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Sharpener gearmotor question

Started by barbender, June 28, 2013, 06:37:23 PM

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barbender

  I have a Cook's Catclaw sharpener that I have been happy with, with the small amount I have used it. One problem I have had is getting a consistent face grind. I adjust it to just "kiss" the face, and it's fine for a while, say 20 teeth, and then begin missing the face of teeth altogether. If I adjust to kiss these teeth, eventually it will hit some that it will grind too heavy and burn the tips. I tried increasing the tension on the blade clamp, tighter and tighter, until I think I overdid it. I noticed the seal had popped out of the back side of the cross shaft on the gear motor, with some grease. The front one was bulged too. It never sounded like it was working that hard, but I definitely had that clamp tight. I don't know if I caused a problem or exacerbated one that was already there. Anyways, I reseated the seals and backed off on the tension, but I'm wondering if there is a way to "tighten up" the gear motor, there is a small set screw on the gear case. I think the inconsistent grind is coming from the gearmotor, in my thinking the face grind should remain consistent, even if you had a blade with inconsistent tooth spacing wouldn't it hit the back of the teeth different? Since the indexing pawl indexes off of the face, the face should always be in the same position under the stone (sorry for rambling, I'm kind of thinking out loud here ::)) If that is correct, the gearmotor is the only place where some movement could take place, unless something was causing the grind motor to move. To put this in context, I usually have to let a blade go around 4 times to get all of the faces ground without burning the teeth, that's on a blade I have already ground so it it matches my profile. New blades take way more passes.
Too many irons in the fire

bandmiller2

Bender,I also have the cats claw and sometimes have the light heavy grind thing.I usally just make a quick adjustment of the pusher length.I do think the original cause is not enough tension on the clamp allowing the band to slip back a small amount.Seems like when you really clamped down on the band there was enough spring in the system so sometimes it would not index the band far enough.I strive for the least clamping force to prolong the life of the gearmotor.Play in the gearmotor shouldn't affect the grind as everything is moved by the cam,feed and profile and that's downstream of the gearbox.If you still are having problems I'd call Tim Cook.I've found the "claw"very dependable and well built. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

pineywoods

Bender, I fought the same thing with my old wm drag sharpener. What I finally found was a sloppy bearing in the grinder motor, allowing the stone wheel to move slightly under pressure. New bearings fixed the problem...
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

customsawyer

On the little nut that you turn to adjust the length of your push rod there is a small allen screw that you will have to snug up so that the nut doesn't vibrate on you.
Two LT70s, Nyle L200 kiln, 4 head Pinheiro planer, 30" double surface Cantek planer, Lucas dedicated slabber, Slabmizer, and enough rolling stock and chainsaws to keep it all running.
www.thecustomsawyer.com

barbender

Thanks for the replies, fellas. I'll check all the stuff y'all mentioned (or is that "all y'all" for plural ;D) To go through my procedure a bit more, my blades are clean, I usually run in the 40-50% speed range as per the Cook's setup video, I started off with light tension on the clamp. Light as in you can push in the knob to release the clamp, as that's how it looked in the video. When I was having problems with the grind, I started adding tension to the clamp. After a while, I had enough tension that I had to back off the knob so I could release the clamp. I increased the tension on the index rod as well, but that seemed to make the indexor stick when you made an adjustment. Then I noticed the seals pushed out of my gearmotor and I reevaluated ::)
Too many irons in the fire

ladylake


One other thing to watch for, if you use a soft wheel the edge on the face side will get rounded as it goes around the band.  That causes the gullet to get more rounded and will push the blade a little farther on the next sharpening.  Steve
Timberking B20  18000  hours +  Case75xt grapple + forks+8" snow bucket + dirt bucket   770 Oliver   Lots(too many) of chainsaws, Like the Echo saws and the Stihl and Husky     W5  Case loader   1  trailers  Wright sharpener     Suffolk  setter Volvo MCT125c skid loader

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