Catclaw sharpener help

[mikejp]

I have a catclaw sharpener and for the life of me I can't sharpen blades. Every time I try to sharpen one of my friends blades I ruin it. I don't know what I am doing wrong. He is running a timberking b20 with cooks supersharp blades. I have the supersharp cam installed on my machine and set to 8 degrees in the back. This last time I had him pull me a blade off that was still cutting good but starting to get dull. I did not set or roll just try and sharpen. When I do they may dive then climb. Make a wavy cut then break after a pass or two. I cant figure out what I am doing wrong. If anybody has any advice or could help I would be very greatfull. I have ruined so many blades now I will have to sharpen for a year to break even. Thanks for the help. Mike

[1938farmall]

mikejp,  i'm guessing it's how you are dressing the "rock".  the folks at cook's are very helpful on the phone.  al

[mikejp]

I sent a email to Tim at cooks and he said he would help me but I am having a hard time catching him as we both work the same hours and my employer does not like us on the phone. I have the dvd that shows how to sharpen and I try to dress the stone like he shows how but I may not be doing it right. I am also not sure as to how many passes a person should do on a blade and how deep on each pass and should it be more on the face or the back of the tooth. Do you have to do the gullet of the tooth. It seams to take several passes to get all of the gullet. Should it turn the tooth blue. How can you tell if the tooth is sharp? Thanks for the help. Mike

[backwoods sawyer]

I am not running the cooks sharpener, but what it sounds like is that you are taking to much off at a time and are over heating the tips of the saw. I sent a batch of saws out to the local saw shop while I was getting my sharpener tuned up and they came back the way you are describing. The solution is to get the stone ground correctly put on an old throw away saw and practice setting the grinding wheel so that it just lightly kisses the saw all the way around the lighter the better. The wheel should go down the face of the tooth, around the gullet, and up the back of the tooth taking an even amount off all the way around. If it is not following the profile of the tooth completely and evenly then you will need to make adjustments to get it there. Someone with a cat claw sharpener will better at helping you with making those adjustments. Just remember every adjustment should be made in small increments. With my woodmizer sharpener, I am fine-tuning the sharpener to each saw that I put on the sharpener, setting the sharpener for one saw and then running a dozen saws thru on the same setting will not produce very good results. With my sharpener I gently lower the grinder so that it is cycling just above the tooth and gradually lower and adjust it until is lightly following the profile. Watch the tips of the saw for even a slight amount of discoloring, as this will change the hardness of the tooth affecting how it will cut.

[LeeB]

It most deffinately should not be turning the tips blue. That is a sign that te tips are overheating and buning. This wil take the hardining out nad make the tips soft. I have yet to put on a cam on either of my sharpeners, one a woodmizer and the other a catclaw, that I didn't have to tweek a little bit to get it just right to the profile I wanted. I ruined plety of blades till I figured it all out and even still now I mess up one every now and then. a light touch is the way to go. What rock are you using? The pink and blue ones can be a little soft and you will loose the coorect shape real quickly if you are taking a heavy grind. Like the last post sid, get some of those old dmaged blades and try , try again till you get it right. Pay close attention to the shape of the tooth to make sure the face is ground at the correct angle and not ending up at a negative angle. This will happen if your rock gets out of prfile duye to heavy a grind.

[mikejp]

I think you are right but I am not sure how to do it. It seams on my sharpener that it either wants to hit hard on the face or the back. It seams like the cam will not allow it to do just a little. It seams that the stone stays in the tooth to long but that could be a combination of poor adjustment and improper shaped stone. If anybody happens to be close to little rock arkansas and could help me set this up that would be great. My friend is always after me to do his blades even though I have ruined so many. I think the shipping must be eating him up. I am running a blue rock and really always thought that a light even grind all the way around the tooth would be best but just have not been able to acheive that yet.

[fstedy]

When you profile the rock set it in the gullet not touching the blade. Have the rock almost touching the face of the tooth and close to the bottom of the gullet now shape it to the tooth profile this will get you close on the rock profile. When you are grinding the harder you hit the tooth face the sooner the cam will raise the rock up out of the gullet as it moves along. It takes a little practice to balance the tooth face setting so the whole profile is ground. If your rock is shaped properly and you just kiss the tooth face it should grind the whole tooth profile. Don't grind the bottom of the gullet hard this might be whats causing your blades to break. If the back of the tooth is being ground hard either move to the tooth face, raise the rock in the gullet or check the rock profile sometimes its a combination of these adjustments that you have to perform.

