The plane is one of the most important tools in the house, but working with it can turn into real flour if it is not sharpened correctly. Sharpening can be done by hand, you just need to be careful. Sharpening the plane correctly is not as difficult as it might seem, you just need to follow the instructions of the specialists. The planer blade should slide easily and a thin layer of wood is removed.
In order to get the desired result without unnecessary problems when working with a plane, it is necessary to sharpen it correctly.
To sharpen the plane correctly, you need the following tools:
- grinding machine;
- a rock.
In addition to such tools, you need to be patient, then you can sharpen the plane quickly and efficiently. And you need to immediately purchase a high-quality tool, then there will be no big problems.
Planer sharpening process
Scheme of options for sharpening the plane's knife: a - on a donkey; b - on a grindstone; в - the position of the chamfer of the cutter blade when sharpening on a donkey; d - sharpening on a grinding stone disc using a thrust device.
If the plane has to work with hard wood, then you need to be prepared for the fact that his knife will quickly intercede as a result of interaction. The tip wears out very quickly, and dents and notches appear on it. It is especially problematic to work with such a tool if a nail is caught in the planed wood. If the barbs are large, it is best to use emery for sharpening. It should be borne in mind that it is best to sharpen the planer knife if the emery wheel has a large diameter. If the size of such a circle is smaller, then the notch is large. Then you still have to deal with the alignment of the pasque, since it should be perfectly flat.
It is very good to have 2 different circles for sharpening, one of them should have large grains, and the second should be fine grained. In this process, it is very important to maintain the correct sharpening angle. With such a process, a special emphasis is needed, since only specialists with certain skills can simply hold the knife in their hands and sharpen it. The sharpening angle is very important and you should pay special attention to this.
It is not necessary to press the piece of iron strongly against the rotating circle, which many people do in order to "tear off" a large layer of metal in a short time. Thus, the planer knife is quickly “burnt out” as a result of strong overheating, and the hardening of the metal is disrupted. In order to prevent all this, it is necessary to cool the metal from time to time, for which it is enough just to dip it into cold water. After dressing on the emery wheel is complete, the blade must be trimmed on a fine-grained block. At the end, you need to bring the blade to the end on a special grinding stone (if not, you can use a leather belt with polishing paste). You need to be prepared for the fact that such a process is laborious and lengthy. To avoid this, it is strongly recommended not to sharpen the plane after it has become very dull, but to do this from time to time, as soon as the wood cutting begins to be worse.
Any woodworking power tool has replaceable cutting, sawing, planing elements. In fact, these are consumables.
If the sandpaper simply changes with wear, then the blades, drills or must be sharpened. The knives in the electric plane are double-sided, which prolongs their working life.
It is necessary to sharpen and straighten the knives if the following signs of wear or dullness are found:
- the planer passes the workpiece more difficult;
- on the surface of the tree so-called. waves;
- on seals (knots), the tool jumps;
- after processing, scuffs, stripes remain;
- when examining the cutting edge, at a certain angle, the so-called "thread" is visible at the very edge of the knife.
IMPORTANT! Working with blunt nozzles is not only unproductive but also dangerous. Without the necessary sharpness of the working surfaces, the plane will bounce off any hard surface, be it a knot or a nail. This could result in injury.
It is not at all necessary to go to a specialized workshop. If you have basic locksmith skills and simple devices, you can sharpen knives yourself.
How to sharpen a planer knife
And so, both sides of the knife have developed their resource of sharpness, we proceed to sharpening. As a general rule, from the first movement to finishing dressing, the contact angle between the knife and the sharpening tool should remain unchanged. The movement of the emery should be across the cutting surface.
There are several ways:
Manual sharpening with non-adjustable lock
A special tool for sharpening is used - a knife holder (jig). With a uniform force, we make circular movements along the whetstone or whetstone, carefully watching to process the entire cutting edge.
You can use sandpaper spread out on a flat surface. This option is only suitable for short knives.
note
The quality of sharpening is poor, it will take more time for finishing. Nevertheless, if the requirements for the quality of wood processing are not high, this method is suitable.
