Harbor Freight 96687 Circular Saw Blade Sharpener
DougVL
I bought this in April, 2010, at my local HF store. Normally $70, they were
on sale for $60. And in the advance sale flyer they handed out, there's a
coupon for only $50, valid in a week or two.
I also bought a package of 2 spare wheels (one diamond, one emery) for $10.
I searched the web to see what other people had to say about it. Mostly I
just found postings asking for owner's opinions. I did find one page on a
welding site describing using one for sharpening metal-cutting cold saws.
He said it worked out quite well. The next step up that I've seen in
circular blade sharpeners suitable for a home shop is on ebay from a couple
of sellers in China and costs about $400 ($270 + $130 for shipping). It
looks like a substantially nicer machine from what I can see in the small
pictures. I'd sure like to try one. (Donations to the fund will be
gratefully accepted!)
First of all, I'd say the sharpener is easily worth its price. It takes a
lot of experimentation and learning and practice, and quite a bit of setup
time converting from one tooth angle to another. And its tooth alignment
registration stop pawl is tricky to adjust for the right grinding wheel cut
on the tooth. It badly needs a fine adjustment mechanism of some sort. The
knob that holds the blade-holder arm in position is hard to get tight
enough. The pivoting arm that the blade tooth registration stop slides on
needed to be smoothed with a file, and moving the stop is still a bit
jerky. Changing the grinding wheel is made a bit inconvenient by the 3
small screws that hold the wheel guard side onto the rest of the guard. So
far I've been leaving it off while I'm experimenting.
The instruction manual is minimal. The parts are not well identified and
there is no picture or drawing of the machine set up and ready for use.
There is no information on actually sharpening a blade. You have to already
know how to use the grinder before you get it, or else teach yourself to
use it. It might be nice to have an old scrap blade or two to learn on.
It's not really too bad, though, because it doesn't take off much metal at
one time, so you're not too likely to totally ruin a blade. It does take a
lot of fiddling to get the angles set right for the bevel angles and to get
the cutting edge of the tooth parallel to the wheel.
But the machine is a lot handier than trying to keep consistent angles with
a file as I go around a circular blade in a vise. And it does carbide. I
know - I can use diamond hones on carbide tips, but that's really slow. And
it's hard to keep the tooth surface flat.
So far I've had the grinder for about a week and I've used it on three
steel blades and a carbide one. I can't sharpen the sloping top of saw
teeth. The grinding wheels just work on their edges. Well, the diamond one
for sure, because it's a very thin steel plate. The emery one might be
usable on its rim but it's very narrow. The wheel tapers to a thin edge on
the outside or right hand side. In the instruction manual is a diagram
showing grinding the top of a blade tooth with the edge of the wheel, but
the wheel shape in the diagram is not the same as the wheel with the
machine. The rim of the wheel would need to be a bit wider and beveled
instead of thin and rounded.
If you're not already quite familiar with sharpening principles like
clearance angles and judging surface flatness by the bright spots left by
filing or grinding, don't buy the machine. If you can't teach yourself or
you don't want to experiment, learn and practice then don't buy the
machine. If you're in a big hurry to get your sharpening done, don't buy
the machine.
But if you are patient and like learning new skills, then it's a fun and
rewarding purchase.
I recommend it.
Thos
<<First of all, I'd say the sharpener is easily worth its price. It takes a
lot of experimentation and learning and practice, and quite a bit of setup
>>
Otherwise, it's worth the money?? Just curious...what do you consider your
time worth per hour?
> I recommend it.<
SERIOUSLY??
"DougVL" <swor...@netonecom.net> wrote in message
news:Xns9D66C8BA6C9BEsw...@74.209.131.13...
nailsh...@aol.com
anymore, I do remember when that was part of my lunch break - a
Nicholson #8 mill bastard and a couple of blades clamped to the
sawhorses.
If it does what you want, great! But you might consider on the
carbide blades that the thin bodies of some of the blades can warp and
distort after a good amount of use, making really accurate cuts a
problem even after sharpening.
Now the old, thick carbides that are C2, you can still buy for about
$4.95, sometimes a buck less each in a 3 in Creedo, american Carbide,
Irwin, etc. brand. They are great to saw in ridge vent, cut up
debris, framing tasks and to let the helpers use. When they are dull,
they go in the trash.
Better saw blades that I buy for my circular saw can be $15 to $20
each blade, plus shipping. To me, that might be worth a look.
But the important thing to look at is that you could sharpen your 10"
blades on there as well. If you are doing a lot of utility type
ripping and wanting to touch up a general purpose blade, that could be
a helluva deal. I have no doubt it won't match a factory set and
sharpen, but for a tune up on utility blades it could be pretty
useful. That could be where that machine shines.
Let's see..... if I could sharpen a $40 blade well enough to bring it
back to usefulness in a half hour, I would save $40, with no gas, tax,
or travel time. So at an hourly rate of $80, I would be doing pretty
well.
That would work for me! SERIOUSLY. ;^)
I hope you let us know if you do some bigger sizes.
Robert
Rod & BJ Jacobson
> rewarding purchase.
snip
> I recommend it.
>
Thanks for the information...... I have a stack of old blades and recently
bought the HF sharpener to bring them back to usable but have yet to use
it...your quite right the instructions are just a bit less than helpful. I
don't think I'd ever trust it on my Forester blades but all the others
should be fair game.......Rod
DougVL
to work on blades up to 15 inches in diameter. I have a few blades larger
than the 12 inch ones that my table and radial saws take, but I only got
them to cut up for the steel. I do plan on using the machine on 12 inch
blades, but the 10's were handy when I tried it out.
Doug
<nailsh...@aol.com> wrote in message
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DougVL
"Thos" <tomi...@peoplepc.com> wrote in message
news:G5WdnRBWW9_uzEvW...@earthlink.com...
>
> <<First of all, I'd say the sharpener is easily worth its price. It takes
> a
> lot of experimentation and learning and practice, and quite a bit of setup
> >>
>
> Otherwise, it's worth the money?? Just curious...what do you consider
> your time worth per hour?
>
As our great global government has improved our great global economy, my
time has been proven to become less and less valuable. 10 years ago I made
$27 an hour, which faded on down to $8. Wonderful, eh? I love Washington
too.
Now I'm retired, and I guess my time's completely free. If I did earn any
money, my retirement income would be penalized, too.
Besides, I do it for fun and independence.
There are those who won't use anything but expensive, fancy,
professional-grade equipment. I understand the feeling - I have some of
those tools as well. But now there's just no cash available. The sharpener
I got was actually on HF's discount shelf for half price, with an opened
box.
>> I recommend it.<
>
>
>
> SERIOUSLY??
>
>
VERY!!
Doug
DougVL
Doug
"Rod & BJ Jacobson" <so...@pacifier.com> wrote in message
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