[LeeB]

Till you get the hang of it and figure out all the adjustments you might want to use the black rocks. They are a little harder nad won't distort in shape as quickly. Start with rock first by taking a little off the right sie at about a 45* angle. take off about 1/4 to 1/3 of the width of the rock. Very lightly round over the left side. Only just enough to see it rounded. Next thing to do is adjust the travel o the rock takes alight cut on all surfaces. Turn the hight knobclock wise to lift the rock above the blade so it doesn't touch when it drops down as the cam turns. With the grinder turned off and the cam turning slowly lower the rock by turnig the hight adjustment knob counter clockwise till it just ouches the face of the tooth. If it touches the face real hard or the tip too far back then turn the blade push arm adjuster nut to push the blade a little farhter out. Do this in small increments till it just barely toches the face. Now you can set the depth. Slowly turn the hight adjustment counter clockwise to lower the rock to grind the whole face, lightly skim the gullet and then the back of the tooth. I like to do this with the grinder running. Again, small increments are better. maybe 1/8 to 1/4 turn at a time on the knob. If the rock is hitting the back of the tooth real hard you may need to take a little off the rock on the right side. of not enough then you might need to reshape te rock by flattening it off some so there is less of an area removed. You may also just have to sharpen te blade a few times till it is reshaped to fit your cam. Sharpening is just about 50/50 science and art. Hopefully I haven't totaly confused you. Keep trying. It just takes practice and above all, a light touch. I like to set the run speed at about 4 or 5. Too slow will also burn the tips and too fast will wear out the rock faster.

[ladylake]

 If your have the grinder set at 8* and are sharpening a 10* blade it's going to make the gullet deeper.  If you don't want to mess with the cam or other adjustments grind the gullet 1st taking as many passes as it takes to get the gullet deep enough to match your sharpener, then adjust it so it hits the face lightly , then it should hit the face and the whole gullet. Sounds like your hogging off to much in 1 pass, maybe that 1/2 hp motor is to powerful, my Wright motor is a little wimpy and won't let me take off too much in 1 pass.  Also the Cooks supersharps that I tried came with not much set, you may need to set at the 1st sharpening.  I just read Lee's post, he has it covered well. One thing he mentioned is adjusting the height and face with the grinder running which is what to do, then you can set it just right .  Once you get a blade though hitting the face and gullet lightly the next time it should only need 1 pass. I use a black wheel with excellent results, they last forever and don't need profiling very often.  Steve

[Fla._Deadheader]

Just a wild guess:  Did you install the cam, and, is it installed the correct way ??? If it is on backwards, it will not perform correctly ???

  Put on a NEW blade. Turn the machine by hand, and see how it matches the tooth profile. Might take some time, but, you HAVE to watch what the machine is doing, before you can start adjusting. ???

[mikejp]

Well after reading these great post I am pretty sure a lot of my problem is with my rock. I would always think how fast these blue stones get eaten up. To the point that if I faced the rock it would need refacing before I could even get the blade done. I would try and make the rock look like a u on bottom. Kinda rounded on the corners. I would always turn the teeth blue but I was trying real hard to stay off of them. I think this is kinda hard to set up and get going if you have never seen it done before. Here is some new questions. How many passes do you tend to make on a blade? How do you know when its done? Can you tell the difference between a sharp blade and a dull just by looking at it? When you sharpen will the stone always hit all of the face, gullet, and back of the tooth or if it hits the tooth face nicely but misses some in the gullet is that ok? I was told to make a very light pass on the last one to help clean it up . Is that true?

Thanks so much for everybodys help. I have so much money in this it is frustrating that for about 2 years I have never been able to get it right.

[coastlogger]

Mr Deadheader has an excellent point to be considered. IS the cam on right way around? Dont ask how I know
clgr

[fstedy]

You can tell if a blade is sharp by looking at the sharpened edge in a lighted area. If the blade is dull you will see a reflection  coming from the edge. When you are sawing it shows up first on the points of the outside top edge of the tooth. This is also true for drill bits the outside edge always wears first as thats where the cutting action starts. If your using the proper cam for the blade as in Cooks Supersharp blades and cam and your blades are taken off early when they first start to dull you may get away with one light sharpening. A lot depends on your setup and how worn the blades are.