Such holders often come with an electric plane. Significant disadvantage- inability to adjust the sharpening angle. Hard metal knives cannot be sharpened this way.
Manual sharpening with adjustable lock
This method is semi-professional. The quality of processing is at the highest level, but small mechanization is not used. A stop with adjustable height acts as a device that fixes the angle. For convenience, it can be equipped with a roller.
- By moving the knife longitudinally along the abrasive surface, you can achieve high quality processing.
- The pressure is regulated by hand force.
- Such a device allows you to sharpen knives of any width at home, it all depends on the area of \u200b\u200bthe emery.
The main condition is a perfectly flat surface. It is convenient to use thick glass as a substrate. On it is fixed waterproof sandpaper moistened with water. The process begins with a coarse fraction, gradually moving to "zero". The sharpening angle should be about 25-30 degrees, it is easy to control the height of the stop.
The disadvantage of this method is that it is time consuming.... This is more than compensated for by the high quality of work. Sharpening carbide knives with this method is almost impossible.
Manual sharpening with emery jig
In this case, the knife is rigidly fixed, and the emery stone has the ability to move along the treated surface at a constant angle.
If you ensure that the direction of movement of the emery is perpendicular to the surface to be sharpened, the result will be of high quality. One of the versions is shown in the diagram.
The process is painstaking, but the manufacture of the device actually does not require financial costs. It should be noted that this option is not suitable for machining carbide alloys.
Mechanized sharpening methods
Small grinding machines with an adjustable jig are used. They can be purchased at the store, but the cost of such items is high. Therefore, most home craftsmen prefer to make these.
The electric motor must have a speed controller; specialized abrasive wheels with a flat surface are used.
With the help of a guide located along the axis of rotation, the knife moves across the emery without changing the "angle of attack". The sharpening is of high quality, time costs are minimal. By changing circles, you can both sharpen and edit knives.
Side view
IMPORTANT! When working on the grinder, the edge of the knife must not be overheated. This reduces the hardness of the metal.
It is necessary to sharpen until barely noticeable burrs appear, similar to foil. They are removed with a touchstone, which must be held along the reverse side of the cut parallel to the knife.
The disadvantage of this method is the complexity of the design and the relatively high cost of components. At the same time, there are no restrictions, both in size and hardness of the cutters being machined.
The final step is to straighten the knife
In this case, the surface is brought almost to a mirror finish. The sharpness of the edge is checked with paper. It should cut like a razor blade. Editing is done in the same way as sharpening.
You can correct the edge of the electric plane knife manually, see how to do this in this video.
Only the grit size of the abrasive should be practically zero. The ideal option is to use Japanese waterproof sandpaper at the final stage, with a grain of 2000-3000.
You can bring the surface to a mirror finish using a polishing paste and a felt wheel... But do not get carried away with the appearance so as not to blunt the edge.
Types of planer knives
- Straight knives. They are used for any kind of processing, including sampling of "quarters". The cut line is equally flat across the entire width of the knife;
- Knives with rounded edges. Designed for processing large surfaces when the blade width is less than the workpiece width. The plane is processed in several passes, no step is formed along the edges of the area to be cleaned;
- Curly knives. Another name is rustic. They give the wood surface various decorative shapes. Most often they are used in the manufacture of platbands, picture frames, etc. After processing, the surface must be scraped;
- Spiral knives. The surface treatment quality is an order of magnitude higher than that of straight lines. The disadvantages include the high cost and the impossibility of sharpening in an artisanal way.
Correct sharpening of electric planer knives with your own hands - video
If sharpening straight knives does not cause difficulties, then not every master can handle blunt curly edges. A knife with rounded edges is sharpened in the same way as a straight one, only the rounded edges have to be worked on. The quality of their processing is not so critical, you can do with editing on a touchstone.
But curly and spiral knives practically do not lend themselves to handicraft processing. As a rule, when dulling, new ones are simply acquired.
