Chipper Anvil Sharpening

[Red Horse]

I pulled the anvils out of my Valby 150 and had them sharpened. total surface length on the side and bottom anvil was about the same lineal measurement as the two knioves-which cost me 16 bucks. Surprise! Kid says $60! I asked him how they could be so expensive given fact the knives cost 16 and his answer was.."well you don't do these that often". DUH!

Anyone have any experience in getting their anvils sharpened?

 

[Tractor Seabee]

I pulled the anvils out of my Valby 150 and had them sharpened. total surface length on the side and bottom anvil was about the same lineal measurement as the two knioves-which cost me 16 bucks. Surprise! Kid says $60! I asked him how they could be so expensive given fact the knives cost 16 and his answer was.."well you don't do these that often". DUH!

Anyone have any experience in getting their anvils sharpened?

Never heard them called anvils, assuming you are talking chipper blades. $60 is about right if you had them precision ground at a machine shop. Most equipment repair shops grind them with a angle head grinder with mixed results, not too precision. If they charged $60 you got robbed as they probably spent all of 10 mminutes doing it if you removed the blades first.

Since I had some mower blades sharpened at a mower shop and they ground them razor sharp (not dull sharp) and did not balance, I do my own. Chipper blades as opposed to mower blades are supposed to be razor sharp and they are made of high grade steel same as planer blades.

I do my own chipper blades also. Grind down on my bench grinder to get past the nicks and maintaining the 45 degree bevel. Then I put in the vise and draw file them down to razor sharp with the bevel fully filed. They are small enough that balance is not a problem. I keep a new set on hand in case some are not capable of sharpening, when they get too short or someone gets a rock in the chute.

As it is allied, I also do my own bush mower blades using a angle grinder. They are balance critical so I weigh each time after sharpening using a digital scale (HF). They are not sharpend to a sharp edge either. I leave mine at 1/16-1/32 dull edge. They really take a beating as I have rocky ground.

 

[Treemonkey1000]

I get a set of knives sharpened at vermeer for about $18. The anvil I just keep flipping over as it has four edges that I can use then I replace it. The main thing is that they do not heat up the metal while milling the knives or even the anvil. So they run it under a solution while grinding the edge on. The sharpened knife you should almost be able to shave the hair off your arm with.
If there is a Vermeer dealer around see what they charge for a set.

 

[grsthegreat]

I had my knives sharpened ...cost $2.50 per inch. They did an amazing job.

Mine are 10" long knives so they cost $22.50 each (twin sided though, so its like getting 2 knives actually for $22.50)

A new set cost nearly $100, so i thought it was a good deal.

 

[GreatWhitehunter]

Just had my 4 knives sharpened at a whopping $10. With a wet grinder to a 45 degree angle as the manual specs.I looked at the manual for your unit and can't see why sharpening the anvil would be any different than the knives. I'd find another place to get them sharpened. A new set of knives is $100.

Matt

 

[Red Horse]

Thx guys for your responses. In a word I would say I was "hosed". My knives are 9" long so for 18" I paid 16 bucks. The anvils are probably not that much longer so go figure how that would be worth 60.

By the way, one of the service guys at Northeast in Spencer NY-Valby US Distributor-told me knife angle is very critical. Manual says 30 degrees and he said a couple of degrees variation can effect performance. Last is what led me to doing the anvils. this thing was banging logs around instead of pulling them in so they suggested I do the anvils.

I think the real issue however was one of the three bolts that secures the anvils was stripped out-so after adjusting the knives, when I tightened the bolts back up, I was throwing the setting off. Also retapped the bad hole, replaced the bolt and we shall see.

As always, TBN is best resource-nothing like learning from someone elses trouble.

 

[Dan Hunter]

I have a 18.5 Road-towable DR Chipper that I've converted to adapt to iMatch. The cutting blade for the hammer wheel are a bit pricey and the local machine shop that's been good to me in the past quoted me a price close to a new blade. His explanation was that if he has to interrupt a run on production to set up for me there's a fix cost if I'm not willing to wait until they have nothing on the table and essentially I'm paying to do two setups - one for me and one to return it to continue the run on something else. If I wanted to wait it'd be cheaper but he still recommended I buy a bunch of blades and then bring him a batch when I'm half down. That way, they all get the same cut and the setup cost is dispersed.

 

[grsthegreat]

The guy up here in N. Idaho has a computerized milling machine that does the knives. He does all the major players like Asplundh, etc.

He made them cut better than when they were new.