Shaper Cutter Acquisition and sharpening

[Stephen Cherry]

Hey everybody- I was able to buy a bunch of shaper cutters from a cabinet shop that was reorganizing. I'm pretty happy about it because there are plenty of nice profiles that all together would have been financially out of my reach. 3 nice Freeborn cabinet door sets, a Freeborn v paneling set, a freeborn double sided door set, an lrh door set, and on and on. The problem is that some are sharper than others. All look to be usable as is. The question is sharpening the door sets. Is this something I should send to Freeborn to have done, and how much would it cost per set?


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[Mike Heidrick]

Mike Jackson at Leitz Tooling (mjackson at leitztooling dot com) might be able to help you out. Oella Saw and tool might be able to sharpen them too. Price will be quoted from both. Mike helped me bore some cutters - he is great.

From Freeborn's site.
Question: Who do you recommend sharpen your cutters, and can they be retipped? [ top (http://www.freeborntool.com/faq.html#top) ] Answer: Any qualified sharpener should be able to properly sharpen our sets. They do need to use a CBN wheel to sharpen our T-Alloy sets. On Cope and Pattern sets, it is a good idea after several sharpenings to have the set sent back to us so we can sharpen and match the set to ensure a good fit. We can retip any of our cutters providing there is no damage to the body or bore.

[Stephen Cherry]

Oella Saw and tool might be able to sharpen them too.

I've been to Oella many times, and have watched Dave sharpen some cutters that I bought. He does a super job. I'm just wondering if freeborn would have access to patterns or machines for the particular cutters to match the cope and pattern cuts.

[Mike Heidrick]

That is what the note says. They made me a cutter to match a LRH set as well. They do amazing work. That cutter was about $300 though so its not cheap but their work is perfect.

I would start with oella though if you know them for sure. If they cant help you then pay for the source at freeborn - or send a few at a time to freeborn (by the set) and get them caught up over time.

I went to a Garniga and a Freud insert RP cutter so now I just buy inserts for those. I hope to get insert C/P (R/S) sets someday. Big coin!

[Peter Quinn]

I'd go back to Freeborn for their matched sets. We've had problems at work where their sets don't quite match after several sharpenings, they turn into paint grade only sets. Sent them back to freeborn, they return perfect again. Cost? Have to talk to them, probably depends on the size of the set, number of cutters, condition. They sure do a good job. For non mating sets it probably won't make much difference, might be cheaper to use your regular grinding shop.

[Stephen Cherry]

I'd go back to Freeborn for their matched sets. We've had problems at work where their sets don't quite match after several sharpenings, they turn into paint grade only sets. Sent them back to freeborn, they return perfect again. Cost? Have to talk to them, probably depends on the size of the set, number of cutters, condition. They sure do a good job. For non mating sets it probably won't make much difference, might be cheaper to use your regular grinding shop.

Thanks for the good advice.

[Mel Fulks]

I've seen some get out of adjustment,too;but with the best local sharpener we never had any problem. Alas,he is now gone. A couple of times heard guys complaining that cope and stick pieces would not pull up ;when I looked at the setup noticed that they had RPM set under 10,000.The smaller (aprox. 21/2 inch diameter) really need the faster speed. I use 10000 on the larger sets too. No one ever believes low speed can make a good set seem defective until they see it. I have only seen proper speed for sets stressed in print one time. That was for a Grizlly set.