Adjustment of knives on the electric planer shaft
After sharpening or purchasing new blades, the knives must be correctly mounted on the planer shaft. Crooked knives will not give a flat surface when processing wood. And the lack of balancing will lead to the fact that only one blade will work.
If you need to consult in advance with the seller about the possibility of replacing knives and their availability in stores. The instructions for the planer usually describe in detail how to adjust the knives, but sometimes this causes confusion for users.
A simple hand-made device will help you correctly install and adjust the electric planer knives. Details in this video.
- First, the knife is connected to the plate so that its cutting edge protrudes by about 3 mm. After that, the entire structure is placed on the shaft, and is nailed down on the mounting bolts. Then the working height of the blade is set.
IMPORTANT! Wear protective gloves when installing knives. Never recessed the cutting edge with your fingers.
- The height of the blade above the sole should usually not exceed 0.5 mm. Of course, the surface of the planer and the cutting edge must be parallel. To do this, you can use a steel ruler.
- By alternately installing it with an edge on the sole of the planer from different sides of the knife, it is necessary to ensure that the edge touches the ruler on both sides at the same angle of rotation of the shaft.
- To avoid errors, check the quality of the sharpening before installing the knives on the electric plane. To do this, measure the width of the cut on the metal at different ends of the blade. It should be the same. Otherwise, it will be impossible to set the knives parallel to each other.
Metals used in the manufacture of knives for electric planers
The knives are made from hardened steel or tungsten carbide. The so-called high-speed steel cutters dull faster, but they are quite easy to restore. Their cost is low, hence the weak consumer properties.
They are used for processing soft wood species. In contact with hard inclusions in the workpiece, such as nails or knots, they lose their sharpness. But the integrity of the material is not violated. They are afraid of overheating, especially with mechanical sharpening.
If the hardening is released, it is better to dispose of such a knife and buy a new one. You will spend more time regularly dismantling, sharpening and installing than processing wood.
Carbide knives made of tungsten carbide - initially have a razor sharpness and are devoid of some of the disadvantages inherent in steel products. They slowly dull, they are not afraid of overheating.
Hardwoods are processed like a bar of butter. But there are also disadvantages of its own. On contact with a nail at a high speed of rotation of the planer, a piece may chip off the cutting edge.
Sharpening of such knives is practically impossible, the strength of the alloy exceeds the hardness of most abrasives. Therefore, as they wear out, they are simply changed to new ones. And the cost is quite high. The good news is that you don't have to do this often.
- Before starting processing, clean the workpiece from abrasive contamination. The boards should be free of sand, earth and other solid dirt. This will extend the life of the planer knives.
- If possible, do not use knotty wood. The strength of the material is lower and the knives deteriorate faster.
- Be sure to check the blanks for nails and metal staples. This can be done with a magnet suspended from a strong thread.
The availability of a device for sharpening planer knives in the household depends on the volume of carpentry work. Perhaps, after reading this material, you can make it yourself.
An electric plane serves as an indispensable tool in the construction and repair of a house, as in any power tool, there are consumables in its device. In an electric planer, knives are consumables, with the help of which the tree is processed. As a rule, knives are double-sided, in a set of 2 pieces. Remember: if the plane removes chips badly, and your knives are dull, then it's time to change them. But in this case it is worth mentioning that some of them are simply subject to sharpening. For this, you need to know how to set the electric planer knives after sharpening, and how to carry out the knife sharpening procedure itself.
Electric planer knives
The knives are mounted on a rotating drum of an electric planer and are designed to remove the top layer of material during the planing procedure of wooden products. If this tool has 1 cutting edge or 2. The last blades are called swivel blades because their position can easily change if one side becomes dull. Electric planer knives are made from tool steel or tungsten carbide. The first ones can be re-sharpened.
Blades in shape are: straight - used for sampling quarters and planing narrow parts; rounded - intended for processing wide areas, because they make the transitions more accurate between the planing lines; wavy - curly knives for an electric plane are suitable for imitating "aged" surfaces.
