Replies

1. 
   hamelech | Jan 08, 2005 07:11pm | #1

   Bleu,

   You plane wood with the knives that you have, not the knives that you might want or wish to have.....

   I have a DeWalt 733 planer, which uses standard knives that can be resharpened. New knives sell for about$45/set; a pro shop charges roughly 75 cents per inch for sharpening (if I remember my pricing).

   Maybe the re-sharpenable knives work out to being cheaper to operate over time, presuming you get 2-3 rounds of life in a knife, but I think it really works out to being a wash. For portable planers, I would offer that the knives are considered to be consumable items, just like razor cartridges. Besi

   If the spiral-style cutting heads like the Byrd Shelix take hold in the market (that'll take some time!), replaceable carbide inserts will be the norm. Of course, the market place is nowhere near that, but I like the concept.

2. 
   forestgirl | Jan 08, 2005 08:06pm | #2

   Which jointer did you buy, Bleu??

   Given how common disposable blades are on planers, I tend to think there's no major disadvantage.  What's the cost of a replacement set?? 

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)
   Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

1. 
   DennisS | Jan 09, 2005 07:54am | #3

   Jamie -Disposable knives may not have any disadvantages but my mind set goes against just throwing things away. At least with the 'standard' knives from my little DeWalt planer, I can grind them into turning tools once they've become too far gone to be resharpened for the planer. Or several other uses around the shop for such items. Not knowing much about disposable planer knives, are they big enough to be useable for other things once they're replaced?...........
   From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
   Dennis

1. 
   forestgirl | Jan 09, 2005 06:44pm | #4

   Hi Dennis.  They might be a little thin to use for turning.  I've only replaced one set so far.  I use one as a straight edge when checking jointer knives.  I'm going to mount one on a board to use to cut sandpaper with.  Probably could make scrapers out of them.

   I try to make up for my disposable knives by recycling as much cardboard/glass/plastic/newspaper as I can, LOL!forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

1. 
   DennisS | Jan 09, 2005 07:43pm | #5

   Jamie -One of the millworkers on a project a few years ago was also a blacksmith. He'd take the used disp. planer knives home and use them to make mokume (Japanese folded steel) pieces. Never saw the end results but I've seen jewelry done in mokume and it's quite beautiful.Ever considered building a forge? (grin)...........
   From Beautiful Skagit Co. Wa.
   Dennis

1. 
   forestgirl | Jan 09, 2005 07:56pm | #6

   Hmmmmm, I have a friend who makes jewelry.  I'll ask if he can use them.  Me?  I just don't have any affinity for metal.  Get all worked up just drilling a hole, LOL.

   PS:  Thanks for sharing the snow!  We have all of about 3/4" this morning, my stepdaughter and grandson have a couple inches over closer to Hood Canal.  I love the white stuff!

   forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

   Edited 1/9/2005 11:57 am ET by forestgirl

2. 
   bleubassplyr | Jan 09, 2005 09:12pm | #8

   I bought a used Grizzly 12" jointer. It came with 2 extra sets of disposable blades and was delivered all for $1,000. It works great. I had to plug up some places under the tables to make dust collection more efficient, changed the blades, and put a longer cord on it. Other than that it worked great when I got it.

   I just sold my 10" planer so I'll be buying one of those next. You may have seen my posts in the Dewalt 735 threads lately. I'm leaning towards one of those. I really like the idea of the internal fan to blow the chips and dust out.There are more old drunkards than old doctors.  Ben Franklin

1. 
   forestgirl | Jan 10, 2005 02:48am | #9

   Wow, that sounds like an excellent deal! Have you looked in the Grizzly catalog to see how much it costs to convert one of those 12"-ers to a disposable system?! Not cheap. I don't have my catalog here at work, but I'm pretty sure they don't come stock with disposable set-up. Good job.Yep, if I needed a planer today, the new DeWalt is the way I'd go (now that they have the bearing problem fixed). Such a tank compared with other bench-top units, and the fan-forced chip ejection is supposed to work realllllly well.forestgirl -- you can take the girl out of the forest, but you can't take the forest out of the girl ;-)Another proud member of the  "I Rocked With ToolDoc Club" .... :>) 

1. 
   Biscardi | Jan 10, 2005 02:53am | #10

   I have this gorgeous set of chisles I inherited from a venerable old woodworker (Arno, God rest his soul, gave me hell once for saying, "Old timer") made out of old jointer blades. The cast off blades are valuable.

   Frank

    

3. 
   frenchy | Jan 09, 2005 08:56pm | #7

   Grizzly offers both regular and disposable knives for their 20 inch planer.. I recently switched from regular knives to disposable simply because has much as I hate to throw things away, driving to the place to get them sharpened and then driving back to pick them up takes far too much time (plus gas isn't free nowdays either) .. I bought the fixture to sharpen knives myself on my Tormax system but the results are never as good as what the pro's do and as a  result I wind up I'm spending too much time replacing blades.  

     Now I really use the heck out of my planner..  So far well over 20,000 bd.ft of wood has gone across that thing. (multiply that by 2 sides) a lot of oak (that really kills the life of blades) but almost all of it hardwoods..

     The effective cost of both is about the same.. I can buy disposable for what I pay to have my blades sharpened twice  (two cutting edges on the disposable blades) what I save is the the four trips.

     I also switched to disposables for the jointer..

     My 6 1/4 wide hand planer is still on regular blades but since I have over twenty sets of those I seldom need to go more than twice a month..  besides with saw blades and everything else I get sharpened I'm still going at least twice a month but now the bill is usually around $150.00 and not $400!