Show us your sharpening setups!

[doobin]

On this pissing wet day I'm in the workshop catching up on sharpening. There's a good few interesting setups scattered around the forum, from clever truck mounted vices to computer controlled, ten chains a minute setups to drool over 🤣, and I thought it would be good to have them all in one place for others to learn from.

 

Here's mine. For the chainsaws, the Orgeon hydraulic clamping jobby with Baltic Abrasives CBN wheels. A little addition is the cooling setup- just a basic Chinese mist cooling nozzle fed by an compressor airline. It draws from the bottle mounted in a cut down aerosol can screwed to the base board, and sprays a mist of plain water directly at the cutter whilst sharpening. This is giving me simply fantastic results, and I'd say the water cooling and CBN wheels will solve any issues people have with burnt cutters when setup correctly. Setting depth gauges I find easier to do with the Stihl professional gauge and a 120 grit ceramic belt on a little Milwaukee powerfile- you have a bit more nuance.

 

For the bandsaws, it's the cheapest Oregon grinder with a Baltic Abrasives CBN wheel manufactured in the profile of the Ripper 37s that I use. My mods to this are removing the disc cover, reversing the indexing tab (and adding a cable tie) and a trampoline spring on the back to bring it back up on it's own. Oh, and as the depth stop is critical the silly plastic knob was replaced with an M8 bolt and locknut. With a couple of blocks to keep the band in a neutral position as it goes around, you can set the clamp 'just so' and easily index it by gloved hand, using the indexing tab as a fairly accurate guide and allowing the wheel for 'float' the band into the exact loaction as you sharpen.

 

You can also see the flue of the massive sawdust burner that keeps me warm whilst standing still...

 

Edited December 10, 2023 by doobin

[Stubby]

Rubin . I only have a file . 🙂

[gdh]

I do a fair bit of sharpening with all the saws and a processor so I put the saws in a vice to get the best position and hand file.

 

For the processor and bigger saw chains I used to use an old bar screwed to the side of the work bench because it's quicker than undoing the vice but now I've got a Markusson triplematic which has been working well. 

 

It's a mess today I know 😉

[Syncroon]

To sharpen the Greenmech disc knives I bought an old valve grinding machine for little money. I sawed off the head of an M12x160 bolt so that it could be clamped into the holder. With an end stop (keyway milled and secured with loctite) and a 12mm solder socket as a spacer, I can clamp the knives in a centered position. Sharpening angle adjustable and all four knives can easily be sharpened to the same setting. Just needs to replace a new grinding wheel and cooling pipes. I think I can go grinding after Christmas...

[Justme]

What are people doing to grinding the rakers back?

[GarethM]

A file.

[tree-fancier123]

I found these quicker on small saws than my Carlton grinder, so much better than using a guage for rakers

[doobin]

On 27/12/2023 at 13:55, Justme said:

What are people doing to grinding the rakers back?

I like the Stihl professional depth gauges, and for the actual stock removal, an m12 Milwaukee ‘power file’. 
 

Technically my grinder can be set to lower the rakers, but it’s such a faff involving changing the discs, angles, chain and depth stops that I don’t bother. 
 

The power file is magic. I use ceramic belts on it, 60 grit removes depth gauges quickly at a nice gentle ramp and you soon get the hang of how much pressure and how long. Check every few teeth with the stihl gauge. I’d say it’s just as controllable as a file, if not more so as we all know how easily the file can skip on hard rakers or the opposite ones. It’s got two speed ranges, both variable. You can even set the belt to go the other way to push the sparks away from you. A really well designed tool. 
 

A 120 grit ceramic belt is ideal for dressing the bar. Brilliant tool for this kind of thing, it’s much quicker, easier and cheaper on consumables than a file. If you want to get finicky, a surface conditioning belt will make the bar rails factory smooth to finish off. 
 

https://www.powertoolworld.co.uk/milwaukee-m12-fbfl13-0-12v-13mm-brushless-belt-sander-file-body-only

Edited December 29, 2023 by doobin