Before using the electric planer, it is recommended to check every time that the blades are installed correctly. Their cutting edge should barely protrude outward and be parallel to the sole of the planer. To determine how the knife is adjusted, raise the tool to eye level with the sole up.
On average, the cutting edge of the knife should protrude 0.5 millimeters above the sole. For a scherhebel, which is intended for the initial rough planing, the cutting edge should be extended by at least 1 millimeter. It is very easy to adjust the position of the knife. Turn sequentially left and right the small and large adjusting screws located behind the platform for the electric planer knife until the cutting edge is in the desired position.
Then place the knife in the electric plane and fix the position with the centering lever and the screw on the top plate. With a new electric planer, as a rule, the position of the knife is already adjusted. However, after prolonged use, the setting will get lost. Therefore, if you are using the plane after a long break, you need to first check if everything is so. Do not start right away with a freshly adjusted electric plane without trying it out on an unnecessary board.
Classification of knives for electric planer
Also, the knives for the electric planer are divided by size. If you have an imported plane, for example, from Black & Dekker or Skil, then there are traditional 82 mm knives, they are popularly called "plates". From inexpensive and high quality we can recommend knives of the manufacturer "Zubr" made of carbon steel. These knives are suitable for most foreign planers, even for professional Bosch and Makita electric tools.
Exact dimensions: length 82 millimeters, width 5.5 millimeters and thickness 1.2 millimeters. On sale you can find knives from different manufacturers and the price in this case depends on the company in the first place. If you buy Boshevsky, then the cost will be 2 times higher than that of simple household ones - Bison, Styer, Fit, Matrix. Of course, the difference in quality will be quite noticeable.
There are knives that are specially designed for some models of electric planers. For the popular planers Interskol and Baikal special knives are intended, they are wider than the "plates" and thicker. They are stronger, and when you hit a knot or nail while using an electric plane, the knife will not break, and the chipping will easily be removed on the emery.
The width of these knives is always about 1 centimeter, they differ significantly from others. These knives for electric planers come in different lengths: 82 and 102 millimeters, for different models of Baikal and Interskol. If these knives are dull, you can always sharpen them yourself. Unlike thin ones, they can be sharpened on emery if you have sufficient sharpening skills and the ability to withstand the plane.
Well, the third type of knives for electric planers is wide and thick, with holes for fastening. They are very specific and are only suitable for certain models, for example, the planers of the manufacturer Rebir, which have a power of 2000 watts. These knives are very thick and powerful, the width reaches 110 millimeters.
Change of electric planer knives
The highest requirements are imposed on the knives of the electric planer. The fact that they are dull can be easily determined by eye. To do this, look at the chamfer of the piece of iron and rotate it around the cutting edge. The cutting edge is dull if a shiny thread-like strip appears at the end of the chamfer in some position. The angle of sharpening of the electric plane knife should be close to 30 degrees.
Today there are knives for electric planers using a rotary cutter. If one of these knife blades is dull, then it is customary to turn the knife over for the first time, and next time replace it with a new sharp knife.
The knives for the electric planer are installed in a knife holder, which is placed in a tapered transverse groove and clamped with three nuts. The height of the knives is adjusted by two screws located at the edges. To get the knife out of the knife holder, loosen the nuts, tighten the screws to the end of the screws, which will help to push the knife holder out of the slot.
After that, you need to pick up a drift that is suitable for the thickness of the knife, and using it, knock the knife out of the knife holder in the transverse direction. Next, turn the knife over or take a new one if the old one is unusable, and carefully drive it into place, placing it on the side. Make sure that the knife goes into the knife holder strictly parallel to it.
Having put new knives on the electric plane, they should be adjusted in height with screws and tightened with nuts. At the same time, it is recommended to set the same gap for both knives, otherwise the shaft will be unbalanced.
Editing on a touchstone
When planing, a good quality of the processed surface can be achieved only by using a sharp knife in the plane. If the cutting edge is a little dull and has no chipping, then it will turn out to be sharpened by dressing. Dull or serrated knives are recommended to be ground with a grinding wheel.
