Planer blades appear to come in 2 basic flavors – reversible and resharpenable. Is there any advantage in a non resharpenable blade? I hate the idea to throw-aways but have no idea what’s involved with resharpening a planer blade. Can a non resharpenable blade be honed?
Burt
Replies
You can hone a disposable as long as it's not chipped. Disposable save time on blade changes. Virtually idiot proof so down time is eliminated and the cost of the knife should be a wash versus reharpening. The initial tooling is more but for a business the savings is in less down time.
Edited 10/13/2004 9:53 am ET by rick3ddd
Reversable or double sided blades are tough to sharpen and often get dinged and ruined in the process. Replacements are the only way to go but some would consider that expensive. We charge .65 (usd) per inch x 2 for a reversable with a 6.50 minimum. If my math is right, a 13" double sided set of blades for a two blade planer would cost 33.80 which is nearly the same as a new set.
As was stated in the previous post, the only appreciable savings in the disposa blade systems is downtime. But, I'll add frustration to the list just for good measure. They are a very nice alternative.
Sincerely;
The Tool Guy
What is the wear rate for blades? At the moment, I'm trying to decide between a planer with disposable or non-disposable blades. If sharpening is a really big hassle but the blades last a long time then I would go with the disposable.
Burt,
Both standard and disposable blades are made from high speed steel, which comes in various grades. If the disposables are made from as good a steel as the standard blades, and they probably are, the disposables should last as long as the type you resharpen.
Resharpening requires a special and fairly expensive grinder. The cost of the grinder combined with the extra time it takes to remove, resharpen, and accurately reinstall standard blades makes disposables a very attractive alternative.
Replacing disposable blades takes ten to fifteen minutes and is very simple to do. Replacing standard blades requires some skill and focus and takes a half hour or more to do correctly.
Blades you resharpen will also have to be replaced when they get ground below a minimum width. Another expense to factor in is that shops that don't sharpen their own blades need to keep several blade sets on hand to have a fresh set available while other sets are being sharpened by a blade service.
The secret to long blade life is to make sure there is no grit embedded in the wood and to eliminate as many knots as possible, along with the bark on the edges, before running the stock through the planer. I found that brushing off rough sawn boards with a wire brush before planing greatly increased the life of a set of blades. Boards that have been stood on end can have gravel and grit, along with hardware, deeply embedded in the end grain, so it is worth inspecting and possibly trimming off the ends of the stock to protect the blades.
Certain tropical woods, and a few domestic species, are very tough on blades, if you are going to be working with these woods, expensive carbide tooling may be cost effective.
John W.
My planer has 4 blades Esta system, disposable,max 5 minute change over of blades. If you nick a set you shift two of the four by 1mm and they are again like new(1 min). If you have to plane dirty wood you keep around an old nicked set(or a mixed set to avoid nicks ) and do the rough planing with these and then change to a good set for final work. With the Tersa system this is even easier but a bit more expensive.
I would never go back to a traditional set of blades after using these.It just isn't even considerable in a question of time and quality.
Philip
I do not think sharpening is a hassle at all. I drop off the blades at a competent tool sharpener and pick them back up in a few days. Cost? $8.47 last time and they come back very sharp indeed. I figured that a disposable blade costs $10-$15 per use so it obviously costs less to resharpen a dull blade. At that cost I can sharpen mine more frequently without worrying about it.
Furthermore in this world or rapidly advancing technology I fear disposable blades for any given tool might become obsolete or "no longer made by the manufactur" like so many other items we buy these days. Has abybody ever been able to get ahold of replacement Rigid planer blades? Last time I went to buy a tiny part for my year-old weed-wacker I was told "throw it away and buy a new one, the part will cost almost as much...if we can even get it in". So why take the chance?
The logic of your weed trimmer experience doesn't apply to the blade situation. The disposable blades are much more universal and fit many different brands plus many of these cutter heads are thousands of dollars. No comparison to a $150 weed trimmer whose parts only fit that brand and model.
The main reason for disposables in industry is down time. For the hobby guy who never does enough blade changes to get good at it, the disposables might be the way to go. I'll add frustration as another reason as did a previous poster. Most rookies don't change blades often enough.
Edited 10/13/2004 9:56 am ET by rick3ddd
I think the logic does apply. I also have a $1000 camera, just about 10 years old. A tiny part is broken, the manufacturer does not make the part anymore. I might be able to find a similar unit at pawn shop or on Ebay but likely it will break in the same manner. Besides, nobody around here works on them so I would have to have it "evaluated" in New York for a costly sum...need a $1000 paper weight?
I have too owned too many doo-dads that cost a lot and are impossible to fix. Not going to risk several hundred hard-earned dollars on the chance that a benevolent manufacturer will continue to be able to provide me with replaceable parts.
If you think about it the planer blades would be like the film. The camera may be broken but the film is still available. Like your weed whacker, you can still get string for it. I work on machines. I can always find some kind of tooling even if the rest of the machine is junk and with a machine you can adapt a part or fabricate something.
I was at Home depot the other day and they had replacement blades for the Ridgid 13" planer in stock.
I was just in a local Home Depot and they had spare blades for the Ridgid planer and they have always carried them. There must be a few hundred thousand of the Ridgid planers in use, I doubt if replacement blades will ever become scarce for that model.
I've also found, from personal experience, that Ridgid has an efficient spare parts network, I've never had a problem getting anything from them.
John W.
Edited 10/13/2004 2:57 pm ET by JohnW
...and if Rigid (who was just sold to who-knows-who) decides that the replacement baldes are not a viable product line or not cost-effecient to produce anymore then "bang" they stop selling them and you got a $399 paper-weight. Eventually somebody might gear up to produce them again but in the mean time you got a problem.
My Mother-in-law had to ditch a 5 year-old, name brand vacuum cleaner because she couldn't find bags for it anymore, do we see a pattern emerging here yet?
Replacement blades are far more likely to be available for a power tool than repair parts like gears, belts and the like.
I'd be much more concerned about internal parts not being available than blades. A planer with resharpenable blades but a broken drive gear or a worn out roller will still be obsolete if you can't get the part from the manufacturer, and those are the kinds of parts that typically not available a few years after a machine is discontinued.
One of the reasons I like Ridgid and Makita is that they seem to keep parts available for a very long time. I recently bought repair parts, at a very reasonable price, for a Makita drill that was at least twenty years old.
John W.
I have an older Makita 12" planer with reversible disposable blades, about $30 pr. Blade changing is idiot proof and takes about 15 minutes. The hardest part is avoiding cutting yourself because they are unbelieveably sharp. Blade life is very acceptable, I've never felt it was an economic burden. I'd never thought about the grit that John mentioned but will in the future.
I wish it was as easy and economical to change my 8" jointer knives.
Ian
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