HF Saw Blade Sharpener

[Dennis Lopeman]

Does anyone have any exp. w/ this:
http://www.harborfreight.com/cpi/ctaf/displayitem.taf?Itemnumber=96687

Or can make a better recommendation.

My wife is going to be out that way today (like 60 miles away!) and she's asking me for a shopping list! LOL

ANyway - I just recently got a bunch of blades (off a craiglist purchase) for free and want to "shape" them up...

TIA

[CPeter James]

If the blades are worth anything at all, get them sharpened by a professional sharpener. If they are a premium blades, send them to Ridge Carbide. Ridge will send them back sharper than new.
http://www.ridgecarbidetool.com/

CPeter

[Phil Thien]

I have one. It would be ideal but the "wheel" it comes with is really just a diamond saw blade. It is simply too coarse to use for sharpening. I've thought about buying a different (actual) wheel on eBay, but haven't done so yet.

[Peter Quinn]

The equipment and training necessary to accurately sharpen and balance modern carbide saw blades is well beyond the reach of all but the largest commercial operations. I find it hard to believe the machine listed will do anything even approaching an acceptable job. I'd find a good sharpening service either locally or through the mail. I know of no wood workers, either professional or amateur that have successfully sharpened carbide tooling in their own shop.

[Dennis Lopeman]

yeah - I read a bunch more everywhere - mostly bad stuff... so called the wife and cancled the order...

Thanks guys

[Tom Walz]

It shows it sharpening what looks like a 7 1/4" disposable blade. If you wanted to do the work to get a sharpening out of a cheap blade it would probably be about right.

For half a million more you can get a real machine - see the video
http://www.cookssharpening.com/index.html

For a couple million you can have a real shop
http://www.cookssharpening.com/id3.html

Tim is one of the best but not unique. Nice guy as well.

tom

[Dennis Lopeman]

oh - that was just awesome! I need to get me one of these: VOLLMER CHD 270 W/ ND230 ROBOT

[Charles McCracken]

oh - that was just awesome! I need to get me one of these: VOLLMER CHD 270 W/ ND230 ROBOT

Here's what it looks like when you have a bunch of those machines rolling:

http://www.freud.it/Resources/htmlarea/images/f1_prodlame.jpg

http://www.freud.it/Resources/htmlarea/images/f5_prodlame.jpg

[Dennis Lopeman]

Holy Crap!!

But these aren't sharpening, right??? They must be MAKING blades, too... ?

If its just sharpening then WOW - I'm in the wrong business!

[Peter Quinn]

I checked out some sharpening equipment for goofs at an industrial woodworking show in May. Seems you are looking at about $75,000 bare bones entry level for the equipment necessary to sharpen and balance quality high speed carbide tooling. And it gets rich quick from there. You can drop a million no problem for a production line set up as that post shows.

With saw blades and quality shaper cutters sharpening is a no brainer, cheaper to have them sharpened than replaced. But with some of my router bits, particularrly simple profiles from Freud its a hard call. They sell a great cutter at such a low price point that the cost of sharpening is often break even versus the cost of replacement. I feel guilty throwing away a carbide cutter that has never been sharpened, but I feel stupid having them sharpened when the new ones cost the same thing and nothing beats a brand new Freud cutter.

Now Amana and whiteside make it easier for me, because they cost so much that its cheaper to sharpen them. Freud, your low prices are making my life hard! As for cheap low grade tooling, I find it easier to throw away than to use. I don't like spinning a poorly made cutter or blade at 3450-22,000 RPM, seems dangerous.

[Joe Petersen]

***http://www.hobartwelders.com/weldtalk/showthread.php?t=30331***

Here is a good write-up for how well the grinder works.

[Mike Heidrick]

Depending on the right sale and coupon this would be an EXCELLENT machine to sharpen the blades on my brushcutter!! Thanks for the heads up.