In situ bandsaw blade sharpener?

[ian maybury]

Just wondering if anybody offers one? Stock blades tend not to be well sharpened - even from new.

Anything i've seen involves either taking the blade off the saw (which seems daft when the saw amounts to as neat a blade presentation device as can be imagined), or working by hand with a Dremel or similar.

It seems like it ought to be very possible to come up with a device that would clamp into place and do the business. It'd need to index the blade forward to a stop against each second tooth, the grinder would need to be adjustable in two axes for angle and to have an adjustable stop, to accept different profile wheels to give a correctly formed gullet, to flip over to do the opposing teeth, to have a tooth topping setting, to be able to handle side facing/set adjustment, to handle different tooth pitches etc

Even better if it was precise enough to handle carbide blades...

Seems like it could probably be done simply enough to be a cost effective option for single users? Band fatigue life might be an issue, especially on smaller wheeled saws?

[Chuck Hart]

You got to ask yourself how much is your time worth. New blades are not that expensive much less trying to sharpen carbide.

[ian maybury]

That depends on how much work the device requires. It ought to be possible to get one to index and grind more or less automatically.

[Jeff Duncan]

Carbide requires special precautions to grind as the dust is toxic. However steel bands could be sharpened in situ. Now that you mention it…..seems like a good device that may not have been invented yet! Something that can mount simply and quickly to any machine and hold a Dremel or similar type of tool in place. Lt me know when you get it worked out as I may want one;)

good luck,
JeffD

[Jim Andrew]

If you can build one reasonably, I would like one too. Might check out the cat claw sharpener Cooks builds to sharpen bandsaw mill blades. Of course, they have one tooth every 7/8". You take the blade off the saw, and it has arms to hold the blade up as it rotates it around.

[ian maybury]

:) That's what's called having your bluff called! Thanks for the leads guys. I'll definitely have a think about it, but it'd require coming up with a good solution.

The carbide dust has to be an issue all right. I don't know, but wouldn't be surprised if it's normally done wet.

[Peter Kelly]

Just wondering if anybody offers one? Stock blades tend not to be well sharpened - even from new.

Anything i've seen involves either taking the blade off the saw (which seems daft when the saw amounts to as neat a blade presentation device as can be imagined), or working by hand with a Dremel or similar.

It seems like it ought to be very possible to come up with a device that would clamp into place and do the business. It'd need to index the blade forward to a stop against each second tooth, the grinder would need to be adjustable in two axes for angle and to have an adjustable stop, to accept different profile wheels to give a correctly formed gullet, to flip over to do the opposing teeth, to have a tooth topping setting, to be able to handle side facing/set adjustment, to handle different tooth pitches etcYou don't want to grind the gullet or the face part of the tooth, just the back and it should only take 1-2 seconds per when free handing with a rotary tool. The results are certainly worth it even if the blade is brand new.

Jack Forsberg just did a demo of sharpening a blade w/o removing from the saw:


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3v02KWA7my8