Cutting your own profile on HL 850 blade?

[kevkrieg]

I have the fine rustic cutter for my HL 850, but it is not fine enough.  Has anyone cut their own profile from a standard HL 850 blade?  Would it be a bad idea to buy a replacement blade and cut some smaller "v"s in it to give me a finer rustic look?  Thanks.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Yes, that would be a bad idea. Don't mess with those hardened blades unless you want them flying around your head.

 

[Bohdan]

Just find a board with a lot of nails in it. One pass and your plane blade will have a real rustic look.  [big grin]

 

[Michael Kellough]

Yes, that would be a bad idea. Don't mess with those hardened blades unless you want them flying around your head.

Isn’t the blade just one long piece of carbide? Definitely wouldn’t want to mess with that...

 

[sancho57]

Not sure, but I magine you could go to a machine shop and have one made.

But then you would have to have a cutter head made as well.

that could get pretty pricey.

 

[AlexThePalex]

Yes, that would be a bad idea. Don't mess with those hardened blades unless you want them flying around your head.

Isn’t the blade just one long piece of carbide? Definitely wouldn’t want to mess with that...

Yep, carbide, extremely hard. Very difficult to machine after the hardening process, with the chance of introducing microfractures that might let the blade shatter in pieces as soon as you use it.

 

[kevkrieg]

Thanks all, will find another way to give wood a finer rustic look. 

 

[Svar]

You need diamond grinding wheel and proper cooling to grind that blade. I don't see a problem shaping it to whatever you want, but it does seem quite narrow to add deep v-notches.

 

[Cheese]

They've also used "green" silicone carbide wheels in machine shops to grind carbide and cemented carbide tools for years.

Unfortunately, it was a common practice for a rookie to think "a grinding wheel is a grinding wheel" and they'd use steel tooling on the green wheel and ruin it.  [crying]

Some machine shops actually hid their green wheeled grinder to prevent this issue from happening.

 

[Svar]

Unfortunately, it was a common practice for a rookie to think "a grinding wheel is a grinding wheel" and they'd use steel tooling on the green wheel and ruin it.  [crying]

Could you dress green wheel with diamond file to restore it?

 

[MrToolJunkie]

The head on these are balanced and shaped like the profile - so something to consider if you were going to machine something.

 

[Cheese]

Could you dress green wheel with diamond file to restore it?

Yes you can, unfortunately green wheels are very soft and if the rookie puts too much pressure on whatever steel item he was grinding, it will usually groove the wheels. Sometimes past the point of redemption.

It may seem counterintuitive but soft wheels for hard materials and hard wheels for soft materials. That's the reason I keep a large chunk of 4" thick asphalt around so when the the 14" concrete saw wheel starts to load up, you just run it 5-6 times in the asphalt and the blade comes right back.

 

[Dongar]

The only blade that is carbide is the straight blade.

 

[Svar]

The only blade that is carbide is the straight blade.

You are correct, rustic cutter is high speed steel. Makes it much easier to safely modify, [member=68822]kevkrieg[/member] .

 

[DeformedTree]

It may seem counterintuitive but soft wheels for hard materials and hard wheels for soft materials. That's the reason I keep a large chunk of 4" thick asphalt around so when the the 14" concrete saw wheel starts to load up, you just run it 5-6 times in the asphalt and the blade comes right back.

Make me think when one learns diamond blades just thru rock and concrete great, but stop dead in their tracks when the meet wood.

 

[DeformedTree]

Are the blades interchangeable like a normal planer?

I wouldn't go modifying the blades it has, like other mentioned, lots of caution there. Modifications should only be performed by nails hidden in material being worked.  But if there is nothing special about the design I would wonder if it's anything different from getting custom blades cut for a shaper?  If you found a shop that cuts profiles, could they make blade sets for them?

 

[AlexThePalex]

I hadn't seen the rustic blades are HSS, that does indeed make it easier to work with.

But isn't the planer head the same shape as the cutter? How much space do you have for modifications?

 

[Farming_Sawyer]

Use the angle stop, aka fence, and run the wide rustic at a couple intervals, then the narrow rustic, beat it the wood with a chain and run a wire wheel over it..... You'd be surprised what effects you can get... Says the man who one got paid to imitate random. horse chew marks on new wood for a swanky valence in a games room.