Sharpen those planer blades!

Jeff Horton

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The Heart of Dixie
Just a reminder to all not to do what I did and wait so long to sharpen those blades. I knew they needed sharpening but I didn't realize how much they needed it. I swear it dropped 20 db in noise level after replacing those dull blades. Not to mention the better cut.

Guess while I am at it I should do the jointer too.
 
So how am I supposed to tell when I need my planer knives changed out? I still can't hear out of my ear thanks to that ear infection!!

(pronounced can't heah, out of my eah due to my Maine accent. Oh well, I guess I will just have to jump in my cah, go around the cornaah, go to a baaah, and have a beah....):rofl::rofl::rofl:

(for you non mainers that is: I can't hear out of my ear, so I will jump in my car, go around the corner, go into a bar and have a frosty cold beverage).:D
 
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If the motor starts to stall out, thats another good sign.

Jeff
Who can understand but can't write in New England slang

No need to apologize for the slang/ accent talk. I just can't figure out why the rest of the country talks funny!! Its pretty easy to figure out, any word ending with an R is pronounced with an AH. Pretty basic. :huh::rofl:
 
I just kept putting this off and honestly the blades didn't "feel" that bad. When I got one off and looked at it.... well it was pretty bad. I should have known when I had to wear ear plugs to just do a single board.

I sharpen my own and since I let this go I it took a while. Had to rough grind them to get them straight again and then sharpen them. Tomorrow I am going to do the spare set so they are sitting there. Then I won't be so tempted to just keep running them.

Need to do the 6" jointer too.
 
Jeff I would not beat yourself up too much over this. I think its something a lot of us do. As I type this I know my planer knives need changing. I got a few nicks in the blade. Instead of changing them, lately I have just been running the board through again but at a different spot to clean up he ridges the nicks left behind.

I know better, I really do its just procrastination and laziness that keeps me from changing them out.
 
Jeff, thanks for the nudge. Like Travis, I have recently been running the boards through my planer a second time. :eek:

When I move back into my shop in November, I will have an annual "clean and fix up the shop" week. I will definatly attend to my planer and jointer blades that week -having never yet done so :eek: since I purchased the machines about theee years ago. But, I doubt that I will attempt to sharpen them myself.
 
frank and travis, you probably already know this, but if your blades are not indexed, meaning not forced to be perfectly in line horizontally on the head, you can slide one blade a little to the left or right and this will fix the nick, because the blades all have the nick, when you move one the smooth part of the other blades will smooth of the bump left by the other blades.

hope that helps someone, it at least can keep you from having to change them because of the nick.

chris
 
For the sake of sounding obvious, I'd like to also recommend lubricating the planer bed. I regularly dri-cote my jointer bed as I can easily notice the difference when I do. Recently I sprayed some on the planer bed, which I have really never done before (you know... what do I care, I'm not pushing :doh:). I swear the machine breathed a sigh of relief.
 
frank and travis, you probably already know this, but if your blades are not indexed, meaning not forced to be perfectly in line horizontally on the head, you can slide one blade a little to the left or right and this will fix the nick, because the blades all have the nick, when you move one the smooth part of the other blades will smooth of the bump left by the other blades.

hope that helps someone, it at least can keep you from having to change them because of the nick.

chris
Chris, I did not know that. Thanks for the tip.

But, I still need to get the blades sharpened.
 
Regarding the whole shifting the planer blades over to cancel out the nicks, you still need to change or sharpen the blades once you've done that so many times that your planer blade grind can accurately be described as ATB. :rofl:
 
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