Proplaner Questions

[jth737]

Working on my "new to me" Proplaner and trying to find some answers. My machine is a Model M5082, serial # 000325. It doesn't appear to have had extensive use, or been abused. Having said that it would not feed a board on my initial start up and the planer knives needed sharpening ( pretty badly ). I'm cleaning things up as I go and I just removed the first blade from the cutterhead - it appears to possibly be the original blade, pn# 513364 CB, and is only sharpened on one edge. The manual states to replace any blade with a width of less than 11/16" (.6875 ) and this blade measures .700 - not sure yet what the others will measure. Those dimensions mean there's only .013 of blade left for sharpening before we reach the replacement dimension. Does anyone know what the width of a new knife is ? Has anyone had any experience with the Freud 12-1/4" x 3/4" x 1/8" High Speed Steel Industrial Planer and Jointer Knives (C560) as sold on Amazon ? About 1/2 the price of SS replacement blades ( #505982 @ $110.00). Appreciate any comments or suggestions.

Thanks,
Jon

[jsburger]

SS blades are tapered (the thickness). Non SS blades are not and should not be used.

[jth737]

Hi John,

I noticed that after removing the first knife. Don't know if the Freud blades are similarly tapered or not. Several Shopsmith users reported having used them without problems.

Jon

[dusty]

A Cutter Head with blade and wedge.png (50.79 KiB) Viewed 14695 times

A Sketch of my cutter head.

The blade is thicker on the bottom edge than it is otherwise. Reportedly a safety feature to prevent the blade from being thrown from the cutter head.

[JPG]

Since the blades ARE tapered, only one edge can be sharpened.

I would not use anything other than a OEM (SS) blade.

0.013" MAY be more than enough to sharpen. Secret is to have minimal removal.

[jth737]

Thanks to all for the reply's

Emailed Freud regarding whether their planer knives were tapered, like SS, or uniform thickness. Freud response follows:

All of our knives are consistent in geometry and are not tapered in any direction. If the Shopsmith Proplaner requires a tapered knife you will probably only find them from Shopsmith.

Jon

[thunderbirdbat]

The only place I have seen offer aftermarket jointer and planer knives is my woodcutters,com. They off carbide and hss blades for both the jointer and planer and a shelix head for the planer. I have not tried any of them. You would have to contact them to see if they are tapered https://mywoodcutters.com/index.php?rou ... =shopsmith

[br549]

jth737,

If you receive email notices about Shopsmith's specials, you may have already seen this. If not, the 30% off offer expires tonight.https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/spe ... =|C&epn=|A

If you investigated the aftermarket knives that thunderbirdbat mentioned, curious as to what you found out about whether or not they are tapered.