Reprinted with permission from MLS Machinery, Inc.
Sharpening equipment is normally used in a tool room. This equipment is used to sharpen blades as in saw blades for panel saws, or to sharpen knives for the wood hogs, as well as straight knife sharpening in various lengths used in moulders, planers, etc.
One of the most important pieces of sharpening equipment is the profile grinder. Profile grinders are normally used in conjunction with Moulders. When moulding thousands of lineal feet, the knives invariably get dull very quickly and therefore have to be sharpened on a regular basis; therefore, many shops that have multiple moulders will have their own grinders so they can do their own sharpening in-house in their own tool room.
These grinders work off a template that is a replica of the knife itself that is used. The template is made out of metal or very hard plastic. Once they have this template the whole head, which can comprise two, four or more knives the same, is set into the profile grinder and the grinding wheel is run along the knives individually as the operator copies from the template. Some profile grinders are now C.N.C. controlled; therefore, a template is no longer used. The template is set up in the computer and everything is done automatically based on whatever points have been set in the computer.
Saw Blade Grinders: The saw blade itself, no matter what diameter or how many teeth, is placed on a shaft that is automatically rotated very slowly. As it rotates, two or more grinders will approach each individual tooth of the blade from opposite directions, (i.e. in most cases from the sides and top). This will not only sharpen the blade, but will also give the desired angle(s) required on the blade. Different angles are required for different operations and for different styles of saw blades.
Straight Knife Grinder: In this case, the blade which has a straight edge no matter how long is set up on the machine, while a grinder manually or automatically travels the straight length of the blade sharpening the blade as it passes.
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