When grinding a knife on a grinding wheel, it is freely placed on a flat supporting surface or clamped into a slide. When grinding, the piece of iron must be moved along the grinding disc from side to side. Due to friction, the parts are heated in this case. Therefore, it is necessary to apply moderate pressure when processing the product so that the cutting edge does not lose its hardness and does not turn blue.
The electric planer knife must be straightened after grinding. Only through this manipulation will he obtain the desired spice. For manual adjustment of the electric planer knives, artificial or natural bars are used, which are called donkeys. The piece of iron can be straightened by machine on a lapping disk.
On Belgian whetstones, dressing can only be done with the addition of water. On Arkansas bars, on the other hand, a mixture of oil and kerosene is used for dressing. Artificial donkeys come in different levels of grinding. Many have coarse and fine grained sides.
The coarse side is for pre-dressing and the fine side is for fine dressing. You can use a mixture of oils or water to dress knives on artificial donkeys. On a dry bar, it is impossible to edit in any case, because the blade will lose hardening (release) and will become dull. The bar needs to be washed from time to time so that the touchstone does not get greasy.
When editing, the chamfer is well abutted against the block and is driven crosswise until it becomes as shiny as a mirror, and all burrs disappear. The front side of the piece of iron is driven only down and up along the touchstone, and the procedure for correcting it in time lasts less.
The lapping disc lapping is made of artificial material, which contains a fine abrasive agent. With these discs, you can machine the blades for electric planers.
Electric planer knife sharpening
Before replacing the electric planer knives, you first need to determine the need for it. It's easy to find out: if the electric planer runs worse on the workpiece than before, then you need to start regrinding its knives. Also, remember that dull knives can increase the risk of knives being kicked off when hitting hard wood, such as knots.
The first step in sharpening an electric planer knife is to place an abrasive stone in water for a few minutes. The stone must absorb as much moisture as possible. This helps to avoid excessive dust formation and improves the quality of the electric plane sharpening. When sharpening the knives, it is important to ensure that they touch the abrasive stone at the same angle at all times.
The second stage is fixing the knives in a special block. In order to sharpen a knife for an electric plane with high quality, it is customary to use a special device, which will help to avoid violations of the geometry or balancing of the knives. Loosen the two nuts that secure the block clamping plate and insert the blades all the way into the electric planer blade sharpener. Then tighten the locking nuts again. Make sure that the cutting edges of the knives are in the same plane.
The third step is the sharpening process itself. Sharpening knives for an electric planer must be done using a special technology. The steel on the re-sharpened knives is of such high quality that it allows you to sharpen the knives well and make them sharp like a razor. However, be careful not to disturb the balance of the knives. Since two knives are used in the electric plane, the issue of balancing is strict.
The straightness of the blade during sharpening is checked using any straight surface. The chamfer width should be exactly the same over the entire length of the blade. Knives are usually sharpened with a hand sharpener. It is recommended to sharpen so much in time until the finest burrs appear on the blade, which are difficult to distinguish by eye. Make sure the chamfer is smooth, without concavities or bulges. Burrs must be removed. To do this, when sharpening the knives of the electric planer, the knife is placed flat on the back of the block and is carried out several times over it.
Assembly of electric planer knives
After sharpening the knife, first connect it to the blade. It should protrude 3 millimeters beyond the edge of the lining. Fully assemble the tool, adjust the correct position of the knife so that its edge protrudes beyond the edge of the platform, as expected, by 0.5 millimeters. Connect the knife and the plate with one screw. Loosen the screw, turn the knife 90 degrees and separate the parts.
First, place the knife against the block with a chamfer and move it back and forth in this position at an acute angle of 30 degrees. When burrs appear on the cutting edge, flip the knife over, place flat on the block and move back and forth to remove the burrs. The edge of the knife should protrude 3 millimeters beyond the edge of the lining. The screw that holds the pad and the knife together must be tightened well so that even after prolonged use, both parts fit tightly to each other.