[mikejp]

Well I had to go check but the cams on the catclaw will only go on one way. No way to mix it up so thats not it but good guess. This sharpener has I belive 4 adjustment. You can move your roller bearings on the front for different size baldes. I made this mistake for along time as I bought this used and the guy before me was sharping 1"1/2" baldes and my friends are 1"1/4". I have these in the thrid whole from the top.
Next I see the adjustment on the back. I belive this is for the degrees which I have set to 8 per cooks instruction. I belive I have the right cam because to get it we bought 20 blades so the cam should be right for these blades unless somebody messed up. I don't think so because is says cooks super sharp 8 degree on the cam.
The final two adjustment I see are for the grinder height and the finger push which would control if you are more on the face or back of the tooth.

Let me ask this question. If you were going to sharpen all day long. Say a 100 blades and they were all the same blade. Would you have to re adjust your machine for each one a little or once you had it could you just keep putting them on and it would be dead on. I guess what I am asking is every blade of the same type and brand exactly the same or are they each off a little depending on what machine cut them and who was running it and so on.

[coastlogger]

Depends how many sharpenings each blade has had. They lose a few thou with each pass of the grinder,making them lower.

[mike_van]

You have to adjust for every single blade, it may be just a tiny turn on the height or the length of the pushrod. If you don't you're just burning up blades [and stones]  The stone needs to be kept clean with the dressing tool, the grind should be so light that there's no bluing of the teeth.  Two light passes are better than one heavy one. I have the same grinder, with the 7/8" Red Streak cam, I've done every blade from 3/4 pitch to 1",  and 1 1/4 wide up to 2.   It's all in the adjustments.   Compare it to leaving a chain to be sharpened & getting it back half ground away & blue.   Same applies here.  Cooks used to have a video tape about the sharpener, it was all good advise on there.

[ladylake]

 Yes you have too adjust for every blade, sometimes even new ones are a slightly different height.  On the 1st sharpening I don't care if it hits the whole gullet but it should by the 2nd as the corners of the tooth will get rounded off if it doesn't .  99% of the time it only takes 1 pass, if quite a few teeth get damaged  it might take more.  If your bluing the teeth either your grinding to much off or that blue wheel is to fine and creates a lot of heat. When I started sharpening 10* blades to 4* I had too make a few adjustments that weren't built into the machine to make it follow the 10* gullet.  Once you get your grinder figured out you'll like it. I've sharpened thousands on mine, at 7 or 8 dollars each that saved a lot of money, it take a little time but once you get it running you sharpen a chainsaw chain or whatever.    Steve

[Stan snider]

I'm thinking that you are taking off way to much metal. The wheel should retain its shape for several blades.  To tell if it is sharp run your fingernail (the back of it) across the tooth. A sharp tooth will hang in your nail and a dull one will slide off.  Just compare a new band and a used one and you can easily see what I mean.  Stay with it and look for the fine details.  Stan

[logwalker]

Unless you are using a protractor to measure the tooth angle how do you know it is right. If you have the right cam for the blades than it sounds like you don't have the angle right.

It takes practice to do it well. I start with the stone stopped and cycle the cam and get the stone to follow the tooth and gullet closely but not quite touching. Then I start the stone and cycle both motors and slowly lower the grinder until it is barely kissing the blade. I generally make 3 or 4 passes so I don't burn the tooth.

You need good light to see and good glasses. I use a magnifier and glasses. I also raised the grinder so it was easier to see. I all helps and makes it more accurate.

Now the rub, if you aren't setting the blades accurately then you are not going to get satisfactory results no matter how sharp you get them. I think that a dull blade can cut straight but a sharp blade with the wrong set  will never cut straight.

Joe

[Papa1stuff]

From what I have been reading here ,I am glad I purchased a WM CBN sharpener ;D

[mike_van]

There is absolutly nothing wrong with Cooks sharpener. You can't rate the machine by one [untrained] operator's experience.

[Papa1stuff]

Did not mean to seem like Cooks was'nt a good sharpener,Just saying  that with the CBN sharpener ,there is very little adjustment to make as the stone requires no honing and it fits into the gullet all at once .

