Greenteeth Sharping

[2treeornot2tree]

I had a guy down the street that has a sharpening service (he sharpens everything but bandsaw blades) sharpen my greenteeth. He said he did them before, but when i picked them up today, I noticed that 3 of the teeth dont really have a concave on them like the rest. Do you think this will matter? Are the teeth gonna cut good or like crap? The top tooth is one of the ones in question. The bottom tooth is one of the ones that looks very simular to a new tooth.
View attachment 212110

 

[imagineero]

it will make no difference. The important angle os the one on the side of the tooth, looks ok to me. You're not supposed to sharpen the side though, just the cutting face. It's really not that hard to do, especially if you have a drill press and a bench grinder.

Get a 60 grit green wheel for your grinder, set the grinder up on the table of the drill press, clamp it down it you can. You want it right under the chuck. Put the tooth in the chuck and set the drill for the lowest speed. Turn the grinder, on, turn the drill on. Use the drill arm to lower the tooth onto the grinder. Dont pull too hard, let the wheel do the work. Grind only the face until you have a sharp edge again. No need to ever sharpen the side of the tooth.

Very quick and easy way to sharpen your teeth.

Shaun

 

[2treeornot2tree]

it will make no difference. The important angle os the one on the side of the tooth, looks ok to me. You're not supposed to sharpen the side though, just the cutting face. It's really not that hard to do, especially if you have a drill press and a bench grinder.

Get a 60 grit green wheel for your grinder, set the grinder up on the table of the drill press, clamp it down it you can. You want it right under the chuck. Put the tooth in the chuck and set the drill for the lowest speed. Turn the grinder, on, turn the drill on. Use the drill arm to lower the tooth onto the grinder. Dont pull too hard, let the wheel do the work. Grind only the face until you have a sharp edge again. No need to ever sharpen the side of the tooth.

Very quick and easy way to sharpen your teeth.

Shaun

Could you post a pic of our setup?

 

[imagineero]

I dont have greenteeth, I have a different tooth setup on my machine with the old straights, lefts, rights. I remove the steel portion of my teeth with an angle grinder, then sharpen the carbide with a bench grinder with the green wheel.

I have seen this type of setup that a friend has, and he got it from the green teeth website. They probably have a US one, but the aus one is here;

Greenteeth Australia - Stump Grinder Cutter Teeth

If that link doesnt work, then go to the green teeth website and click on 'sharpening'. They have good diagrams and info there.

Shaun

 

[2treeornot2tree]

Thanks for the info. looks like i got toys to buy. lol.

 

[imagineero]

No worries. Save your money and buy second hand. There are so many drill presses and bench grinders out there, you can get a second hand bench grinder for about $20 if you look around, and a reasonably good drill press for about $100. Try to get a drill press with at least a 1hp motor. It's a great tool to have. The floor standing ones save some bench space, but the half height ones sell for a fair bit less. Look for 12 or 16 speeds, especially if you do metal work. You'll appreciate the low speeds.

The special green wheels for grinding carbide can be a bit tricky to find. I had to special order mine in. I got one made by norton. They were about $15 I think. I got a 60 grit and a 100 grit because I didnt know which I'd need. The 100 was way too slow. 60 was about right.



Shaun

 

[flushcut]

Be very cautious of the dust generated wear a mask and set up a shop vac for ventilation. The last thing you want to do is breath in carbide dust and the silica dust from the wheel they are known to cause cancer and silicosis. Try and find a diamond wheel that will at least eliminate the silica dust part and it will out last a green wheel many times over.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

I will probably buy the wheel greenteeth sells.

 

[imagineero]

The diamond wheels also cost about 10~15 times as much. It's a hard call getting one, especially if it's a custom size, getting a diamond wheel to do my stump teeth on would likely be in the $600+ range. That would buy me about 40 green wheels. I havent figured out yet how many sets of teeth I can get out of a green wheel, but so far I've got 6 full sets of teeth sharpened on my first wheel (12 teeth per set) with no noticeable wear. That's about 3 months stump grinder use for me. I'm guessing by the wear on the wheel that I can probably get about 20 full sets sharpened for each wheel, or approximately $0.60c per full set of teeth sharpened. That would approximate out to about 9 months out of each wheel at the rate I grind stumps. Multiplied by 40 would see a diamond wheel lasting at least 30 years to make it worthwhile. I hope I'm not still grinding stumps in 30 years ;-)

My personal take on things like silicosis is that people probably take them too seriously. I'd put asbestosis in the same category. A single dose of cyanide will kill you on the spot, but there are people that worked their whole lives in asbestos mines with no protection and not all of them got sick. It can't be that bad for you. Same story with silicosis which you can get from anything with sand in it. Concreters are in the high risk category but I've not ever seen a guy shoveling cement with a dust mask on.

Yeah carbide is bad. Work outside if you can, or use a shop vac. Wear a dust mask if you like to live careful. At the level of exposure you're likely to see doing the odd set of stump teeth It's probably not a huge deal. Way less dangerous than smoking, drinking, driving a car, operating a chainsaw, or any other thing in your life. Take the right precautions, but dont blow it out of proportion.

