Planar blade sharpening

[rkruz]

I spend $60 to have a 2 pair set of blades sharpened and not looking into doing it myself.
I made a jig from ideas I saw online like the Duelen jig to move blade pairs over increasing grits of sandpaper glued to glass and that didnt seem to work for me.
I looked at some machines online and seems to me the Makita wet grinder 98202 while expensive is still 1/2 the cost of the Tormek with a planer jig.
What are you opinions on that Makita machine or other options?
Thanks!

[leehljp]

I don't know how good the Makita option is, but I do have the Grizzly "Tormek" copy grinder and am well pleased with it. There are two things that must be watched for on the Grizzly: 1. the wheel must be carefully placed and turned on the shaft until there is no runout when tightened; 2. it is amazingly slow in grinding with the slow speed of 110 RPM.

Here is the link to my previous post on the Grizzly:
http://www.sawdustzone.org/forum/dis...t-slow-grinder

There is a jig available for planer blades, but the jig costs $100 MORE than the grinder itself!

[capncarl]

I’ve sharpened the blades on my old Craftsman 13”planer several times using a stone and oiled emery cloth. The first time they were like new again. Like my saw blades, I never let my blades get to far gone before I touched them up. The second time I touched them up they cut like they we in backwards, but they weren’t. My thoughts were that the blades set slightly proud of the shaft when new, and as they wear or resharpened there is not much blade protruding..... leaving nothing to cut with. Like trying to use a hand plane with the blade retracted.

[capncarl]

... this description pertains to planers with fixed blades, not “real” planers with blades that you set with a jig. You can sharpen them until they get to the point that they are too narrow to stay. In the fixture.