[ladylake]

 With a CBN wheel the blades you buy are going to have to match close, might limit your choice, can you change hook angle? It's hard to measure hook angle on a blade with anything as they start curving back a little bit below the tip, just set the sharpener at what angle you want.   Steve

[backwoods sawyer]

I agree the CBN sharpener is the cats meow. The cat claw seems to be a whole lot more sharpener then the old style woodmizer sharpener that I have, which is not a bad little sharpener. As I mentioned earlier even the saw shops with trained sawfilers do not always pay close attention to the details, and sharpening saws is all about the details. I will send my saws around as many times as it takes to put a fresh grind on all of the teeth on the saw, if it takes 3 times around then that is fine if it takes 7 times around that is fine as well. Good back lighting and a magnifying glass will let you know when it is ready to come off. I grind light enough that there is not even the slightest bluing of the teeth. I adjust the height and feed position for each saw so that I can gently approach the tooth with the grinder running, once set, let it run and make minor adjustments as needed during the sharpening.

[gmmills]

  mikejp,

      All the advice that you have gotten here is right on the money. These guys have alot of experience with the Cook's sharpener.  Here is another variable you need to look at. You state that you have a 8 deg supersharp cam and have the head angle set at 8 deg. A new supersharp blade has a 6 deg hook angle. If you are sharpening new blades at 8 deg you are actually changing the original tooth profile from 6 deg to 8 deg. The problem you are having in dressing the wheel is directly related to the change in hook angle. You are trying to dress the wheel to match a blade with a 6 deg hook angle with the sharpener head at 8 deg. You will have a heck of a time trying to get the wheel to grind the whole profile properly.

    There are two things you can try. You can back the head angle off from 8 deg to 6 deg and see if you can dress the wheel to match the profile better.  The second is to leave the head angle at 8 deg and set the face grind of the tooth to contact the tooth 1/2 way down and then dress the wheel to follow the gullet and up the back of the tooth. The next pass try to grind the whole face of the tooth and also the whole gullet profile. Probably have to re- dress the wheel to do this.Doing this will allow you to change hook angles gradually, less wheel wear.  It may take as many as 4 passes to correctly change the blade from  a 6 deg to an 8 deg and still maintain the supersharp gullet profile.       

[mikejp]

I called cooks saw today and they said that the new super sharps come with a 8 degree hook. That was a good guess but I think the biggest problem is poor stone dressing to match the blade. I am trying to work up enough courage to go and try again. I just don't want to ruin any more of my friends blades.

[LeeB]

Buy a couple of blades to practice with.

[Tom]

 

I have a catclaw sharpener and for the life of me I can't sharpen blades. Every time I try to sharpen one of my friends blades I ruin it. I don't know what I am doing wrong. He is running a timberking b20 with cooks supersharp blades. I have the supersharp cam installed on my machine and set to 8 degrees in the back. This last time I had him pull me a blade off that was still cutting good but starting to get dull. I did not set or roll just try and sharpen. When I do they may dive then climb. Make a wavy cut then break after a pass or two. I cant figure out what I am doing wrong. If anybody has any advice or could help I would be very greatfull. I have ruined so many blades now I will have to sharpen for a year to break even. Thanks for the help. Mike

Mike,
First of all, climbing, diving and wavy cuts are more symptoms of a flattened set than a poor sharpening.  You might be grinding all of the set out of the teeth if you are being too aggressive.  You might also have something dragging on the teeth. check that out separately.

It can be frustrating when you try to make too many changes at one time.  Without turning the sharpener on, make your adjustments and move the band through the sharpener by hand, watching the stone and turning it with your hand as you go   Watch the contact area of the stone and tooth.  Look for the light that indicates that the stone might not be matching the original grind. 

Don't get in a hurry.  Take your time. Even when you get it all together, you will be taking about 20 minutes to sharpen a 13'2" band.

Here are some links to threads that might help. They go to posts that I made, but you should read the whole thread.

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,850.msg9886/topicseen.html#msg9886

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,1276.msg15379/topicseen.html#msg15379

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,15633.msg224873/topicseen.html#msg224873

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,18912.msg271702/topicseen.html#msg271702

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,15078.msg213906/topicseen.html#msg213906

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,13229.msg185332/topicseen.html#msg185332

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,4667.msg62065/topicseen.html#msg62065

[mikejp]

Thanks Tom so much for the links and the post. I just learned alot. I do think now that almost all my problem was inproper stone shape and to aggresive of grinding. I have just one more question on the stone. If you were going to sharpen for other people and kept a cam for all different blades is the stone shape so much different for each blade that you would keep a stone shaped for one type of blade and change stones when you change cams? Or is the change in stones so little that you would just do a real quick reshape as you change. Thanks for the help. Mike

[Tom]

I'm just supposing,  but I think it would have to do with the number of blades in that run.  Because of balancing problems, changing stones will usually require the stone to be dressed anyway.  It puts it back into balance the same as rebalancing a tire if you swapped it on rims or dismounted it and remounted it differently on the same rim.

