In-situ planer sharpening

Never did it – but I have seen videos where people honed a microbevel.

never seen anyone sharpen while the jointer was running.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSNUn4LLsmI

-- “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Mark Twain

To be clear, I don’t think you turn the planer on, you turn the jig motor on.

Generally knife grinders are used on larger
planers like 24” and larger models.

There were some guys on owwm.org discussing
“jointing” knives in place with a stone with
the machine running… it is something a few
people do apparently.

Never did it – but I have seen videos where people honed a microbevel.

never seen anyone sharpen while the jointer was running.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSNUn4LLsmI

- DrDirt

You grind with the planer off, but you joint the blade with the planer on. Jointing stones are more rare than grinders you usually see them on the more finish oriented planers like an Oliver, the Powermatic is considered a rough planer and I have never seen one with a jointing stone. Seeing jointing in progress the first time is scary. Jointing gives you that last level of perfection on the blades so they all are at exactly the same height and coupled with a large diameter cutter ground and jointed knives will give the best finish you have ever seen off a planer.

I’ve had pretty good results using these https://www.amazon.com/EZE-LAP-PAK-Color-Coded-Diamond/dp/B000UVS62S%3FSubscriptionId%3DAKIAJJY2YKHHLJKYIBNA%26tag%3Dslk03b1-20%26linkCode%3Dxm2%26camp%3D2025%26creative%3D165953%26creativeASIN%3DB000UVS62S with the blades in place.. I lay them on the bevel for a few strokes then hold them against the “bottom” to flatten. Works on my 8” jointer, too.

-- Please Pray for Our Troops / Semper Fi / Bob Ross / www.theborkstore.com

Bob, thanks! I’m gonna give those a shot.

Sort of related, but I sharpen my Jet jointer blades while in place (technique shown in FWW article).
It works beautifully and effectively adjusts the knife hight to perfection. I’d imagine the planer blades could be done with the same technique.

According to the documentation I have (see below), sharpening in place while running will eventually remove the bevel edge, so you can only get away with it a few times before they need to be removed and re-ground. I have no first hand experience to determine if that is true or not though. First time I heard of this method was when working with an old 1954 Boice Crane jointer, and it had the procedure listed in the manual. I thought to myself that, while it might be a good trick to touch up the knives between real sharpenings, it’s just to darn dangerous for me – I don’t like getting my hands anywhere near a spinning cutter head :)

Cheers,
Brad

-- Brad in FL - In Dog I trust... everything else is questionable

I have the grinding attachments for my model 160. The knives are ground first with the abrasive wheel, then the jointing stone is run across the spinning blades. This evens out the knives a little further then the grinding wheel, because the wheel wears “I can explain that further if needed”. The knives can be jointed a time or two, when the flat becomes wider then around 1/32”, the knives will need to be ground again. If the flat created by the jointing stone becomes too wide, the knives start pounding the board and the finish suffers. Powermatic made finish planers also, the only difference is the cutter head speed is higher.

Never did it – but I have seen videos where people honed a microbevel.

never seen anyone sharpen while the jointer was running.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nSNUn4LLsmI

- DrDirt

You grind with the planer off, but you joint the blade with the planer on. Jointing stones are more rare than grinders you usually see them on the more finish oriented planers like an Oliver, the Powermatic is considered a rough planer and I have never seen one with a jointing stone. Seeing jointing in progress the first time is scary. Jointing gives you that last level of perfection on the blades so they all are at exactly the same height and coupled with a large diameter cutter ground and jointed knives will give the best finish you have ever seen off a planer.

- AHuxley

That does make more sense… but I responded to the OP because they said this:
. You bolt the jig (holding a stone) above the blades and turn the machine on. Then you lower the stone and sweep it across.

That made the sphincter pucker :-)

-- “The two most important days in your life are the day you are born and the day you find out why.” Mark Twain