then replace or glue new segments on with silver braze, which ive done in industrial applications.   Just make up metal angle gauge for sharpening profile and some sort of jig for retoothing.  

You mean like no touch pad? :D      Actually that's what I would do only with a diamond stone. Or maybe mount that angle grinder to an old chop saw and jig up a table with an arbor in the center or worse mount grinder at proper angle on table and hand push saw every other tooth and flip and repeat.

[Bradm]

Don't forget that the saw shop sharpens and tensions blades all day, every day.  It may seem that their price is dear, but how does that compare to lost production if the blade isn't sharpened and tensioned properly and you need to either swap the blade or sharpen on the machine?

Around here, that blade would probably run $200-250 to sharpen and tension, and there's only 2 shops I know of that can handle that size of blade (assuming brazed carbide teeth and not insert).  A new blade that size would probably run $1200 give or take, depending on how thick the steel is, and take about 20 weeks for delivery.

[mike_belben]

If i remember right, Max lives in a french ski resort town. Might not be a saw guy around.

[moodnacreek]

Might be a good time to set up an anvil and get some straight edges.  Being it is only 40" and a cross cut I would try it.

[Don P]

If its a straight tooth profile I think you're on the right track with a swingblade sharpener.

[Satamax]

If i remember right, Max lives in a french ski resort town. Might not be a saw guy around.

Yep, right on the Italian border. Up in the mountains.  About 4 hours drive from the guys who offered to sharpen.  They're the biggest manufacturer of sawmill blades, in general sawmill cutting equipment. I can't stand their salesman. He thinks he's hype. But knows zilch about running a sawmill. Even less than i do! I will give a call to the new owner of my usual sharpening service center. See what they say. 

Might be a good time to set up an anvil and get some straight edges.  Being it is only 40" and a cross cut I would try it.

Any old book or any guidance on the internet to recommend? 

If its a straight tooth profile I think you're on the right track with a swingblade sharpener.

Ok, i don't think it's skip. But i have to check. 
Thanks a lot to all of you guys. 

[Ianab]

A swing blade sharpener is usually just a modified chainsaw sharpener, with a diamond grinding wheel in place of the normal stone, and bolted to an alignment jig. That keeps the diamond wheel aligned correctly and you move the grinder across the tooth to give it a new edge.  On a swing blade you only have 4 -8 cutters to deal with, so it's a 5 min job. Be a bigger job on that many cutters, but the idea is the same?

The blade shouldn't need retensioning every sharpen. Maybe when it's being re-tipped or if it's giving problems? With a swing mill you might resharpen a couple of times a day, just a touch up to keep it running perfect. 

[Don P]

I know nothing about these blades but I suspect it has a relatively heavy plate. If it is running flat and true it shouldn't need retensioning. If it is shaking, weaving, wobbling, snaking, etc then it needs the services of a sawdoc. I do have a chapter in an old Disston saw reprint that describes how saw hammering is done, pm if you would like a scan of that. That said I would not attempt it... or, I would not attempt it again  :D.

Look at the face of the teeth, if they were all sharpened straight across, perpendicular to the saw plate, easy peasy. If they were alternately sharpened at an angle like a chainsaw then a bit higher tech jig would be needed, but not insurmountable.

[moodnacreek]

Holding the saw vertical and very carefully looking for lumps and marking them to be hammered flat on a padded anvil. To hammer the saw plate on iron will create tension and will take a real expert to equalize and distribute it properly. If the saw has no bad lumps and runs close to flat, I would leave it alone except for the tips.

[Satamax]

Thanks a lot guys. The blade is wobling. And i checked, it's skip toothed. 




Cheapest i can get from china, 700 all taxes paid so far. I asked the original importer of the machine, how much they would sell me a blade for. And where i can get it sharpened.

[mike_belben]

To make a left/right sharpener isnt hard.  You mount a dowel to hold the saw vertical, to the side of the bench. Could just be a bolt with flanged washers to locate the saw arbor hole concentric.  

Then you make a compound swingarn to hold whatever you use for a toolpost grinder.   It mounts in 2 or 3 different holes so that it comes across your lefts, rights and straights at the correct angle based on which hole in the bench you drop it in.  Use the center hole for grinding straights and tops.  Round tube and cinch clamp construction will make for easy angle adjustments.  Creeform components or truck sidemirror parts will repurpose well for this.  


So if you can get it to run true you can sharpen in.