The Sharpening Machine

[Bushmiller]

The sharpening machine I have for my thicknesser and jointer is a little beauty in my highly biased opinion.

I did make some reference on the jointer thread so here it is. German made and dating from the mid 50s, it is a bench grinder that is traversed over the blades, which in turn are clamped to a bed. Completely manual with an adjusting screw to very gradually lower the wheel onto the blade.

The angle of the bed can be adjusted and I usually have set firly steeply to suit most of the dense hardwoods I plane.

The funny things is that until today, if you asked me the size of the motor I would have said 1/4HP but as you can plainly see from the spec plate it is 1 1/4HP (1KW).

It works extremely well and I sharpen all my electric plane blades on it as well as chipper blades for the mulcher.

Sharpening machine 005.jpgSharpening machine 004.jpgSharpening machine 001.jpgSharpening machine 002.jpgSharpening machine 003.jpg

Really the grinding wheel should have a guard. There is also a rest use for grinding primary bevels on chisels, but I have never used that.

Regards
Paul

[camoz]

Paul,

A dangerous move, listing this. The first thing I did was check your location. Nice compact design.

cheers,

Camo

[Bushmiller]

Paul,

A dangerous move, listing this. The first thing I did was check your location. Nice compact design.

cheers,

Camo

Camo

It's not bad is it and as you say compact but still a little weighty and uncomfortable to pick up single handed. If by myself I move the grinder separately to the base.

Regards
Paul

[joez]

Nice unit, I wonder if anyone makes a similar unit these days. You could probably use it of sharpening handplane blades as well I suppose.


joez

[Bushmiller]

Joez

I have seen sharpeners, but the blade seems to be the component moved, not the grinding device. I have not seen my style of sharpener anywhere else so I thought it might be of interest.

You could sharpen almost anything that can be clamped I suppose.

Regards
Paul

[China]

Most pro sharpening shops use this design except the wheel is run flat ( cup wheel) so it gives flat grind, very commonly Italian made,
some of the more expensive units are from Sweden

[wolften]

...now isn't that the duck's guts.
Haven't seen one of those ever. You'll have to video it in action Paul.

[Bushmiller]

...now isn't that the duck's guts.
Haven't seen one of those ever. You'll have to video it in action Paul.

Wolifie

I might have to take some advice on how to do that as my level of technology is pretty low. I'll see what I can do.

Regards
Paul

[localele]

It may work even better if you replace that Green wheel with a softer white one.The green is usually for Tungsten Carbide.

[Bushmiller]

It may work even better if you replace that Green wheel with a softer white one.The green is usually for Tungsten Carbide.

Michael

Now that is interesting. How that wheel came about was that a mutual friend of ours rehabed the machine before it was set up and he replaced the wheel. The original was just the standard grey wheel. I know he put that on there because of the 18% tungsten that is commonly present in planner blades.

However, from your comments the wheel is intended for pure tungsten and he was mistaken in his choice of wheel. I will have to look into that.

Thank you

Regards
Paul

[Avery]

Hmmm

I was going to say "I'll be there shortly", but I am just a bit too far away.

[rwbuild]

Hey Scotty, how long before you get that transporter ready....

[localele]

Michael

Now that is interesting. How that wheel came about was that a mutual friend of ours rehabed the machine before it was set up and he replaced the wheel. The original was just the standard grey wheel. I know he put that on there because of the 18% tungsten that is commonly present in planner blades.

However, from your comments the wheel is intended for pure tungsten and he was mistaken in his choice of wheel. I will have to look into that.

Thank you

Regards
Paul

Stay with a reasonably coarse wheel 46grit and you may find it grinds bit cooler.
The machine also looks to be at odds with itself.If that is a grinding rest for chisels near the wheel the stone would be spinning the wrong direction.It should be spinning towards the blade in the main holder which would be away from the manual rest.Does it have a reversing switch by any chance?

[BobL]

That's a sweet looking unit Paul.

The name plate says it's 3 Phase so it should be easy to engineer a reverse on it.

Better still (seeing it is a 220/380V motor) would be to use a small VFD and then you would have speed control as well.

Cheers
Bob

[Bushmiller]

Stay with a reasonably coarse wheel 46grit and you may find it grinds bit cooler.
The machine also looks to be at odds with itself.If that is a grinding rest for chisels near the wheel the stone would be spinning the wrong direction.It should be spinning towards the blade in the main holder which would be away from the manual rest.Does it have a reversing switch by any chance?

Michael

You had me going there for a moment . As I said, I have never sharpened chisels with this machine. The grinder spins clockwise so the direction is correct for a chisel or handplane blade. For the long blades that are clamped the grinder starts on the heel of the bevel and progresses towards the sharp end.

Regards
Paul