Planer blade sharpening jig

[MikeG.]

My back is stuffed at the moment, so I'm just fiddling about. Rather than laying concrete, which was the original plan, I decided to have a go at making a jig for sharpening my planer knives. Now, it's easy to think of a simple jig to hold the knives in place before running a diamond plate over the top of them, but my plates are fixed down into a board. I'm not buying new ones just for this job, so I came up with a way of holding the knives and taking them to the plates, in the way you would with any other edge. Electrons were disturbed in the making of this:

By design, the angle between the blades is just a tad under 90 degrees, which means that the leading edges only will be sharpened, rather than the whole of the bevel. In effect I am putting on a secondary bevel. I expect I'll sharpen the blades 3 or 4 times before sending them off for regrinding.

Previously, I had always left the knives in the planer too long, and had sent them off each time to a sharpening service. Now, I've no excuse and should be able to keep keen edges on my planer blades all the time.

 

[Daniel2]

I do like that....
Also the fact that you can do 2 at once. Genius

Hope the back gets better soon.
ATB,
Daniel

 

[sammy.se]

Sorry to hear about your back, hope you feel better soon!

 

[SammyQ]

Wow. Just trying to work out a) how you came up with those shapes and b) cut them accurately...impressive. Respect Fella.

Sam

 

[MikeG.]

It's a pair of rebates out of a square, then the edge planed off. The wood was squared up on the PT (because planing hurts my back). The little bracket/ clamp thingies were just cut out of scrap on the bandsaw.

If anyone copies this, don't make the mistake I did of making the rebates deeper than the thickness of your knives. They should ideally be just a gnat's under the knife thickness.

 

[sploo]

I've seen a lot of over the top, fiddly, planer knife jigs, but that's a really nice, simple, effective (and also quite aesthetically pleasing) solution. I'd make one... if it weren't for the fact my planer has three knives

 

[MikeG.]

.......I'd make one... if it weren't for the fact my planer has three knives

Then you need a total of 7 knives. Four out the planer at any time, so one will be unnecessarily sharpened each sharpening session. Just keep a careful track of which ones to use and when.

 

[Steliz]

That looks pretty good Mike. I was looking at the various designs to do this myself just recently and I had decided on a similar approach. Once my current project is complete I'll knock one together. I also have the same diamond plates.

 

[MusicMan]

Neat and very ingenious.

 

[SammyQ]

"It's a pair of rebates out of a square, then the edge planed off....The little bracket/ clamp thingies were just cut out of scrap on the bandsaw. "

Ahh! Penny droppeth! Still nice.

Thanks, Sam

 

[sploo]

Then you need a total of 7 knives. Four out the planer at any time, so one will be unnecessarily sharpened each sharpening session. Just keep a careful track of which ones to use and when.

Interesting idea. I wonder if there would be any problem imbalancing the knives, but I guess the difference would be tiny.

 

[Trevanion]

I do mine freehand on a dished Norton india oil stone, rounded bevel of course.

 

[Joiner Jim]

Nice solution. I've always used a piece of squared stock with a 45' enlarged saw kerf taking the plate to the stone, you rdesign is much better.

 

[Doug B]

I do mine freehand on a dished Norton india oil stone, rounded bevel of course.

All these mod cons what’s wrong with the door step?

 

[Starling]

Then you need a total of 7 knives. Four out the planer at any time, so one will be unnecessarily sharpened each sharpening session. Just keep a careful track of which ones to use and when.

I have two sets of blades (three in each set). I use the first set, when they are dull I swap in the next set and when they are dull I sharpen all six blades in a similar jig (not as nice as the subject jig!) two at a time. This process means that all the blades are ground down at a similar rate with a consistent-ish secondary bevel.

 

[Steve Maskery]

If you have 3 to sharpen, you can do them in pairs, counting the number of strokes. A+B, A+C, B+C.

 

[gmercer_48083]

I have a Dewalt 2 blade model. I place the blades into the jig, and with the jig clamped to the bench... I lap them with a diamond plate. Very easy and effective.

 

[MikeG.]

Yeah, but as I said, that means having a loose diamond plate. If your diamond plates are fixed into a board, that type doesn't work.

 

[gmercer_48083]

Yeah, but as I said, that means having a loose diamond plate. If your diamond plates are fixed into a board, that type doesn't work.

To remove heavy Knicks you can also use a single cut mill file to draw file. To do this you hold the file to a right angle to the knives and stroke the file from left to right without pushing the file forward while keeping an even downward pressure. After, you can use a fine stone or fine sandpaper stuck to a board, if you don't have a diamond plate. Planer blades generally are sharp using 600 grit.

 

[MikeG.]

My back is stuffed at the moment, so I'm just fiddling about. Rather than laying concrete, which was the original plan, I decided to have a go at making a jig for sharpening my planer knives. Now, it's easy to think of a simple jig to hold the knives in place before running a diamond plate over the top of them, but my plates are fixed down into a board. I'm not buying new ones just for this job, so I came up with a way of holding the knives and taking them to the plates, in the way you would with any other edge. Electrons were disturbed in the making of this:

By design, the angle between the blades is just a tad under 90 degrees, which means that the leading edges only will be sharpened, rather than the whole of the bevel. In effect I am putting on a secondary bevel. I expect I'll sharpen the blades 3 or 4 times before sending them off for regrinding.

Previously, I had always left the knives in the planer too long, and had sent them off each time to a sharpening service. Now, I've no excuse and should be able to keep keen edges on my planer blades all the time.

Is anyone else not seeing these images? They've disappeared for me.