Sharpen Delta planer knives?

Rennie Heuer

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I have the 22-560 12 1/2" Delta lunchbox planer. I've always thought that the double edged knives were disposable but I recently read on a store's website that they can be resharpened.

Yea or Nay?
 
I am not familiar with the "new" models but is the height of the blade adjustable? If not that I would think at best you might get one sharpening if that.

One thing I learned when I rebuilt my PM-100 was that the planner is the most complicated woodworking machine in the (average) shop. I had to "set mine up" three times to get it right. I had mine in pieces to rebuild it. There is a lot of set up and everything has to be in the proper relationship and to some pretty close tolerance or you get snipe and other nasty problems. The height of the feed rollers in relation to the blade height I found was very important, at least on the old iron. So if you grind down the knife and don't raise it back to the same height it was you WILL get snipe.

I assume that the newer ones are similar. If you want to learn something about planner set up, go to Google Videos and search for Bob Vaughn's videos. Well worth watching even if you don't plan on rebuilding a planer.
 
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I have the Grizzly 12.5" planer...double-edged knives. I used to have them re-sharpened at the local sharpening shop, til they got to costin' me as much to sharpen as buying new ones from Grizzly... no kiddin'. what did I do? I bought, just yesterday, the Makita sharpening machine($300), that will do my planer and my jointer(8")knives... plus hand planes irons/chisels(but I do those using Scary sharp system). I figured that after about 8x, I've paid for the machine. I try to keep my knives constantly sharp, so I have 2 sets to rotate. I got tired of paying for something I could do myself. consider buying a machine.....just my opinion
 
Shaepem Delta Planer Blades

Rennie I made a jig to hold the planer blades, and I can hone them with a diamond stone and it works really well. I found the jig in Wood magazine I believe. It is a block of hardwood with a v groove cut in it that matches the angle of the cutting edge and it has a wedge that screws down in the center to hold the blades in place with just the top of the cutting edge above the surface. I will try to get a picture if you would like to see what it looks like, it isn't pretty but it works.
Charles
 
One thing that will change when you sharpen the "disposable" blades is that the preset registers will no longer be accurate. In other words if you crank the machine down too 1/2 " the wood will not be 1/2 " thick. I rarely use them anyway. I have the Rigid planner and just bought a second set of blades. I have been thinking about sharpening the old ones but haven't figured out how to do it. I used to do some cutter grinding and sure wish I had a surface grinder.
 
I have/had a grizzly lunch box model and have had the knives sharpend twice befor they where to short.

mine have been sharpened more than that, and I've had no problems. as long as the springs push them up far enough for the setting jig to "push down" while setting heigth. what I''ve found is that the feed rollers get loose/have play, due to no bearings being used(poor design).:dunno:
 
Hi Rennie,

The wooden triangular block with the clamps is a jig to hold a planer or jointer blade. Instead of a saw blade on the saw, he'll mount a grinding stone. Then he'll slowly bring the stone up until it just barely touches the planer knife. He'll pass the knives back and forth over the stone repeatedly to sharpen them and carefully raise the stone a bit at a time until all the nicks are out of the blades and the blades are sharp.

cheers

John
Ahhhh, I see.:thumb:
 
Shaepem Delta Planer Knives

Rennie, Here are a couple of pictures of my jig
 

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