Harbor Freight Saw Blade Sharpener

[John Morris]

My dad purchased a Harbor Freight Saw Blade Sharpener a couple months ago, and had a hard time setting it up. He stated that his ol brain just doesn't work the best anymore for this sort of stuff, not too mention typically HF directions can be a PITA.

 

So he asked me if I could take it home and set it up for him and show him how to use it. Before I even read the instructions I looked it up on YouTube and it seemed a pretty straight forward contraption to use. It actually came pretty much assembled out of the box. All I had to do was tweak a few of the settings on it to bring it into calibration sort of, then the rest went along pretty smooth.

 

I wasn't going to sharpen any blades here at my home because I own a Shopsmith, I gave all my 5/8" arbor blades away to my dad because I prefer the 1" arbor blades Shopsmith traditionally uses, so my intention was to just set up the system, then take it back up to Dad's and get some of his blades on it and see how it goes. But as I was looking at the set up, I noticed that the self centering cone that goes into the arbor of the blade, and the receiver were pretty large in diameter, so I says to self, "Self, that looks like it may take a standard Shopsmith circular saw blade". And all be danged that it indeed did!

 

So I commenced to sharpening a Shopsmith blade on this system, and in about 6 minutes, I had a really nice sharpened blade, just like new, it was easy to use, intuitive, and fun actually.

The only drawback like I stated above, there is some fine tuning that I don't think should have to be done, but it took me about a half hour to tune it up and get it all straight, and it worked like a champ.

 

Motor assembly

 

 

Saw tooth engaging the emery disk.

 

 

 

 

I can't recommend this system over others, this is the only I have ever used, typically I have sent my blades out, but I'll probably never send another blade out again now, I even called my dad up and told him, hey pops, I'll sharpen all your blades for ya when you need it, and he was thrilled.

 

There is an adjustment for bevel angle, otherwise the face of the teeth are cut perpendicular to the disk as my Shopsmith blades require.

 

Here's a little video my son took of the process in action.

 

Here is another video from a pretty good channel and he reviews this system.

 

 

[John Morris]

After viewing the video from Bushradical again, I just realized that I had the blade on backward. And it still worked great! It'll be much easier I think with the blade on the correct way. 

[Ron Altier]

I gave up sharpening blades, my efforts were not good. I had expensive blades that most pros didn't do a great job on. Now I buy carbide tip blades on sale at HD for less that I can get them sharpened. This tool could be good to sharpen all of your old blades. I tossed mine, didn't know I could buy a simple device like this.

[John Morris]

20 minutes ago, Ron Altier said:

I could buy a simple device like this.

At 60 bucks Ron, it'll pay for itself by first or second use. I'm hooked.

[Gene Howe]

I think I'll give it a try. Thanks, @John Morris!

[smitty10101]

I was just given one FREE, last week in fact. What I noticed on the U tube videos I looked at was that the people were sharpening rip blades. With the teeth all pretty much the same it went quickly & easily.

If I got the concept correct---sharpening a cross cut blade is slightly more complicated involving tilting something or other to align with the teeth. And doing every other tooth, resetting, and then doing the skipped tooth.

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

[Larry Buskirk]

Might need to get one of these for that 2' high stack of blades. 

[John Morris]

1 hour ago, smitty10101 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!

[Smallpatch]

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 out, loosen 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 thing, a 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 7, 2021 by Smallpatch

[FlGatorwood]

I would look closely at the face of those carbide blades.  If I remember correctly, one faces left, the 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 plywood, years ago, all plywood blades had very small teeth.  It reduced splinters and tear.  I still have mine.  Rather than grinding, when it gets dull, I put it in an ammonia bath.  After soaking overnight, I 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.  

[Gene Howe]

4 hours ago, FlGatorwood said:

I would look closely at the face of those carbide blades.  If I remember correctly, one faces left, the 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?

[FlGatorwood]

@Gene Howe, I 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.  But, the blades that I have have not only the top of the tip beveled in those 3 directions, but the face of the carbide tip also has different angles.  I wish I had a close up picture, but the phone is full at the moment.  Here is a link to blades at Shopsmith.  

 

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

 

 

[John Morris]

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.

[smitty10101]

On 9/7/2021 at 9:54 AM, John Morris said:

On 9/7/2021 at 8:04 AM, smitty10101 said:

 

Only one way to find out Smitty!

First impression: that thing out of the box cannot sharpen 100 tooth blades with any consistency. The blade stop (part # 79) is too thick. It needs to be either ground to a  taper or a point or, ground thinner.

 

2nd impression: ATB blades. It's darn near impossible to set the grinding wheel at the same angle as the tooth of the blade. You can't see the sharpening stone meet the blade. Maybe you could do it by feel if you have surgeons hands. 

 

3rd impression: I couldn't tighten the swivel arm (part #63) enough that it wouldn't/couldn't move.

 

4th impression: THE MOTOR ROCKS on the guide rods (part # 38). I tried tightening the hold down nut but that prevents the motor from advancing into the blade..

 

In all fairness I didn't read the manual through & through but the manual really leaves something to be desired. The blade that I attempted to sharpen was an old Craftsman ATB steel blade. Some teeth got the full treatment and other teeth had areas that were untouched. I only went once around. I was getting frustrated with the whole setup so I left it until cooled heads prevail and U tube videos are reviewed a 2nd & 3rd time.

 

I will return!

[John Morris]

Great review Smitty.

Your 2nd Impression, I'm not sure what you saw, but I could clearly see the mating surface of the tooth face to the wheel, as seen in this image of my setup.

[smitty10101]

9 hours ago, John 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 wheel, you'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 appears, initially, that it might be able to be tightened enough to prevent movement.

 

(And the beat goes on.)

[Gene Howe]

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

[John Morris]

1 hour ago, smitty10101 said:

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

Oh ya, there is that.

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

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

[smitty10101]

On 9/11/2021 at 7:50 AM, smitty10101 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 it, going by the amount of teeth, you 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 & maintenance, 3 pages to set up and 2 pages to operation. But to your credit it's not written in Chinglish.

 

smitty

[John Morris]

12 hours ago, smitty10101 said:

The blade hits the hold down tightening knob on the swivel arm for the blade.

Smitty, I had the same issue, I moved the motor all the way to the right and that solved the issue for me. After reading your reviews, I am thinking these machines may be a hit and miss, I did not experience the same issues you are having, I must of hit on a product manufacturing date that landed on a Tuesday through Thursday, the workers weren't hungover by Tuesday, and I missed the Friday warm up to the weekend.