Help with Planer Blades Please

[Bud]

Its just a digital or optical microscope that inspection uses for some of the parts made at work. One of the inspection guys said it's only about 65X with the set-up I was using. I feel a little better now though after you guys have looked at the pictures. To me, the bevel side makes sense and the flat side doesn't.

[grepper]

In the top image of the flat side of the edge, it look like the edge has rolled and that the roll has been pushed away from the camera.  That's why you see a clean straight edge with the rounded roll that becomes more out of focus.  It's out of focus because the depth of field is very shallow and the roll of metal is below (away from the camera).  

On the bottom image, it looks like the other side of the roll of metal.  You can see how it is rounded and folded down over the bevel.  In the lower image, the clean, perfectly edge is gone because the roll of metal is pushed down over the bevel.

This is just an educated guess.  I've seen quite a few images like this one and it's just my best guess that's what is going on.  Of course it would be the first time in my life, but I could be wrong.

Does that explanation of what we are seeing make sense to you too?

[Mark Reich]

Mr Mike, are these blades mounted in a cylindrical head that spins like a powered wood plane or joiner, or are they actually stationary like a hand plane or a leather skiver, where the material is just forced into a stationary blade?

In my world, any sort of industrial planers have powered cutting heads, rotating at high speed. Skivers and planes are different. The blade is stationary, and the material is driven through an opening between a roller beneath the material and the stationary blade above. This is a leather skiver, but it could be described as a leather "plane". Similar to hand planes. 

These are powered planes and/or joiners. They both use blades mounted to rotating cutting heads.

Hopefully these common tools are recognizable, so you understand how they work.

Sorry, I have no idea what the micro-graphs represent. I do of course recognize Mr Jan's pictures of common wood planes, but that doesn't seem like the right tool for the operation description.

[EOU]

We think that Jan provided those pictures only as an example of "bevel up" or "bevel down" Mark. Your question is a good one though. We had assumed that material was just pushed into the edge but on second thought, they do look like "bits" for a rotating head don't they? We're going to ask the customer and get back with you so thank you for posing the question Mark.

   

[EOU]

No high speed rotating head Mark. Just a straight planing operation with the material being pushed into the edge. I suppose that this is why they term it a "skive". Material is plastic though, not leather.

[Mark Reich]

Right Mr Mike, I understood the material, I was wondering about the the mode of operation. I had the feeling that it was probably one or the other ways of removing material.

There are so much better means of stock removal, I'm surprised they are using the least sophisticated. Just doesn't make sense to me.

JMHO, but if they're asking for help, we really need a clear understanding of what they're doing. Seems like trying to solve the problem by looking at edges of the blades is rather hopeless. There are too many pieces of the puzzle missing IMHO.

[EOU]

We agree Mark. The problem with most of these entities is that they get nervous about discussing their processes publicly. Even more so for the really big companies like these folks are. I was somewhat surprised that they allowed me to bring even this much to the Exchange. I will be bringing another industrial customer to the Exchange very soon but that discussion will represent a more educational bent as opposed to a plea for help. 

Thank you to everyone for the help on this project.

[Mark Reich]

  Of course, Mr Mike. I apologize. 

Honestly, I was having one of those days when I had run out of patients too early. 

[ken123]

Kezuroukai competetion:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BMLXscM2cZY

Not a direct answer to a question but of interest in any case.

---
Ken

[Mike Brubacher]

That is interesting ken123. I was first made aware of this competition a few years ago by Harrelson Stanley and at the time, the Shapton distributor in the US. I've seen a few pictures but not the video. Very interesting!