Harbor Freight Saw Blade Sharpener

1 hour agosmitty10101 said:

Curiosity wants to know how it would do on a blade for plywood with all those small teeth.

Only one way to find out Smitty!

I don't have the sharpener for the saw blades but I do have the Harbor Freight sharpener for chain saw blades and every other cutting edge is angling right opposite from each other and this is what the saw blades are like so I sharpen every other one then have to swing the sharpener around to handle the other angle. No big deal but one has to remember to do it. I put a piece of tape on the tooth where I start and remember to skip a tooth and when I get around to the tape I take the chain outloosen the screws holding the chain and swing the motor and blade around for the other angles.  I have 4 extra chain saw blades and this is the second time I have sharpen all 4 chains twice now and all the blades are just as sharp as new chains so yes the Harbor Freight sharpener
is an excellent bargain at what ever I paid for it a good while ago...I think 29.00

  I have noticed the chain saw blades get more wiggle room between parts as they are used so I have to make adjustments for that and since I sharpen 4 chains in each setting  I make the same amount of turns for the extra gaps for all 4 blades..  So even if  person has a 500 dollar sharpener I would still have to make extra adjustments for the older age of things!!!!!

  One other thinga table saw blade in my opinion needs to be sharpened the same all the way around the blade exactly or else there might be some out of balance vibes making the table saw dance around the floor which might be more dangerous than my chain saw......

Edited September 720214 yr by Smallpatch

I would look closely at the face of those carbide blades.  If I remember correctlyone faces leftthe other faces straight and the third one faces right.  I think they alternate like this all the way around the blade.  

Regarding the small teeth on plywoodyears agoall plywood blades had very small teeth.  It reduced splinters and tear.  I still have mine.  Rather than grindingwhen it gets dullI put it in an ammonia bath.  After soaking overnightI take a tooth brush and scrub all the teeth.  Ammonia will cost about $1 per bottle and you can reuse it until it gets gunky.  

4 hours agoFlGatorwood said:

I would look closely at the face of those carbide blades.  If I remember correctlyone faces leftthe other faces straight and the third one faces right.  I think they alternate like this all the way around the blade.  

Are you referring to ATB....Alternate Top Bevel grinds?

@Gene HoweI don't think that the top bevel comes into play here.  It appeared that the face of the blade was being ground to the same flat angle.  Butthe blades that I have have not only the top of the tip beveled in those 3 directionsbut the face of the carbide tip also has different angles.  I wish I had a close up picturebut the phone is full at the moment.  Here is a link to blades at Shopsmith.  

https://www.shopsmith.com/ownersite/catalog/swd_carbideblades.htm

The blade I was sharpening seemed to have the same face and bevel for each tooth. 

At least I thought it did. I hope I didn't screw up my blade. ☹️

Great review Smitty.

Your 2nd ImpressionI'm not sure what you sawbut I could clearly see the mating surface of the tooth face to the wheelas seen in this image of my setup.

9 hours agoJohn Morris said:

I could clearly see the mating surface

I THINK that's when you had the blade on backwards. My set up was with the teeth to the left of the diamond wheelyou're showing with the teeth on the right side. The U Tube videos that I looked at attempted to sharpen from the left side of the wheel. I'll have to try the right side (today?).

Also my objection about the swivel arm not being able to tighten sufficiently----user error/stupidity. I had 3 washers under the knob b/c that's the way the previous owner had it set up. After removing 2 of the washers it appearsinitiallythat it might be able to be tightened enough to prevent movement.

(And the beat goes on.)

Here's an interesting article about the various grind configurations normally found on woodworking blades. Please note their comments about sharpening ATB grinds. 

 https://carbideprocessors.com/pages/saw-blades/saw-tip-angles.html

1 hour agosmitty10101 said:

I THINK that's when you had the blade on backwards

Oh yathere is that. 😐

But! Here is a view of the left side of the wheelif my blade was on correctlyI think I'd be able to clearly see the mating surface? 

Of course I won't truly know till I use it correctly. 

On 9/11/2021 at 7:50 AMsmitty10101 said:

I THINK that's when you had the blade on backwards

John -- I've tried mounting a 10" saw blade (Craftsman Kromedge 10" chisel tooth 28 tooth ATB part # 9-32668) the way you have in the pics with no luck. Moved the motor left & right & cannot get the tooth to hit the emery stone squarely. The blade hits the hold down tightening knob on the swivel arm for the blade. I'm going to try it again with the diamond wheel later.

By the looks of itgoing by the amount of teethyou were sharpening a 10" blade. I'm curious how you managed to get it to align.

Harbor Freight confusing pics/instructions.

The pictures on the box show the teeth going counterclockwise (CCW) and the pictures in the instructions SORT OF imply that the teeth should go clockwise (CW)pg 13 figure #3. Although that is showing the emery stone.

Interestingly (strangely?) the instructions say that the emery grinding wheel can be used to sharpen tooth face & tooth back  and to use the diamond wheel for the tooth face. I wonder why you shouldn't use the diamond wheel to sharpen the tooth back especially if it's a carbide tooth? Assuming you could get it to align.

Also I still cannot get the swivel arm to lock down with no movement. I wonder if it's time to put a toothed washer or a lock washer on it?

I wonder what blades they had in the back of their minds when they made this thing. 

And would it kill you Harbor Freight to have someone who operates this thing to write the instructions? You devote 7 pages to safety & maintenance3 pages to set up and 2 pages to operation. But to your credit it's not written in Chinglish.

smitty