HELP! Best chipper blade sharpener

[Kitcuts]

I am looking for some advice if anyone else sharpens their own chipper blades. What system do you use? My employer purchased a grizzly, universal knife sharpener, and I’ve tried to get super low grit stones for it. I found some at 60 grit and I’ve got some from Amazon that are 30 grit, but it really doesn’t seem to do a great job of sharpening them quickly. You can’t make much progress. It takes about 30 minutes per side to get them to be one cohesive sharpening thank you very much.

 

[EFSM]

I am looking for some advice if anyone else sharpens their own chipper blades. What system do you use? My employer purchased a grizzly, universal knife sharpener, and I’ve tried to get super low grit stones for it. I found some at 60 grit and I’ve got some from Amazon that are 30 grit, but it really doesn’t seem to do a great job of sharpening them quickly. You can’t make much progress. It takes about 30 minutes per side to get them to be one cohesive sharpening thank you very much.

We use an ancient Michigan Knife Company planer/chipper knife sharpener from the 80s or before (I guess I’m showing my youth by calling that ancient). It’s similar to this on that sold on auction except ours doesn’t have the auto feed. This is not a fast machine either, and sharpening can take a while, especially if there is a huge gouge in a blade. https://www.laibids.com/auctions/31154/lot/171362-michigan-industrial-knife-grinder-model-36af

 

[Kitcuts]

We use an ancient Michigan Knife Company planer/chipper knife sharpener from the 80s or before (I guess I’m showing my youth by calling that ancient). It’s similar to this on that sold on auction except ours doesn’t have the auto feed. This is not a fast machine either, and sharpening can take a while, especially if there is a huge gouge in a blade. https://www.laibids.com/auctions/31154/lot/171362-michigan-industrial-knife-grinder-model-36af

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Thank you verry much I’ll look into it

 

[EFSM]

Thank you verry much I’ll look into it

Michigan Knife Company has been defunct for years, but if there is another product made similar, I would be looking at that.

 

[dangerousatom]

What chipper is it? There are many blade configurations depending on the size.

If its a big commercial chipper with the 6-8" long planer looking blades. Id say a machine tool grinder like this if its got a slow rpm setting:
https://bullseyeindustrialsales.com...d-carbide-tool-grinder-9-x-22-tables-230-460v
or
an old surface grinder that has a mounting surface that is angle adjustable.

https://surplusrecord.com/listing/6-x-18-harig-618-surface-grinder-1-5-hp-3425-2800-rpm-208-230-460-v-1018929/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=shopping&product_id=1018929&srsltid=AfmBOooBJyeMbgbzRKYMNjrJTYOiKXdYg7uDOsES8zDSnivPXZSviI2b_mc

Either one needs to have enough rotational mass or torque to not slow down when making passes at low speed. You need low speed to not take out the temper on the chipper blades, and the settable bench angle so that all the blades are relatively the same when sharp so the chipper head isnt out of balance.

Id personally look into a local machine shop or some place you can mail a set out to, and have it done. Get a second set of blades to just rotate through if its more then once a year, ....unless you have a fleet of chippers that your constantly sharpening blades?

 

[Kitcuts]

What chipper is it? There are many blade configurations depending on the size.

If its a big commercial chipper with the 6-8" long planer looking blades. Id say a machine tool grinder like this if its got a slow rpm setting:
https://bullseyeindustrialsales.com...d-carbide-tool-grinder-9-x-22-tables-230-460v
or
an old surface grinder that has a mounting surface that is angle adjustable.

https://surplusrecord.com/listing/6-x-18-harig-618-surface-grinder-1-5-hp-3425-2800-rpm-208-230-460-v-1018929/?utm_source=google&utm_medium=organic&utm_campaign=shopping&product_id=1018929&srsltid=AfmBOooBJyeMbgbzRKYMNjrJTYOiKXdYg7uDOsES8zDSnivPXZSviI2b_mc

Either one needs to have enough rotational mass or torque to not slow down when making passes at low speed. You need low speed to not take out the temper on the chipper blades, and the settable bench angle so that all the blades are relatively the same when sharp so the chipper head isnt out of balance.

Id personally look into a local machine shop or some place you can mail a set out to, and have it done. Get a second set of blades to just rotate through if its more then once a year, ....unless you have a fleet of chippers that your constantly sharpening blades?

It is a big commercial chipper fleet and we go through blades probably once every two weeks we were sending them out to a machinist in our town however, unfortunately he had a medical accident so he no longer can do it, and the closest spot to us requires them to be mailed and the cost is absolutely outrageous. My boss purchased this grizzly one however I feel like it’s too fast because we keep getting those straw and blue colors on the tips of our blades and I’m not a fan of that I’ll look into those links. Thank you very much.

 

[dangerousatom]

Ya when it goes blue its definitely gotten too hot.

If you need to go cheap and have a welder you can always make a grinder with a massive stone and a belt drive motor, but finding a stone on the cheap is usually the issue. They are freaking expensive, a 20" by 2-3" wide is easily over $250-300 if not 500.

Another option is a big flat surface disk sander for metal, that takes like a 12-20" emery disk. Usually the surface is weighted to keep up the RPMs no matter how much material your taking off. Only issue with these is they are often not slow enough and will get your steel too hot. Id start searching industrial machining auction web sights for an old school massive grinder or disk sander. Anything from the 60s and older is built for mindless abuse and rebuildable. Even FB-market has a lot of this old stuff, its worth it even if you have to drive hundreds of miles to get the right setup....Good Luck in the hunt!

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[EFSM]

It is a big commercial chipper fleet and we go through blades probably once every two weeks we were sending them out to a machinist in our town however, unfortunately he had a medical accident so he no longer can do it, and the closest spot to us requires them to be mailed and the cost is absolutely outrageous. My boss purchased this grizzly one however I feel like it’s too fast because we keep getting those straw and blue colors on the tips of our blades and I’m not a fan of that I’ll look into those links. Thank you very much.

Water cooling is absolutely essential.