Pro Planer Sharpening/Setup

shydragon · Post by **shydragon** » Sun May 10, 2009 10:52 am

I've been running a lot of Madrone through the planer, and I noticed more sawdust with the shavings. I've cleaned and ran a honer across the blades. It helped some. So, this morning I placed an order for a set of knives and an additional conical disc sander.

Today, I am going to sharpen the existing knives, (I'm really dreading this, not the sharpening part, but putting the knives back in and getting them aligned). This will be my first time with the planer.

My question: Is there a best way to do this? I mean, do I sharpen one knife, then put it back in and align before going to the next? Any thoughts on this would be greatly appreciated.

dusty · Post by **dusty** » Sun May 10, 2009 11:04 am

I don't feel that you have anything to dread except that it is a fairly time consuming and tedious procedure.

Don't rush yourself. Wait until you have the time (an hour or so) to do the job without becoming anxious.

I hope that you have the manual. I believe a written procedure is mandatory. We don't do this often enough to have the details committed to memory. This procedure is not intuitively obvious.

Take your time and be careful. Those knives will slice a finger wide open in a blink of the eye. DON'T BLINK!

beeg · Post by **beeg** » Sun May 10, 2009 12:34 pm

That sounds like a good plan. Sharpen one knife and then install it. That way it'll break up the procedure and maybe not be so tedious setting all 3 blades at once?

shydragon · Post by **shydragon** » Sat May 16, 2009 10:56 am

Question about sharpening planer and jointer knives. The paper we get from SS, (the finest being 150), is that fine enough for planer/jointer blades?

billmayo · Post by **billmayo** » Sat May 16, 2009 1:02 pm

shydragon wrote:Question about sharpening planer and jointer knives. The paper we get from SS, (the finest being 150), is that fine enough for planer/jointer blades?

It is what I have been using for many years. I find the Wixey Angle Gauge is excellant for determining the angle you want on the knives as there are many schools of thoughts on the proper angle (37 to 47 degrees) to use. I try to match the existing knife angle so very little metal is removed when sharpening each knife.

curiousgeorge · Post by **curiousgeorge** » Sat May 16, 2009 9:56 pm

How about checking with Ole Nick about this?

...

http://www.shopsmithacademy.com/SS_Arch ... Knives.htm

nuhobby · Post by **nuhobby** » Sun May 17, 2009 7:21 am

I also recall a thread in which Nick said that repeated passes over the 150 grit conical disk, with the same guide setup, produced lighter sanding each time, which was more or less as effective as going to finer grades of paper.

JPG · Post by **JPG** » Sun May 17, 2009 1:44 pm

nuhobby wrote:I also recall a thread in which Nick said that repeated passes over the 150 grit conical disk, with the same guide setup, produced lighter sanding each time, which was more or less as effective as going to finer grades of paper.

Sort of! The repeated passes grind off the high spots left when the previous pass left them due to the motion of the blades past the hills and valleys of the 'grit'.

A finer grit will leave smaller hills and valleys.

Multiple passes is better than one, but finer grit is better still(those hills and valleys are also on the cutting edge)!