Gray drizzling day today so I gathered all my blades and loaded up to take them for sharpening. The fellow who does my sharpening of bands, planer blades, jointer blades, circular blades....just takes care of all needed sharpening....does an outstanding job. He has done all my sharpening for the past 15 years or so. However, when I pulled in today there was a sign on the door that read:"Business closed permanently I finally retired for good!"
Soooo.....I would really appreciate any direction someone could give me on a sharpening service. I know many use the woodmizer resharp program...will they sharpen other than woodmizer? What is the cost of effectiveness of a sharpener in a small operation? Any advice much appreciated!!
We can offer better info.if you tell us where you live.WM only resharpens WM blades.I have a mixture of blades WM and Timberwolf.I send mine to a TW sharpening center in Belmont,N.H.Great results,quick turn around.
Hello,
We own our Wood Mizer ReSharp center in PA. We do sharpen other blades besides Wood Mizer. They will be ground to Wood Mizer profiles and we can not guarantee the results of a non WM blade after it is resharpend. We have never had any issues with other blades. Just a policy.
Some blades ( not WM) the tips are so hard the teeth break when they are set. We inform the owner this may happen and give him other options.
You can call us and we can give you more information. Don't want to be a sales man on the FF.
Thanks
Marty
Western North Carolina
Tried to add to profile....failed
Thanks for the quick response
I have a wm drag style sharpener and I like it real well. It came with a mill I bought.
I purchased a EZ Boardwalk sharpener when I first started with a bandmill. It worked real well and wasnt too expensive. I figured that with many of the sharpening services out there charging $6 for sharpening it would pay out pretty quick. Without consideration for shipping(which is expensive) at $6 per blade their sharpener paid for itself by the time I wore out the first 20 bands. It was pretty easy to learn to sharpen and It only took about 5 to 7 minutes per band once I got used to it.
BTW there are a couple sharpeners in the for sale section of this forum. Also I have learned to sharpen my bands no more than 2 times as by that time most of the hard is wore off the tooth and they need reset. Soon after I reset the teeth on them they break so I quit early.
PC
Wood-Mizer in Albemarle NC does sharpening. Not sure how far it is from you but you could ship.
Precision Saw in Polkton, NC sharpens my bands. They pick up and deliver in the Charlotte area. I am not sure how far into Western NC they will go.
Within two years after buying my Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and setter, it didn't owe me anything!
I kept track of my blades that were set and sharpened on the setup and figured at $7.00/blade and the break-even point was about half way through the second year!
If you get a few customers that want some bands sharpened once in a while, that speeds things up a little!
Our fellow forum member Cutting Edge offers a full service sharpening business. When sharpening band saw blades he goes one step further in the process then most other sharpening services. He not only sharpens and sets a blade , but also checks the curvature, flatness, of the blade body. He rolls the blade body, if needed, to maintain it's proper curvature. This, in turn, allows the re-sharpened blade to cut at maximum level of accuracy and production potential. He does sharpen many different manufactures blades profiles. If you want your blades to perform well consider contacting him.
Paul does the Boardwalk only sharpen the face?
Yes only the face.It can be set up to dress the top of the tooth, but I never did.
PC
Thanks Paul, I'm just now starting to look at sharpening for myself. I'm not sure if I can justify some of the options right now. The Boardwalk and Wood Land are starting to catch my eye though.
Full profile sharpening is the best way to get long life from expensive blades. http://akportablesawmill.com/blade-services/ has a couple of good photos of what happens when the gullet isn't ground.
Try to limit your blade run time to 2 hours and you will be pleasantly surprised how much life good blades have in them!
WM has a very nice sharpener/setter combination. Your PA or NC WM dealer can help you, either with blade services or in-expensive equipment that you can use to do the job yourself.
Hopm, I'm on the opposite side of the state from you, and like Warren I use Precision Saw out of Polkton, NC. What I like about them is that they have a driver that stops by my location every week and picks up our blades, bands, etc for sharpening, and then they bring them back the following week.
They can not only sharpen bands and blades, they can sharpen planer knives, planer blades for swingblade mills, retip just about anything and resharpen just about anything. I heartily recommend them and they may have a route driver in your area (they deliver all over the state and also ship). In addition to Woodmizer band stock, they stock Kasco, Lenox, and the other major manufacturers.
I can also endorse the Woodmizer folks in Albemarle NC. You will have to look very hard to find a better person than the owner Joe Whiteley, and they have been extremely helpful to me in the past.
I have an old Woodmizer band sharpener that used to belong to Tom Cadenhead that I'm planning to sell too if you're interested. I need to make a post in the Classified section so that I can be sure to take care of the FF when it sells. It's appearance is a little rough, but it works fine.