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Threw $400 at a band saw blade sharpener and it was a total waste
I run a small shop out of my garage in Tulsa and was getting tired of sending blades out for sharpening every couple weeks. Saw this portable sharpener online that claimed to handle any blade size. Paid $400 for it including shipping. First blade I tried it on came out uneven and actually left burn marks on the pork shoulders I was cutting. Tried adjusting the angle three different times but it never cut clean. Ended up tossing the whole thing in the scrap bin. Now I'm back to paying $15 per blade at the local sharpening service. Has anyone else fallen for one of these gadgets or do they actually work for somebody?
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grantw412mo ago
Man I feel your pain, I bought one of those "universal" blade sharpeners last year and my first attempt left my bandsaw blade looking like a cheese grater. Tried to fix it by adjusting the angle again and ended up just burning a hole through my workbench instead. Sometimes the smartest move is admitting we paid $400 for a lesson in patience.
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jordan_hill1mo ago
Wait, you burned a hole through your workbench? How does that even happen? Man, that's a new level of workshop chaos I haven't reached yet, but I respect the hustle. I had a similar thing happen with a cheap jigsaw blade sharpener that just made my blades wobble like a drunk snake. @young.michael's point about cheap tools adding variables is spot on - my sharpener added so many variables I ended up with a math equation instead of a blade. But hey, at least now we all know that sometimes the best tool is just buying a new blade and calling it a day. Your $400 lesson probably saved someone else from doing the same thing, so thanks for taking one for the team.
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young.michael2mo ago
Respectfully, I think that $400 bought you exactly what you needed - a sharp reminder that cheap tools just introduce more variables into an already finicky process.
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