After sharpening the electric planer knives, you need to immediately test the blade by removing a few shavings. It has been proven in practice that the blade of a tool that is put into operation immediately after sharpening is less blunt. To avoid frequent sharpening of knives on a sharpener, carefully monitor the state of the piece of iron during work, and when the first signs of dullness (shiny stripes) appear, immediately straighten the electric plane on a sharpening bar.
Now you know why it is so important to constantly monitor the position of the knives on the electric plane, adjust them in time, remove and install new pieces of iron. In addition, you always have the opportunity to sharpen the electric planer knives on a special device and put them back on.
The plane is the most popular woodworking tool. When working with it, the condition of its blades is of great importance - if the device is sharpened incorrectly, rough edges appear on the tree and the quality of the resulting material decreases.
Hard wood wears out the blade of the fixture the most, and dents and jags appear on it. The part gets even more damage when it hits a nail in the material being planed.
You can sharpen the planer yourself, but you need to be very careful and follow the instructions exactly. Follow the tips below if you run into a problem while working and need to know how to sharpen knives for this tool.
Planer knives - which ones can you sharpen?
The operation of this or that plane, first of all, depends on its type. There are two main types:
- hand planers - made of plastic, metal or wood and are ubiquitous;
- electric planers - this type is manufactured with an integrated motor to increase the speed and efficiency of the process;
In an electric plane, there may be one or two knives, or cutters. They are usually made of tool steel or tungsten carbide. In the latter case, the cutters cannot be reused and must be replaced. They also vary in shape to perform different functions.
How to determine if a plane needs sharpening
You can easily determine the condition of the cutter by looking at the edge (chamfer) of the feature. If a thin shiny strip is visible on it, then the blade needs to be sharpened.
Some planers are equipped with double-sided knives - when dull, it is enough to turn such a product over and work with the less worn side.
How to sharpen a plane correctly
In order to correctly sharpen the cutter, the following tools are required:
- emery with grinding wheels;
- fine-grained bar;
- grinding stone or leather belt with polishing paste;
In case of severe damage, it is safest to rely on a large circle. The cutter will bend slightly during machining, and this circle will prevent this. However, chamfer alignment cannot be avoided even in this case.
Emery with two circles, one fine and one coarse, works well. They allow for the most accurate knife dressing.
Incorrectly sharpened knives will not bring the proper quality to the material being processed.
To sharpen the material well, it is critical to maintain the correct blade angle. In many cases, it varies from 25 to 45 degrees, however, the figure is individual for each knife and depends on the hardness of the steel. The corner should be matched with a template that you can make yourself.
It is not recommended to press too hard on the blade, otherwise the emery wheel will grind the metal in thick layers - this can ultimately lead to the material being unusable. From friction on the surface of the circle, the steel heats up, so it is advisable to periodically lower it into cold water. This avoids possible distortion of the knife blade during heating.
After grinding with a grinding wheel, the blade must be corrected with a fine-grained block. At the end of the procedure, the material is straightened in a stone for grinding, and in its absence - a leather belt with polishing paste.
The entire operation described is very laborious and time-consuming. Nevertheless, it is necessary to sharpen the knives in a timely manner - best of all at the first hints of a decrease in the quality of the planer. If you ignore this moment, the knives may eventually become unusable - you will have to replace them.
If you don't have emery, you can put together a simple hand-held tool to sharpen your cutter. To do this, you need:
- bar;
- abrasive.
Attach the knife to the top of the block and place the blade on the abrasive surface. The angle of inclination of the knife will be geometrically determined by the height of the bar. Move the block, not putting too much pressure on the abrasive, and to make it easier to move, place it on the glass.
If you do not have experience in sharpening a plane with your own hands, then it is better to contact a specialist. In addition, you can get hurt.
Checking blade alignment
After sharpening the fixture, it must be adjusted correctly. To do this, after installing the cutter, you need to inspect the plane and estimate the distance that the blade extends beyond the surface.
The case is considered optimal when the element protrudes by 0.5 mm, and for coarser processing - by 1 mm.
Too large a gap will cause the chips to be coarse and fail to achieve the desired result. On the contrary, if the protrusion is small, then there will be very little chips and wood processing will take a lot of time.
