HF electric sharpener for table/miter saw blades

[shane lyall]

http://www.harborfreight.com/120-volt-circular-saw-blade-sharpener-96687.html
Anyone ever try this thing? I have 8-10 blades in the shop that could use a touch up at the very least and a few that need much more. I'm thinking about picking one up with a -20% coupon when I catch it on sale. I'd try it out on my junk blades but wondering if anyone else has one?

[Peter Quinn]

I have not tried it, and I will not try it. Have you seen the machines used to regrind modern carbide blades? They are CNC, they are very precise, they use a coolant flood system to minimize heat, they adjust for all the various hook angles of different blades, they do ATB, FTG, TCG, and they leave a blade perfectly balanced. They cost in the neighbor hood of $150K for a pair, one face grinder, one tooth grinder, at a minimum. We have had blades come back from the sharpening service which uses one of these CNC machines and do to some glitch one single tooth was left proud, so the blade is out of balance and one tooth on a 24 th rip blade is doing more cutting than the rest. Man, that is the scariest thing I have ever felt, pushing wood into an out of balanced saw blade.

I have a really hard time believing that jig is going to give acceptable results for a blade you will be spinning at 3500 RPM in a TS or miter box.

[Larry Edgerton]

Keep in mind as well that carbide dust is a serious carcinegen.

[John McClanahan]

This question has been brought up before. Those who have bought one are generally happy with them. Setting up requires a bit of sighting in, as there isn't much in setup marks to go by. I wouldn't try sharpening an expensive blade with it, but if I could pick on up on sale with a 20% off coupon, I have plenty of common blades that I could try out on it.

John

[shane lyall]

My father in law is an inside track club member. Me and the Mrs were over for dinner tonight and I always thumb thru his coupon book they send every week or so. It's, I think, $60 to the public now. His discount coupon has it on sale for $39 bucks! For that price it's worth a try I think. I have to take some clamps back anyway so I'll pick one up and give it a shot. FWIW the quick grips are worse than usless. A couple of the broke the first time used and the only reason the others didn't was because they won't grip tight enough. The F style clamps are ok though.

[scott spencer]

A good blade can cost ~ $100, and $40 well spent can even buy a good blade...I'd rather spend the $40 toward a decent blade. It's usually ~ $15-$20 to have a competent sharpener do the resharpening. A fresh edge can last a couple of years for a hobbyist. I'm with Peter...the blade is a huge factor in the end performance of a saw, I just wouldn't even attempt to sharpen my own saw blades with that device.

[Myk Rian]

I've heard nothing but bad about it. It doesn't have any accuracy built in.
Read the reviews. 3+ stars isn't enough to convince me.

[John P. Smith]

come on guys, give this thing a break!! Didn't you notice that this is not your run-of-the mill Chicago Electric tool, but the "PROFESSIONAL" model???:D

Not only that, but quoting directly from the HF web site:

"Electric Circular-Saw Blade Sharpener sharpens blades faster than if you did it by hand".

I know you are all tired from hand-sharpening 80 carbide teeth, so bite the bullet and go with this "PROFESSIONAL" tool.

[Tom Ewell]

If you have a rough framing blade or two worth the risk then what the heck, give it a go and let us know how you like it, particularly if the settings hold true while sharpening.

Back when, it was routine to touch up steel blades with eyeball and file so a stable jig and diamond cutter for carbide might not be so bad.

[Mike Schuch]

I have a stack of 7 1/4" skill saw blades that are too cheap to pay to sharpen... hmm... I don't think I would gamble on of my 15" Freud Ultimate Cut Off blades though.

[Matt Day]

I agree with most of the others. No way would I let that thing close to my TS blades. Circular saw blades for framing, maybe a different story, but even then new blades are so cheap why bother with something that likely has sub-sub-par results?

I can get my TS blades sharpened to perfection locally for less than $15, and turned around in less than a day.

[shane lyall]

I picked one up and gave it a try on some junker oem blades. I use them when cutting somthing that may have a brad or staple in it. It is a pure pain to get set up but actually did a pretty good job on them. I used it on a cheap steel plywood blade and it was great after a trip thru the machine. Well...as good as new but that isn't great I guess.

Bottom line is I don't have a good saw shop local so I think I'll keep it but I don't know I'll use it on any of my red blades. For $40 I think it does what it's ment to.

[matt wormmeester]

I have one of these, it is used for the "junker" blades. I wouldn't try doing a Forrest on it, but for 40 bucks it works surprisingly well. Need to be careful about setting up, but it only takes a few minutes to do a 24 toother. I use the diamond wheel it came with and touch up the faces of the carbide. I am happy with it.

[Alan Schwabacher]

Notice the replacement wheels for it are 100 and 180 grit. Some sharpening places use 600 grit, and badmouth other places for using 400 grit.