Accessories

Works superbly but needs coarser stone
I have owned this sharpener for several years. I use it to sharpen my 15" planer knives and 8" jointer knives as well as my chisels and hand plane knives. I have the 4000 grit stone as well as the 1000. I get excellent results and the 4000 grit stone creates truly a razor sharp edge. Yes, it's messy. Yes, there are some plastic parts that are a bit cheap and flimsy. But bottomline: it does a very fine job for me. However.... and a BIG however...... Makita does not make a coarser stone. Highland Hardware offered one for a while, but it has been discontinued. Taking the dings out of my planer knives takes a VERY long time with the 1000 grit stone. I messed up and put off buying the Highland stone. So, the 1000 grit is as coarse as I can get. PLEASE Makita, pretty please, offer a coarse stone!!!

Money Saver
If you run a jointer or planer, and have to send your blades out, this is the product for you. I was spending $25 per set and having to wait for my blades, putting me behind schedule constantly.

After a short learning curve, I had my 1st set sharpened and back on the planer, and what a difference! My blades were sharper than the ones were I got back and I'm confident I can do it over and over again. Only 8 sharpenings and I have my investment back.

Two downsides to mention: 1) the included instructions are less than user friendly. I ended up googling the sharpener and found some excellent tips from previous users that really made sharpening understandable and easy to perform. 2) you will get wet using this tool. Make sure you are in a suitable area, and prepared to have some water splashed your way. Not a drowning, but you will be damp.

I love this tool and will get lots of use out of it (One site even showed some homemade jigs for sharpening virtually anything and everything you may wish to sharpen: lathe gouges, chisels, knives, scissors, etc etc)

Sharpening Blades for a Mikita 200mm planer
I use the Mikits horizontal sharpener for just one thing, sharpening the blades for my 200mm planer. It does a fantastic job of that, and I can just leave all the settings in place so I get a consistent angle on my blades each time I reuse it. I sharpen everything else on my Tormak.

My complaints are minor. The set up for the support under the blade should be simpler and not involve five knobs. It also is sloppy. Water and grind wheel gunk drip off the blade as you move it back and forth. It is not a neat process.

I didn't want to buy one, but when the local tool company quit servicing tools and would no longer sharpen my blades, I had no choice. It took too much time and involved too much down time to drop off baldes one day and return later in the week to pick them up. It was cheaper to buy the sharpener than to buy an additional set of blades.

Takes time to learn how to do it right
I use this for plane irons, chisels, and jointer blades. It gets the job done, but only with a 120 grit stone and a hand tool attachment available from Highland Hardware.

It's flawed whether you're a pro or an amateur
The most obvious and severe flaw, is the steel backing plate on the stone. It rusts. That's right. It rusts. Even if you don't use it often, the stone doesn't dry out for weeks. And to compound the problem, Makita chose to use a very brittle adhesive to mount the stone to the backing plate. Because the two unlike materials are held together with a non-flexible bond, the adhesive develops fractures which allow water to seep through to the steel. Steel expands up to twelve times in volume, when it oxidizes. This expansion lifts the stone from the wheel, resulting in a wobble that increases over time. Eventually the stone becomes unusable. Makita should consider a one part polyurethane adhesive, such as that used in the marine and automobile industry. When the stone failed on my first 9820-2, I pried it off of the backing plate and remounted it in a bed of polyurethane caulk. I had no more trouble with that aspect. The spindle/flange assembly which is driven internally and the stone is mounted to externally is steel as well, and corrodes to the point where the threads disintegrate. I fixed this by re-tapping the hole, but threw away the knob because the threads didn't match. This was no great loss because the threads were rusted off as well. Amazing! No more quick mount. Have a wrench and an assortment of washers on hand to mount the stone. There is in fact, not a single piece of stainless steel used anywhere on the Makita sharpener. Why doesn't Makita use stainless steel on something that's intended to be wet? I am amazed and perplexed by this lack of common sense in design, every time I walk by an armada of stainless BBQ grills or stainless appliances at my local Home Depot. In addition I purchased the expensive 6000 grit stone, which had a wobble so bad, I couldn't see the edge of my carving tools. This is a polishing phase. You don't need to look for the "wire edge" and so I performed this step by feel. I stopped using it all together, when the up and down wobble became impossible to work with. I now use an 8000 grit bench stone to perform this task. I am in the fourth year of using my second sharpener now, and again experiencing all of the above problems. Makita's earlier models had an issue with the nylon gears not meshing properly, due to the plastic housing impeding moving the motor in its slotted brackets close enough for proper engagement. My first sharpener was just such a model and has afforded me with much knowledge, but my relationship with Makita is souring. Why did I buy another? It offers a large flat grinding surface, which is invaluable for honing and polishing the backs of chisels and plane blades. It is gear driven as opposed to belt drive, and believe me when you start to hone the back of a plane blade and it starts to "drag", you'll really appreciate that. I can only attribute the positive reviews it has received, to the duration of use. I've been using my current unit four years now. If you have any doubts, call Makita's toll free number and speak with tech support. One star for the status quo. It's sad, because it could so easily rate a five.