Compared to other carpentry tools, for example, the shekhrebel, which is used for primary heaving, the plane is designed for finer processing of wood, and therefore the chips should be small when working with it.
How to evaluate the quality of sharpening
Upon completion of the process, it is advisable to immediately check the success of the actions performed. The quality of the sharpening of the blades can be judged by the chips. Run the plane along the entire workpiece. If, as a result, the surface of the product is smooth and the chips are long, then you managed to sharpen the planer knives properly.
The blade of the carpentry tool is designed for woodworking. It experiences greater loads for a long time than the blade of a conventional knife.
Therefore, it is given an original shape that requires sharpening in special ways. A high-quality cutting edge available to the beginner is created by a simple sharpening cart.
Based on personal experience, the article contains practical advice for a home craftsman on how to make a simple device for sharpening a plane knife or other tool with an explanation of the operation technology with diagrams, pictures and a video.
The whole process of creating the cart took literally half an hour and took place in the kitchen. This technology is called knee or stool assembly. It does not require complex equipment, it allows you to make a fixture from the most affordable parts. At the same time, nothing prevents you from assembling such a tool not from wood, but from metal, using professional equipment for professional work.
Planer blade geometry, chisels, chisels
The optimal profile of the cutting edge of the carpentry tool was formed empirically. It is slightly different from the usual section of a conventional knife, blade.
Although the blade also has a rectangular shape.
A one-sided profile is created in the cross-section of a carpentry tool blade.
We can say that the plane of the slopes is aligned with the feed, and the cutting edge is finally brought up due to the formation of micro feeds during polishing on the grinding belt.
The sharpening angle can vary from 25 to 45 degrees. It depends on the density of the wood being processed.
How to make a sharpener
First, you need to prepare all the necessary equipment for assembly, and then proceed with the installation.
Preparatory stage
I needed to find consumables and assemble a simple tool.
Necessary materials
I made the sharpening cart out of a block of wood and two pieces of laminate. The wheels were a pair of bearings of the same size. Their inner diameter turned out to be slightly less than the thickness of the selected wood.
For fasteners I chose two countersunk screws and a pair of six-centimeter studs with a diameter of 4 mm with ready-made shaped nuts. Thicker structures can also be used.
Tools
An ordinary one is needed for drilling several holes. In addition to it, you will need:
- tape measure, ruler or;
- marking pencil;
- sharp knife for woodwork;
- hacksaw;
- chisel;
- hammer;
- knife from a planer.
Manufacturing process
Creating a cart body
I drew a center line on a piece of laminate with a pencil. On it I marked two points in width slightly larger than that of the plane's knife.
Drill holes for 4 mm studs. Then I put this laminate on the second and, using the first element as a template, I drilled it in the same way.
We got two blanks for attaching a planer knife with holes located slightly larger than its width.
Now we need to transfer this dimension to the body of the future sharpening trolley. For this, a prepared block and with the same drill made a skew hole, stepping back from its edge at a distance slightly larger than the width of the bearing wheel (photo 1).
It is convenient to do this kind of work. Since he was far from me, I had to use a simple drill.
I inserted a pin into the drilled hole and put a laminate blank on it (photo 2).
It served as a markup for drilling the second vertical hole (photo 3 and 4). At the same time, the disadvantages of working without a drilling machine appeared: the deviation of the drill from the back side of the vertical line. The picture is not pleasant, but quite acceptable.
In order for the heads of the studs and fastening nuts to hide in the bar, it was necessary to perform a shallow countersink with a thicker drill.
Then I inserted the studs into the prepared holes (photo 1) and screwed on them from the back of the nut.
After tightening the nuts, the heads of the studs (photo 2) and the nuts themselves (photo 3) were hidden flush inside the wood.
On this block, using screws, I fixed the bottom plate of the laminate. It had to be drilled (photo 1, 2) and countersinked (photo 3, 4) directly on a wooden block.
I screwed the screws into the prepared holes with a screwdriver, flush with the upper surface of the plate.
