Get More Life Out of Planer Blades

[andrew.r.w]

The other day I hit a tiny piece of a nail with my DW735 planer. It left shiny spot in the board followed by a ridge the remaining length of the board. I had nicked the blade.

Figuring it was only a matter of time before I'd need to replace them I picked up a new set of blades which cost me $82 of our dollars plus tax plus tax. About $95 all tolled.

The blades are 2-sided and come in a pack of 3 (it's a 3-blade head on that planer). I flipped the blades around, and as I was doing it I noticed that the blades have about 3/32" side-to-side play. Hmmm ...

I ended up loosening each blade and shoving one to the left and the other two to the right as far as they would go, and guess what? No ridge!

This means I can get 3 nicks before I have to turn the blades over, and 3 more before I have to replace them. It effectively triples the life of the blades. This little discovery could account for me saving a couple of hundred dollars.

OK, maybe this is nothing new but I was pretty happy to discover it

[atgcpaul]

Holy Cow! $95 for 3 blades!!! That is steep. Good discovery on blade
placement, though. You'll save a ton.

[John Hunter]

At the Wood Show in Chicago I picked up the Makita Blade Sharpener http://www.rockler.com/findit.cfm?page=9971&sid=AF078 Split the cost with a fellow wood worker. We now can sharpen our own blades and it has already paid for itself.

[Knottscott]

My Delta blades don't allow for any offset, but there's an inexpensive method of dealing with those ridges...just make another pass on the board with the planer set at the same height. As long as the board doesn't go through exactly the same location on the blades, the ridge will be removed. The downside is the time for another pass...I do all my rough planing first, then make a final pass at the same height to remove the ridges so it's only one additional pass per board.

[Doug Jones]

For the Delta 13" planer blades, its been reported that the 12 1/2" blades have the exact same hole spacing as the 13" blades. (or so I have read)

[Pappy]

I will have to look at my DeWalt and see if that will work.

Would love to have the space for that wet grinder and dedicate it top planer and jointer blades only so the wheel would stay flat.