Shaun

 

[flushcut]

How the hell do you guys make a living down under? Sweet Jesus $600 for a diamond wheel yikes!
I preach the use of a mask because I have had a good friend die from silicosis and he was a mason but like anything "to each their own".

 

[2treeornot2tree]

Treen man Supply 1/4" diamond wheel for sharpening greenteeth $169.95

 

[TreeAce]

I dont have greenteeth, I have a different tooth setup on my machine with the old straights, lefts, rights. I remove the steel portion of my teeth with an angle grinder, then sharpen the carbide with a bench grinder with the green wheel.

I have seen this type of setup that a friend has, and he got it from the green teeth website. They probably have a US one, but the aus one is here;

Greenteeth Australia - Stump Grinder Cutter Teeth

If that link doesnt work, then go to the green teeth website and click on 'sharpening'. They have good diagrams and info there.

Shaun

In those directions, Has anyone tried "method 1"? Does it work ok? I will be sharping 700 series. The last I checked my Dads old drill press worked so I should be able to set up "method 2" without to much trouble. But I really only want to do a handful here n there. I switch the lead teeth often but the rest last a long time.

 

[imagineero]

They're not all that expensive. The cyclone CBN/ABN wheel I bought for my chain sharpener was only $250. Admittedly it measures only 4mm wide (5/32") x 5" and isnt actually a true diamond wheel. The wheel listed above is pretty good value at 4" x 1/4" and is a diamond wheel.

Because I use the straights/lefts/rights style of teeth I'd need a fairly wide diamond wheel to dress the teeth, maybe an inch wide x 6" so it would fit on my grinder. I havent seen a wheel this wide available, the closest I came to it was 6"x3/8". That's narrow enough that I start worrying about my fingers. That wheel was $400. There's also the question of how coarse the diamonds will be, and how well adhered to the glue. Diamonds are nice tough things, but the glue they get stuck on with is often not strong enough to hold them there. I've yet to find a 6"x1" wheel, but if I do I'm guessing it would be in the $600 area if it was any good. Even so I dont think you'd get a guarantee with it.

Even fairly large machine shops use green wheels for their carbide.

Shaun

 

[imagineero]

In those directions, Has anyone tried "method 1"? Does it work ok? I will be sharping 700 series. The last I checked my Dads old drill press worked so I should be able to set up "method 2" without to much trouble. But I really only want to do a handful here n there. I switch the lead teeth often but the rest last a long time.

havent tried it or seen anyone try it but I guess it would work ok if you've got a steady hand. If you've got access to the drill press I'd go that way though. If the drill press has a keyless chuck you can really crank out a lot of teeth real fast. Having sharp teeth on your grinder makes for less strain on the motor and quicker grinds. I try to change my teeth out pretty often for sharpening.

Shaun

 

[2treeornot2tree]

I am going to buy the required machines and wheels for method 2 and I will let you know how it works. I should have it up and running in a couple days or a week.

 

[TreeAce]

I am going to buy the required machines and wheels for method 2 and I will let you know how it works. I should have it up and running in a couple days or a week.

Cool. Please keep us posted cuz I am def interested in hearing about it.

 

[Tree Raptor]

Green Teeth Sharpening.

I found this thread very interesting and informative. I did not realize that you (homeowner) could sharpen greenteeth. I have quite a few of them, 100+ and was thinking of sending them to a professional to sharpen as they do have to be done concave. Does anyone know of an outfit that will do greenteeth and how much. Right now they are just over $10 apiece so probably would not want to spend too much in sharpening. I suppose if someone did them for 3 to $4 each that would save 1/2 cost of buying new ones. I wonder how many teeth that diamond wheel mentioned would last before it wore out.

 

[2treeornot2tree]

Green manufacturing told me that the diamond wheel will last for 150 to 200 teeth. If you have a water or carbide cutting fluid drip, then you will get about 300 teeth out of a wheel. I would think you would need something to catch the fluid in, and the grinding wheel would fling that off, and make a heck of a mess. I have everything to sharpen now, except the wheel, and it should be here by friday. I found a 15in 1hp craftsman floor drill press on craigslist for $200. I picked up a new craftsman 8in grinder for $150.

 

[imagineero]

good score on the drill press, hope it's in good order. You'll be surprised how handy it comes in, they're a great tool to have around and nothing else does the same job.

I was kind of surprised at how few teeth you get out of a wheel, that makes the cost per tooth pretty pricey compared with what I'm doing at the moment. Nearly $1 per tooth. I guess it's worth remembering that you get three faces on greenteeth, which makes the cost per face a bit less. Still a lot cheaper than having them done in a shop... and I think the diamond wheel would be faster than a green wheel and less hazardous/dusty. I always grind outside because of all the dust. I know when I went to a diamond wheel on my chain sharpener it was a lot faster and virtually zero dust compared to the pink wheels I'd been using before.

Let us know how it all turns out!

Shaun

 

[TreeAce]

As the wheel gets smaller from use does that change the shape of the "cup" on the sharpened tooth? I guess not enough to matter?