sharpening stump grinder teeth

I Have A Vermeer 630b Stump Grinder And Am Considering Sharpening The Carbide Tips With A Green Wheel. Probably Will Use Only New Teeth For The Two Higher Sets, But Would Like To Touch Up The Lower Sets. Anybody Have Any Experience With How These Perform? Any Suggestions?

You can actually resharpen the teeth so that they are sahrper and cut better than new. The negative side is that sharpening takes time and generates nasty dust. I resharpen teeth several times but have no criticism for those that simply replace with new teeth-the cost of new ones and the time required for resharpening come close to being a "wash". I've noticed that at least one guy is selling his used teeeth on Ebay-smart move to defray costs but then you have to figure the time required to package and ship so I think I'll keep doing what I'm doing.If you sharpen with a green wheel get GOOD dust masks.Relieve the steel using an Aluminum oxide wheel first so that the carbide is all you are trying to do with the Green(silicon carbide) wheel.-The wheel will last much longer. Ideally we would use diamond wheels so we good grind steel and carbide together with impunitybut they are pricey and a little harder to find.

We used to grind them, but now we retip them.

Just had a bunch of mine retipped from a company in Florida and they are holding up well. Cost was 1/2 the price of new and they seem to work well.
Looking at doing it myself, just not sure about the cooling process, any tips Lumberjack?

for me I will replace a worn tip sharpen once the sweat on a new tip when blunt.Have got some teeth that have gone through this process 0ver thirty times and still going.Every no and then you will find the odd one that has some impurities in the metal and will not take.make sure you use the right easy flow rods(one with a high nickel content for disimilar metals)and a clean metal surface a light grind helps.this is what works for me due to the high cost of teeth here($40nz each)or cheaper if I get from aussie.I let them cool on there own.

I can sharpen the teeth right on my cutter wheel with a 4 inch angle grinder in about 15 to 30 minutes depending on how dull they are and how many teeth I actually sharpen. I never try to sharpen them completely sharp. I just sharpen them until they have a small radius on the cutting edge. My grinder has a 60 horse power diesel and it grinds very well even when the teeth are a little dull. Trying to make them like new again just takes more time and wears the teeth out faster. I can usually sharpen the teeth 3 or 4 times before they are no good. I tried nearly a dozen types of grinding wheels before I found one that would work on both the steel shank and the carbide. For anyone interested they are made by United Abrasives, Sait Grind, Part #20017 for a 4 inch angle grinder. The wheel is actually made to cut masonry, stone, and concrete but it works really well on the carbide and steel too. The wheels cost me $1.60 each and I can sharpen all 32 teeth on my wheel with one grinding wheel. Oh, by the way, I wear a respirator, safety glasses, and ear plugs when I sharpen the teeth. There is a learning curve in sharpening the teeth this way. It takes several times before you will get good at it but it's definitely worth the effort to learn. Taking the teeth off the wheel to sharpen them is very time consuming and this way its easy and fast once you learn how to do it. Wheel maintenance for me is no problem any more.
Another trick that some people may not know is this. If you use the teeth that you have to set with a depth gage, set all the teeth in the crosser pockets about 1/4 inch deeper than the lead teeth. These teeth are only needed to cut out the center when plunge cutting and when sweeping to the side they do no cutting. Setting these teeth deeper eliminates the drag on the stump when sweep cutting and it will make the grinder cut easier. Some of the vermeer grinders have this trick automatic by the bolt pattern on the cutter wheel, but some grinders do not.

Stumper, what method/angles are you using when you sharpen to make them better than new? I have tried a couple of different angles and found that some might cut faster for a little while but they dull quicker.
I know that you have a grinder just like mine, have you tried different heights of the teeth other than both even?
I also use a respirator and goggles. Carbide dust is very bad. I usually sharpen a couple of sets of teeth at a time. I also use two different wheels, one for the steel and green wheel for the carbide.

Dadatwins said:

Just had a bunch of mine retipped from a company in Florida and they are holding up well. Cost was 1/2 the price of new and they seem to work well.
Looking at doing it myself, just not sure about the cooling process, any tips Lumberjack?

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Sorry, didnt notice the question till now.

Air works great for cooling them, and its basically free and hard to prevent.

No other cooling method needed IMO.

preach it said:

Stumper, what method/angles are you using when you sharpen to make them better than new? I have tried a couple of different angles and found that some might cut faster for a little while but they dull quicker.
I know that you have a grinder just like mine, have you tried different heights of the teeth other than both even?
I also use a respirator and goggles. Carbide dust is very bad. I usually sharpen a couple of sets of teeth at a time. I also use two different wheels, one for the steel and green wheel for the carbide.

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Returning them to the factory angle is probably the most practical, they put some thought into it for sure, thats what we did back when we sharpened them.

The factory teeth vary in sharpness. Generally speaking they are sharp but not extremely sharp. The carbide blanks are brazed to the shanks and no further "tuning/sharpening is done-it isn't needed.When I sharpen I find it pretty easy to put a sharper edge on than the new teeth have. This isn't a huge advantage since the "extra" sharpness seldom lasts beyond the first stump -I only mentioned it to let the thread starter know that they can be resharpened effectively. One slight advantage resharpened teeth can have is better relief. Extreme reliefs aren't good because they leave the cutting edge unsupported and it simply chips away leving a rounded-unsharp edge but the factory construction with the stamped/cast/sintered? blanks with near 90 degree edges that are brazed on at an angle can have very minimal relief behind the cutting edge. If you keep the factory angle of the shank when resharpening you often will wind up with a little more relief on the carbide. I tend to relieve the shank a tad more than factory but then grind the carbide at close to the original shank relief angle. It makes for a tooth that holds a usable edge pretty well.

Lumberjack said:

Sorry, didnt notice the question till now.

Air works great for cooling them, and its basically free and hard to prevent.

No other cooling method needed IMO.

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Thanks, I have a old-time retired welding buddy of mine that likes to tinker and I am going to have him play with some of these and see how they turn out.

Anyone Know of a Place you can directly Ship your teeth to that will resharpen them?