This photo shows another drilling defect made during careless countersink: to the right of the second screw, a large-diameter solid hole was formed in the laminate. Cause: Accidental pressure on the drill body while working. Therefore, I had to redo this operation. Consider my mistake and drill carefully.
I simply cut off the excess part of the wood with a hacksaw.
It remains to fix the bearings on the prepared trolley body.
Wheel mounting
In a block, I marked out the lines with a pencil for installing the bearings.
The base dimensions were the width of the laminate plate (photo 1) and the variant of the lower arrangement of the wheels (photo 2). For this I used a piece of a bar. Let me remind you that its thickness is slightly larger than the diameter of the inner bearing race.
It remains to work a little with a hacksaw.
And also use a chisel with a hammer.
The result is a body blank, on which it remains to fix the wheels.
To do this, I drew an axial line for the centers of the bearings with a pencil, and made the corresponding markings from the ends.
With its help, with a knife, I gave the rectangular protrusions the shape of a cylinder.
Corrected the cuts with a rasp.
I installed bearings on them.
Lubricated their attachment plane for subsequent strength with glue and hammered them with a hammer until they fit completely.
Placed a second laminate fixing plate on top. I inserted a planer blade between them and secured it at a certain angle to the base surface with fastening nuts. The result is a homemade sharpening cart.
How to sharpen a plane knife
The first attempt to straighten the cutting edge showed good performance of the created device for sharpening carpentry tools, but immediately pointed out its shortcomings, which were admitted in a hurry.
What complicates the sharpening cart
About body height
To create a high-quality cutting edge, you must set the sharpening angle correctly. It is formed by extending a plane knife used as the hypotenuse of a right triangle.
This factor must be taken into account when creating the height of the cart. To form the sharpest corners, I needed to push the knife out of the sharpener as much as possible, which is not very convenient.
Therefore, when setting up, I reduced the height of the device to a minimum, cutting off part of the body. It took only a few minutes, and the possibilities and usability of the tool expanded.
About the width of the distance between the wheels
Here, too, a mistake was made. A wide trolley requires a large grindstone or large area sandpaper. It is not economical.
I reduced the distance between the ball bearings as much as possible, and they began to fit on a homemade one I made from ceramic tiles. With its help it is convenient to carry out finishing of the cutting edge after its dressing on coarse-grained skin.
It is more convenient to make a body from a bar made by me from three components:
- the lower one, which serves as the axle for fastening the wheels and is attached to the upper adapter;
- medium rectangular;
- top of the fixed mounting plate.
The lower workpiece with bearings can be made narrower than the width of the planer blade and fastened with separate screws to the middle one, and the studs can be placed in the middle and upper parts. This will make the cutting tool more comfortable.
Sharpening technology
There is nothing difficult in this matter if the planer knife is correctly installed. Its plane of the feeds must lie exactly on the surface of the grindstone at the moment when the cart is in working position. You should pay attention to:
- density and uniformity of surfaces;
- strictly perpendicular position of the cutting edge relative to the direction of movement of the sharpening trolley;
- no obstacles in the way of the wheels.
Sharpening itself is fast. My assistant, an elementary school student, did this simple job with great interest, rolling the prepared device on an evenly spread strip of sandpaper.
He got a fairly satisfactory result: a completely normal, even cutting edge, but not completely formed bevel plane at the bottom.
I have a little more work left to fix the indicated defect. Then he brought the cutting surface to good condition on a homemade grindstone with fine grain.
But even in this state, the plane began to plan wood well, creating thin and uniform chips.
Finishing the presentation of the material, I want to draw your attention to the fact that devices for sharpening planer knives, chisels and other carpentry tools have different designs. The simplest ones are created from an ordinary wooden block, in which an angle cut is made to attach the cutting blade.
This block is led over a grindstone. Sharpening is quite satisfactory, but there is additional friction of the wood, which, moreover, is gradually grinded. And in the described design, rolling bearings relieve this load.
Andrey Yarmolkevich tells about them in detail in his video "Sharpening the hand plane".