Sharpen own chipper blades? Tormek?

[richy_B]

I am thinking of buying a small grinder and planer jig to sharpen my chipper blades on. Mainly the blades for a Farmi 260 which are 300mm x 135mm x 14mm.  I was looking the Tormek T8 and their planer jig.  Anyone used it or similar?  Any reviews?

 

I can use postal services for sharpening but the pain in the arse of packaging, dropping to the post office, hoping they get there, waiting a week, hoping they get back and so on is starting to p*ss me off!  Usually ends up costing me about £40 to get two blades sharpened so its not a huge issue to sped £400 odd on a grinder.  

 

Obviously need a decent grinder but the main aim is I can just pop the blades out,  sharpen up and put them straight back in.  

 

 

Edited January 3, 2021 by richy_B

[lux]

I am thinking of buying a small grinder and planer jig to sharpen my chipper blades on. Mainly the blades for a Farmi 260 which are 300mm x 135mm x 14mm.  I was looking the Tormek T8 and their planer jig.  Anyone used it or similar?  Any reviews?
 
I can use postal services for sharpening but the pain in the arse of packaging, dropping to the post office, hoping they get there, waiting a week, hoping they get back and so on is starting to p*ss me off!  Usually ends up costing me about £40 to get two blades sharpened so its not a huge issue to sped £400 odd on a grinder.  
 
Obviously need a decent grinder but the main aim is I can just pop the blades out,  sharpen up and put them straight back in.  
 


 

Do you not send them in batches ? Most people I know usually rotate 6/7 sets and send say 4 away at a time for sharpening. Makes postage much more economical.
I’ve got a tormek for other tools. I think you will be frustrated using it for chipper blades. Bit too substantial. It’s more for rough shaping of chisels etc before getting them onto the wet stones after.

[richy_B]

1 hour ago, lux said:

Do you not send them in batches ? Most people I know usually rotate 6/7 sets and send say 4 away at a time for sharpening. Makes postage much more economical.
I’ve got a tormek for other tools. I think you will be frustrated using it for chipper blades. Bit too substantial. It’s more for rough shaping of chisels etc before getting them onto the wet stones after.

Farmi blades are £250 a set so 6 or 7 would be a hell of a spend. 

 

I have had a set 'lost in the post' as well. 

 

It's more about reducing the amount of messing about. Spending 20 minutes sharpening some blades is preferable to sending them away. 

 

This tormeks have a wetstone on it. 

Edited January 3, 2021 by richy_B

[richy_B]

10 minutes ago, Scottish Cleaning Service said:

I have one of those Tormek grinding wheels and they are great for small stuff. Because stone is always wet you can't burn the steel but it would be a slow process for a grinder blade. I will buy the attachment and see how it goes but I'm looking at a CBN wheel which seems to be in fashion now.

Thanks.

 

This comes with a choice of wheels, of which think a CBN wheel is an option.

 

This unit is advertised as a planer sharpener and there are people doing 500mm blades on them (if you can trust a YouTube demo!).

[lux]

Farmi blades are £250 a set so 6 or 7 would be a hell of a spend. 
 
I have had a set 'lost in the post' as well. 
 
It's more about reducing the amount of messing about. Spending 20 minutes sharpening some blades is preferable to sending them away. 
 
This tormeks have a wetstone on it. 

They are all wet stones one side and honing leather the other.
I don’t think it’ll be great on the tormek tbh.

[richy_B]

12 minutes ago, lux said:

They are all wet stones one side and honing leather the other.
I don’t think it’ll be great on the tormek tbh.


 

Appreciate the feedback, thanks. 

[richy_B]

8 minutes ago, Scottish Cleaning Service said:

I'm a joiner to trade so I have the first Tormek to come out and looks like they haven't changed. I will let you know how I get on when my blade jig arrives.

Be good to hear how you get on with it. 

[richy_B]

1 minute ago, Scottish Cleaning Service said:

I didn't even know you could get the jig and my Tormek has been sitting about doing very little. What it will be great for is putting an edge on the blade but may need a CBN wheel on an Ordinary bench grinder to smooth it out. 😉

Trial and error. You never really know anything till you've done it yourself. I just like to see what others are saying/thinking.

 

I've bought bits and pieces over the years after it looked great on YouTube only to find it's crap in real life conditions. 

Edited January 3, 2021 by richy_B

[lux]

Trial and error. You never really know anything till you've done it yourself. I just like to see what others are saying/thinking.
 
I've bought bits and pieces over the years after it looked great on YouTube only to find it's crap in real life conditions. 

Haven’t we all done that far too much [emoji23][emoji23] that process of convincing yourself it could be good just to find out as you really suspected it’s crap.

[aatimbers]

We use it on all of our chippers. Planner jig had to have spacers for the clamp to work well, I changed the standard grinding wheel over to the black wheel, BUT I found catch the blades early for grinding or it takes a longer time grinding more off damaged blades.