Cost of Jet Knives

[Woodhead]

What gives? JET 16" planer knives (set of 3) have gone from $94 (US) to $154! Add to that the problem of resharpening them. Jet wants the primary grind at

40 degrees and secondary bevel at 42. The sharpening shops around here do them at 45.

A neighbor brought over some old horse farm fence boards (poplar), nails removed..... Except for 3! He said he would buy me two new sets of blades that I expected would cost him $200. Now its over $300! I'm going to have to convince him that new poplar lumber will be cheaper than trying to reclaim those old creosoted boards. Ever try to clean creosote off your rollers? YUCK

Jim in the Bluegrass

[Leon]

Before you quoted him a price, did you get a price quote your self?

[Woodhead]

What do you take me for? A person who thinks before his mouth flaps open???

I have a long history of screwing up. Want to ask me for some investment advice?

Jim

[Leon]

;~) We learn from our mistakes. On a similar note I fill my truck about once every 4 to 5 weeks. Some times the price difference is $4 to $8 to fill up between those periods.

[Jody]

Do they really need to come from Jet? I have never had a problem with knives from

[Woodhead]

Thanks!, Jim

[Joe]

Yup, steel is up all over. Have you seen what's happened to the price of screws and nails? The builder of my house almost got into a fistfight with the guy putting the deck in because the builder insisted he shoot 3 nails into each board instead of just two. He got 3, therefore so did I so we're both happy. The deck guy on the other hand.......

jc

[RonB]

Shop around and do some research. You can often find aftermarket suppliers for blades. Even better the aftermarket solution might fit another machine and blades for that machine might be available at a reasonable price.

I have one of the older Ryobi 12-1/4 surface planers. It is from the 'old Ryobi' and just keeps going after 10-12 years. Ryobi left us high and dry on factory blades a few years ago and their recommended supplier wants more than $70 for a set of blades that used to cost $17. I did some Google research, and got some help from this newsgroup, and found another source -- then I found out that the aftermarket part# also fit a Delta 12-1/4" machine (one extra hole). My Delta alternative is still available in the stores and costs about $20/set.

RonB

[Prometheus]

Man, that's expensive.

Sounds like a good enough incentive to invest in a small surface grinder, and make the things yourself. That way, you have all the knives you'll ever need- plus a new tool.

it's got a big price tag- but it wouldn't take too many dinged sets of knives to recoup the cost at $150+ a set.

[The Davenport's]

Neat idea...except that for most planer blades, that grinder won't work very well. The link is to a 6X12 grinder, which with a very carefully made fixture, will let you sharpen 3 13" blades but not the 16" blades of the OP.

Mike

[Patriarch]

"The Davenport's" wrote in news:ct3gh.1054$ [e-mail]:

Two ideas:

Can't the knives be resharpened, say, by a commercial sharpening service?

And wouldn't they also be a source of new knife stock?

Not everything needs to come shrinkwrapped.

Patriarch, owner of one of those less expensive planers...

[Prometheus]

Should have looked closer, I guess. They make bigger ones, of course- I just picked the smallest and least expensive to link to.