New Woodland Mills RS30 Pro Sharpener (CBN)

[jpassardi]

Does anyone have the new Woodland CBN sharpener? Looks like it will replace the stone wheel unit as it's now discounted.

I assume it comes with a 10 degree wheel which won't work with my woodmizer 7-39's?

Thanks,
Jeff

[Southside]

Took a quick look at it.  You are correct that a 10° won't work with a Turbo, however it says the disc angle is adjustable, so if it will adjust to perpendicular to the band, and the arbor of the stone is the right size, you could get a profiled CBN stone to use on your Turbos.   

[rusticretreater]

A complicated discussion.

The RS30 PRO can be adjusted for tooth rake angles of 7, 10 and 14 degrees. The gullet depth and take off can also be adjusted allowing 1″ – 1.5″ (25 mm – 38 mm) wide blades with tooth spacing (pitch range) of 3/4″ – 1″ (19 mm – 25 mm) to be fitted to this sharpener.

This post may also be relevant.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=106790.0

[jpassardi]

SS: I was thinking the same. I emailed them last night asking what size the arbor is and what wheel it comes with. I assume 10 degree as that seems to be their standard blade.

RR: I read where it is adjustable but adjusting for the face won't get the back angle correct if the angle between doesn't match from CBN to blade.

[jpassardi]

OK, they posted a Youtube video of the new sharpener. The CBN wheel isn't profiled, it operates like a stone wheel (using a cam) with reduced wheel wear issues. It comes with 3 cams and has 7, 10 and 14 degree head settings.
I think i'm going to order it and the setter.

[Arcticmiller]

OK, they posted a Youtube video of the new sharpener. The CBN wheel isn't profiled, it operates like a stone wheel (using a cam) with reduced wheel wear issues. It comes with 3 cams and has 7, 10 and 14 degree head settings.
I think i'm going to order it and the setter.

I've been eyeballing them too, a friend whose opinion I respect bought one and praised it highly both build quality and function. He just lives 500 miles away, or I'd have been over to see it run and make a call already....

Please let us know how you like it if you pull the trigger. Options are scarce in the sub $2500 range.

[MattM]

These new Woodland sharpeners are essentially just upgrade versions of their old sharpener. The only difference seems to be that it now has two speeds, 3 cams (for various manfactures profiles) and a CBN wheel instead of the regular grind wheel.

This is not a CBN on the level of a WoodMizer CBN that does the whole profile in one shot. I also imagine that the cbns will wear out pretty quickly compared to the full profile CBN wheels and at 99$ per disc I have no doubt it'll get really expensive really quickly to sharpen.

I had one of the previous woodland mill sharpeners for maybe 5 years and while it did do the job, it had to be modified to even come close to touching the gullet... But still didn't until the 3 or 4th sharpening. Hopefully the 3 different cams will fix the cr@p profile issues but for some reason I doubt it. This is a over priced sharpener targeting hobby guys that only sharpen a few blades a year.

If your doing quite a few blades a 'real' CBN pays for itself real quick, mine paid for itself the first summer just doing my own blades (vs paying someone to sharpen them) and the time savings vs the old woodland sharpener meant I spent more time sawing instead sharpening (10+ perfectly fully  sharpened blades an hour vs 3 passes on the woodland)...I doubt that will change much with this new one, even with the 2 speeds.

I love woodland mills stuff and always used to get blades and a few tractor attachment from them. They make really nice entry level mills. But you'd never know what kind of blades they're going to send you, one batch would be cooks, one WM the next Lenox and they'd be different band thicknesses every time. It made for inconsistant milling and inconsistent sharpening.
If this sharpener was 600-800 CAD $ it would be a great entry level sharpener, but at $1547CAD after taxes and shipping its half the price of a BMS250.... but not close to being half the machine a 250 is. Plus Im willing to bet nobody will get anywhere close to 5-800 sharpenings put of one of those CBN wheels which will eat up the price difference really quick.

Personally I think a hobby guy would be better paying 12-15$ to have their blades sharpened and set professionally than buy one of these, or save for the better sharpener. You can have 100-130 blades sharpened for that same price as that machine and most hobby guys I sharpen for only go through 5-20 blades a year

Just my 87cents (I surpassed 2cents after the first paragraph  ;)  )