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How to Build a Bandmill Sharpener

A bandmill is essentially a specialty or customized bandsaw, so the sharpening of bandmill blades are the same as sharpening bandsaw blades. To sharpen teeth, you borrow the concept from chainsaw sharpeners that slide along tracks, keeping the sharpening file in correct alignment with the tooth. With a bandmill, though, you will use a rotary tool and you will sharpen every other tooth, then adjust your sharpening jig and do the remainder because they alternate angles.

Things You'll Need

MIG Welder
Square tube steel
Steel plate
Rotary Tool
Hose clamps
Abrasive Wheel

Instructions

- 1
  Unplug your bandmill.
- 2
  Hold your rotary tool against one tooth of your unplugged bandmill at the angle at which you would grind one of the teeth sharp.
- 3
  With a bevel gauge, measure the angle you're holding the rotary tool.
- 4
  Weld a piece of one-quarter-inch square tube steel to a piece of flat one-quarter-inch steel plate at the angle you measured with your rotary tool. Bevel your tube steel prior to welding for a more professional looking finish.
- 5
  Cut a second piece of square tube steel that has an inside diameter slightly larger than one-quarter-inch 4 inches long or the length of your rotary tool's handle grip.
- 6
  Fasten the rotary tool to the larger square tube using two hose clamps appropriately sized to fit around the square tube and the rotary tool's handle.
- 7
  Slid the larger square tube with attached rotary tube over the smaller square tube with the mandrel facing the base.
- 8
  Set the base on the cutting surface of the mill, positioned so the rotary tool can be slid along the guide tube into the tip of the tooth, and clamp the base in place. You're ready to sharpen the blade tips. Remember, you'll have to reset it to sharpen half the blade tips, which are bent in opposing directions.

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