Sharpening Disp. Planer Blades?

Kevin_H. · April 12, 2006, 11:18:45 PM

We have started to plane alot of lumber, and we are using a disposable knife setup, Has anyone had any luck putting a new edge on a disp knife?

It looks like we may move up to a better planer shortly but in the mean time we are changing planer knifes about once a week and I would like to get a little more life out of them until we upgrade.

Grizzly has a small hone that you can run across the planer knife to clean up the edge, but I have no idea how well it would work?

Any idea's

Jason_WI · April 13, 2006, 12:44:59 AM

How wide and thick are the blades. I have my RBI blades sharpened by a neighbor and he mentioned that he needs at least 1/2 inch wide and 1/8 inch thick blade to clamp in his sharpener. He can sharpen to 40 inches long I believe. He charges $5 a blade to sharpen.

Jason

jpgreen · April 13, 2006, 12:59:13 AM

Jason-

Do you run the RBI planer? If so how do you like the machine. They look pretty nice..

highpockets · April 13, 2006, 05:14:56 AM

What is RBI? As for disposable, I did not think metal was disposable.

Minnesota_boy · April 13, 2006, 07:26:52 AM

I have a Ryobi 10" surface planer and have had good luck with putting a better edge on it with a diamond hone. Eventually it will need a real sharpening but the hone makes it cut much easier. The hone I have is 3"X6" and it only takes a few seconds per blade. I've used it on a tablesaw blade too and it helps.

Kevin_H. · April 13, 2006, 09:15:11 PM

Minnesota_boy ,

Do ya use the hone free hand?

With the disp knifes you dont set them, you just drop them in the planer and tighten them down, When you take some off to put a new edge on them, that will effect how much sets out of the planer drum, so I'm not quite sure how to set them once they are sharpened

does any of that make sense?

Minnesota_boy · April 13, 2006, 10:39:33 PM

I did free hand hone them. It isn't the perfect set-up, but the results were pretty good. Eventually they will need to be ground to true them up. I'm only honing them enough to restore the edge. I probably take off less than .001" to do that so adjusting them isn't even considered. If yours are too dull for that, then replaceing them is your other option.

Jason_WI · April 13, 2006, 11:35:08 PM

jpgreen,

I have an older 612 RBI planer with the moulder, sander, and jointer attachments. I bought it used from a local furniture shop that closed down. The feed system would constantly slip with the 1/4 vee belts that were used. No matter how tight the belts were or how much wax I put on the bed it would always slip.

I modified it to a variable speed DC gear motor with #40 sprockets and chain to drive the rollers. Now it will feed 2 inch oak no problem from 0 to 40 feet a minute with the turn of a knob. Pictures of this mod are in my photo gallery.

I have used the moulder head to make moulding in one pass. Time consuming to set up the fences and get the depth set right but once that is done I can run moulding at 10 feet a minute with the single cutterhead.

Jason

jpgreen · April 14, 2006, 01:31:22 AM

The most I've read on RBI is people are pretty happy with their products.

I guess it depends how much production you need.

jpgreen · April 14, 2006, 01:34:17 AM

Quote from: highpockets on April 13, 2006, 05:14:56 AM
What is RBI? As for disposable, I did not think metal was disposable.

Hawk tools Dick:

http://www.rbiwoodtools.com/

Is that dog still coming..? ;D

highpockets · April 14, 2006, 06:17:57 AM

Jp, If you don't mind, I'd rather let you have this dog when you get here with the mill. He won't jump in the truck and is too heavy to handload. Besides that he bites. Well he hasn't bitten anyone yet, but no one pushes him either. How are you?