On my new planer I have about 70 longboards down. It seems the blades are really dull already. Its blowing out the foam unless I creep along. Seems to me it should at least be 100 plus boards before a blade sharpening, right?
Austin S.
Blade longevity will depend on a lot of things… how sharp was it to begin with, what quality steel is in the blade, how deep you’ve been mowing, whether you’ve used it for other projects/materials…
I don’t count the boards, but the blades on my not-quite-a-Makita (Chinese made, visually identical) dulls before 70 boards, guarantee you that.
I would get a carbide blade set if it bothered me.
Hi. You did not say whah planer you were using. If it is a Skil, see our ad in Market Place for carbide tipped blades.
Lorin
Did that answer your question?Jeeze I forgot how to post on this board.Anyway…those little Japanese planers run at higher RPMs than the old SKils and Rockwells.Blades wear out faster,and heat is a factor.I touch up my blades with a dremel tool using a cone shaped stone after ten or so boards.You can do that without removing the blades.I have my blades sharpened at the saw shop and keep a spare set to replace them when they are gone.
hey guys its a 2003 clark foam planer. When you mail in the blades how long does it take to get them back? I’d say its about time to get them sharpened.
Thanks
Austin S.
Austin…look under “sharpening” in the yellow pages.VA beach is pretty big and I bet someone local does it.In that case you can get em in one day if you make arrangements.Thats why you should keep a spare set for rotation.
Someone around here (Jim Phillips?) posted that he uses his cheap Harbor Freight planer to get the glue off and knock down the stringer before using his good planer with sharp blades on the rest.
For what it’s worth, the HF cheezy-planer came with a cute little plastic jig that’d hold 2 blades and you could then touch them up on a stone. This’d be a bother for 3 cutter planers, but you could always do 2 sets, 6 cutters, and come out even.
As an aside, buddy of mine went over to the dark side on sharpening ( diamond ‘stones’ on steel plate ) and gave me his old Delta Universal Wet/Dry Grinder. An older version of this beauty;
All I gotta do now is figure out a jig for it to sharpen 15" planer knives and the spiral Rockwell planer cutters, once I have that then smaller stuff ( jointer knives, etc) is gonna be easy. Does a truly lovely job on heavy chisels and plane irons, a touch on this and then a wee pass on the Washita or Soft Arkansas stones and there you go. Shaves the back of my hand very nicely. .
Watch your local junk shop…you never know…
doc…
Don’t know what you would pay there, but here in St. Louis I pay $8 a pair at either of two places. Neither do it while you wait, usually 3 or 4 days. Like cleanlines says, keep a spare pair!
Lorin
Depends alot on how many stringers you have in your blanks. Wood will blunt planer blades faster then foam. If you error on the side of keeping sharp blades in your tools you will gain in productivity by leaps and bounds. It pays to be sharp!
Yo doc,
I had one of those Delta grinders a few years back. I found they work great for truing up carving tools and the like, but the large wheel is tough to get perfectly round, and therefore even with a good jig, it’s hard to “get an edge” on a large mass like planer blades or even jointer knives. You can likely get the wheel “true” and will have better luck than I being that you are the go to guy on tweaking tools. I actually liked the tool but favored the Makita shapening tool with it’s horizontal rotating wheel with cast iron jig for holding knives…back to surfboard shaping…
Actually you can do a pretty good job sharpening planer and block plane blades with your hand grinder and a feathering pad.Put some 150 grit on the pad and have a buddy hold it upside down (no shapers have a vice but there are usually Yahoos hanging around)).Take the blade and hold it with pliers and have at it.Go slow and don’t burn the steel.Keep some water around to dip the blade. Mike Diffenderfer used to do did it that way.Good luck on those spiral blades Doc.
Mr. Richard Mc San – I have the exact same scenario w/ both tools. I didn’t have much luck at the attempts of truing the Delta wheel.
The jig for the Makita is made to hold the 15” planner knives
Oh yeah it’s pricy $250.00
Yeah, I saw something they sell as an accessory for the Tormek sharpeners, looked like one of the older Crystolon/India combination stones - supposedly it not only takes the wheel back to round, it also can get it to a finer grit somehow.
I did find thatthe big wheel does something funny if you let it sit in water for any length of time - gets unbalanced somehow, maybe soaks up water and expands - may try a dry dressing of it and see if that goes anywhere…
doc…
70 boards to a set of sharp blades is fine. Clark Foam has an exchange program- you give them your dull blades, and they give you a set of sharpies. I have a few sets, I just pop the dull ones out, throw a new set in and exchange the dull ones when convenient. -Carl
Austin-
If you own extra set of blades you can send them in to us and we will send you back a freshly sharpened set at no cost to you except the return shipping. The new blades cost $31.95 (plus shipping) and can be found at http://www.foamez.com/store/productDetails.cfm?prodID=352&prodIDCat=24 . Having sharp blades are critical to making clean cuts and reducing the chance for tearing the foam.
Let us know if you have more questions or would like to place an order.
Good luck!