Most of the difference in the shape of the stone will have to do with the shape of the back-grind.  Some teeth have steep backs and some low angled backs.  You also dress to get taller teeth and deeper gullets.

Since you would be dressing anyway, I think I would dress the stone to match the next run of blades and not change stones.  Where that might differ is if Gullet shape was drastically different.  The old Woodmizer blades had flat gullets and depth control was used more than the cam. If you ever ran into any of those, it might benefit you to change stones.  But that would be a really drastic situation.

I would do anything to keep from changing stones.   I'd put that sucker on there and get it dressed and balanced and run it till it was of no use anymore.

If you do much professional sharpening and have a lot of different profiles, it might make more sense to have more sharpeners, if the production allowed for dedicated sharpeners.

I think that you will find that shaping the same stone will be more economical.  You might think of charging a setup charge everytime a blade profile changes.  Planer mills do it when running mouldings.

[mikejp]

Thanks Tom. This weekend I am going to try again. I think a little prep time with the stone and proper setup we will be in buisness and that would make my friend very happy seeing that I have about 25 or more of his blades here and will probally have to sharpen every one for free to pay for the ones I ruined. Oh well. Cheap price to pay for tons of lessons learned and experience gained.

[customsawyer]

There is alot of room for error in the cooks sharpener but once you get it down then it will work just fine. You might check and make sure the motor that drives the cam is running the right direction.
Start with a blade that is from cooks SS and then dress your stone so that it follows the contour of the face of the tooth, to the gullet, then the back of the tooth with the same amount of grinding in each area, take that rock off and use it to look at each time you need to dress a rock.

[GF]

ONe thing I found on mine in the past was the gear motor felt as if it was tightly bolted to the frame, but when it start to push the arm I could see it move very so lightly, this will also cause problems with sharpening consistantly.  Thought I would mention it.  I have a Cooks sharpener and it works very well.

GF

[backwoods sawyer]

That is a good point about keeping a stones profile handy, I took a thin piece of tin and made a profile of the grinding wheel by gently plunging it straight into the grinding wheel and this hangs on the wall with the spare stones for a quick reference.

[bandmiller2]

Mike,the best tool to dress the stone is a diamond dresser my favorite is "T" shaped with diamond bits brazed on the top of the tee.Companys that sell machine/industrial supplies sell them their not too expensive.Frank C.

[Big Timber]

COOK'S MILLS AND SHARPENER ROCK, my bad, the ppl at cook's are the most helpful ppl that I have talked to, if your boss or owners dont want you on the phone with ppl that well help you and make your service better, DANG, let them guys do it instead of you.  After the feed back comes in, the boss will prob send you to troy, AL to get first hand lessons from Tim's guys!!

[logwalker]

I am assuming he is sawing at home therefore he is calling on personal business. I could be wrong.

[LorenB]

Mike,

I've been using my Cat's Claw sharpener for a while now and noticed some issues that haven't been mentioned yet. 

The hardest thing for me to learn was how to dress the wheel to get the grind I want.  Like everyone else here, I want to just kiss the band as the sharpener grinds.  On the other hand, I want it to touch along the entire tooth profile.  Obviously you must grind the top of the tooth in order to sharpen it, but you must also grind the bottom of the gullet in order to remove any micro-cracks before they develop into real cracks. 

In my experience, you need to shape the left side of the wheel to match the profile of the bottom of your band's gullet.  If you notice, as soon as the grinding wheel reaches the bottom of the gullet, the band starts moving and the wheel rises immediately to grind the back of the next tooth.  That means that the shape of the bottom of the gullet, at the face of the tooth, is set by the shape of the left side of the grinding wheel.  Be careful not to round off the grinding wheel to heavily on the left side.  Removing too much material can affect the hook angle of the tooth. 

Once I got my wheel shaped to grind the gullet properly, I found that it was taking too much off the back of the next tooth as the band was forced into the wheel faster than the wheel rose.  I corrected this by shaping the right side of the wheel at a fairly steep angle upwards, about 45 degrees.  My wheel wound up with a fairly pointy appearance. 

Note that the issue of taking too much off the back side of the next tooth could also be fixed by adjusting the cam (welding material to it to raise the wheel sooner), but that was more work than I was willing to do. 

