Old ELU DAH176 planer knives

[Alasdair]

Hi there, New on here so hope I got the correct forum. I am reconditioning an old planer ELU DAH 176. Date stamp is 1983. I am having no luck finding replacement knives. Any I have come accross for this machine are different than the ones fitted. The knives are 210mm long x 16mm wide and 3mm thick. They are reversible and have a continuous groove running down the back. The groove is 2mm wide and 1mm deep and is rounded at base. I found one photo online from a german/swedish forum which say Elu no longer have these knives. Any help would be most apprerciated or any other knives that may fit.

 

[toolsntat]

Good day to you Alasdair.
If you contact Jeremy at Appleby Woodturnings and ask him if they don't list them.
Despite the company name he is also a tooling supplier with a wealth of knowledge.
Hope he can help you.
Cheers Andy

https://www.applebywoodturnings.co.uk/

 

[clogs]

often those groove do nothing.....cant say they are there for fun.....
SO if they dont sit on a radius lump/lip and the faces of the block are smooth any blade of the correct size will fit.....
but I'm gonna guess these blades have a fixed location, therefore no blade hight adjustment.....
be good to have a photo of the blade block to be sure......interesting...

 

[Alasdair]

Thank you, will give appleby a go and see if they can help.

As for the groove there is a ridge on the block that the knife matches up with. The block and blade are then adjusted in height with a row of vertical grub screws and then held in place by tightening a a row of horizontal bolts. I assume the grooves are for alignment and safety. Sorry no picture at moment as there sitting in a bucket of petrol and diesel mix to free up the grubscrews.
This is the planer I have. ELU DAH176 1983. Not my pic but exactly the same.

 

[Sideways]

If you look at Elu's MFF80 handheld power plane, you will see a similar profile on the replaceable blades. Your's will be longer than 80mm though

 

[Alasdair]

Had a look at most elu blades and the ones that have similar profile are a lot narrower and thinner as well as shorter. Sent a few emails with pictures to some companies I havent tried yet so will have to wait and see. The only reference I have is from a swedish/german forum and the coments were that Elu or whoever manufactured them no longer do so I am hoping someone may have some old stock lying around. My only other option will be to try and get a different knife block and knives that I can make fit although that would probably be too expensive. I have a parts diagram but it doesn't cover the cutter assembly so I assume it may have been that you could specify specific blades etc when buying the machine.
Thanks
Alasdair

 

[toolsntat]

Just thinking out the box here but I wonder if they changed from one style of cutting blades to the other but kept the same block. If they did, might you be able to get the other parts to take standard blades?
PLEASE NOTE.... this should only be considered if it's a 100% the same block.
Cheers Andy

 

[Alasdair]

Hi Andy, thought of that but every other blade I have come across with a groove is on the wrong side or they have slots rather than a continuous groove and are single edged. Most of the blades I have looked at are also thinner. These seem quite thick at 3mm and wider at 16mm. I keep looking for a second hand machine for parts but they dont seem to be any about.
Thanks
Alasdair

 

[Alasdair]

Quick update re blades. I am still waiting for a reply from appleby but think I have found a source in Germany. The company is Wesema.de and they do list them and I got an email saying that they are a stock item. According to their catalogue there pretty expensive at 44 euro each plus I assume there is VAT and import tax plus carriage. Will have a good look over the planer. I think the feed rollers arent good but apart from that not much else wrong. May need to fabricate a top guard as I seem to have misplaced the one I had.
Thanks
Alasdair

 

[clogs]

of course as u have a pattern it wouldnt be so dif to get the groove placed into a generic HSS blade of the same size.....to keep costs down get 4 or more blades done at the same time....look at firms that sharpen printer's guilliotine, they have extensive complicated grinder set ups.....as well as HSS blade stock......
most will do it to fill the brew tin with T bags....the firm we used was in S Manchester, sorry cant remember the name but they were in Wythenshaw.....and everybody posts stuff now....
I know we used them to grind other stuff than blades a time or two.....
44 euro's plus plus, does seem a tad expensive.....but thats Germany for u....

 

[dickm]

Is "Cutting Solutions" still a member? He used to be able to do custom blades.

 

[Alasdair]

Thanks for that. I just found a reference to cutting solutions on here and emailed them. Hopefully they may be able to help.
Don't know why they are so expensive in Germany. I reckon it will be around £100 plus for two blades delivered. Others in the catalogue were quite reasonable. I could understand if they were carbide but these are HSS. Maybe because they are unusual but I received an email saying they have them in stock. Waiting for a reply re import tax etc.
Thanks again
Alasdair

 

[Inspector]

Digging up this old thread because I found blades that are either the same or very close. They are called CentroLock Planer blades. They show the width as 16mm and the thickness as 3mm. They don't give the groove dimensions but is sure looks close when scaled up.

https://www.scosarg.com/tooling/pla...planer-blades?product_list_order=manufacturer
https://www.applebywoodturnings.co.uk/planer-blades/weinig-centrolock.html
I'll cross post this information in the other thread. Is there anyone who can re machine/make planer knives

Hopefully they are the answer.
Pete