I am sharpening Timberwolf bands and am using the Timberwolf cam.  The bands are 1.5" x 0.056", with a 1" pitch. 

I found that I needed to raise the height of the band carriage to prevent the grinding wheel from contacting the frame of the sharpener.  I think this was 1/4" higher than the "correct" setting for my 1.5" blades.  (Don't take that number as gospel.  I don't really remember how much I raised it.) 

Initially, I had some blades breaking prematurely.  When I sent samples back to Timberwolf, they told me that the hook angle was much less than I had set by using the scale on the back of the sharpener.  As it turned out, if I wanted a 9 degree hook, I had to set the sharpener to a higher angle.  I finally got it where I wanted it by trial and error, using a protractor.  I'm pretty sure that this was not caused by shaping the wheel too heavily on the left side. 

I like my sharpener, mostly because it saves me a lot of money.  You will like yours too once you get the hang of all the adjustments. 

Now if I can just figure out how to adjust the Suffolk Dual Tooth Setter.  (Actually, I think I am finally getting it right.) 

Good luck

– Loren

[bandmiller2]

I'am not the poster boy for correctness,but I use the Simonds 3/4 cam for everything including woodmizer 7/8 bands ,it matches them quite close.I do very little stone [rock] shaping after I form it ,with the blue ceramics.The slight radius on the bottom left of the stone is critical ,that transformes from tooth to gullet and must never be sharp or too abrupt.Its important to have the proper dressing tool a diamond dresser is best.You more or less configure the stone to a new band gullet.I grind the least possible material off the band.First sharpening sometimes I just get the face and back of the tooth next time full gullet grind.The Cooks sharpener gives you great latitude to sharpen different bands you just have to learn how to set it up properly.Frank C.

[ladylake]

 I'm not much for correctness either, I just do what works.  I used to profile the wheel on regular basis a while back, about 6 months age I quit profiling except if I put a new wheel on.  The wheel seems to wear nice and even without profiling and the blades cut great. I was worried about the hook angle but it must be OK as they cut good. On the first sharpening mine hits the face and the whole gullet except for the last little bit of the tooth, blades cut good like that, the opposite  of Franks . On the 2nd sharpening it gets it all.    Steve

[motohed]

Another thing that I have not seen  mensioned in this post is that you may also be getting the rock out of round ,when dressing it . This can cause quite a few problems on it's own . If you don't spin the wheel by hand close to the blade before you start sharpening . You may be setting up on the the low side of the wheel  and when the high side comes around the grind will be heavy . This will cause bluing and profile change also .

[Chuck White]

Mine goes just like yours Steve!
When I'm sharpening a new blade for the first time, it don't get it all, but it'll clean up nice the next time I sharpen it!
I don't usually send it through the sharpener 2 revolutions.  I'd be taking off metal that I don't need to!  ;)

[bandmiller2]

Do you guys set before sharpening every time??I have a dial indicator and check the set if its close I don't bother setting, it usally works out to every outher grinding,unless I hit nails then it goes through setting.Most bands its once around the block with minimal removal.Frank C.

[Chuck White]

I always set, then sharpen!

That way, I don't have to mess with deburring the back side of the blade!

It really speeds things up and the burr goes away within a pass or two through the log and the blade cuts just as well as if the burr was removed by hand!

[ladylake]

Do you guys set before sharpening every time??I have a dial indicator and check the set if its close I don't bother setting, it usally works out to every outher grinding,unless I hit nails then it goes through setting.Most bands its once around the block with minimal removal.Frank C.

About the same here except I just eyeball them, every 2nd sharpening most times. I like to have bands with varying degrees of set. Lots of set for dry pine, not much for frozen logs.    Steve

[LorenB]

Do you guys set before sharpening every time??I have a dial indicator and check the set if its close I don't bother setting, it usally works out to every outher grinding,unless I hit nails then it goes through setting.Most bands its once around the block with minimal removal.Frank C.

Like you, bandmiller2, I set only if it's necessary.  I also have a dial indicator to check the set.  With this latest batch of ten blades I found that all of the ones up for their first sharpening were close enough.  Most of the rest, on their third or fourth sharpenings, needed setting. 

I also set before I sharpen.  I've tried setting after sharpening, but dealing with the burr was a real nuisance.  That burr probably messes up the setter, and I know it produces errors in reading the dial indicator. 

– Loren