On the subject of blades

[SILVERTOOTH]

What kind of 1 1/4 blade would you WM people suggest for cutting hardwoods (red,white oaks.,hickory, white ash.,maples) on a Lt40 super with a 42hp diesel.?  Just a good all around blade for these woods and mill
Thanks

[Papa1stuff]

I use 4 degree on hardwood!

[drobertson]

I have used most all of the available choices, 10 down to the 4 degree. With most hardwoods the less hook angle the better, not always but good rule of thumb.  For hickory, I would go with the Laser attachment.  Save your blade and your sananity.

[Magicman]

I think that Bibbyman almost exclusively saws hardwood and has gone to 7° blades.  My experience with 7° blades has been good, but since I mostly saw SYP, I have stayed with 10° blades to retain my sanity.  Well most of it anyway.

If the logs were dried, I probably would be looking at 4° blades.

[Kansas]

Out of  curiosity, why would you not use a 1 1/2 inch blade?

[SILVERTOOTH]

Kansas ...Not really needing a high output rate at this time, I was looking at the cost factor, but if the 1.5 makes a better quality cut on hardwoods, I'd consider trying. Do they make a big difference, or are they mainly preferred to be able to push the saw faster?

[Magicman]

Remember 1½" blades require 1½" blade guide rollers, just as 1¼" blades require 1¼" blade guides.

[Kansas]

Magicman is right. You would have to replace the two rollers. I think its more of a stability issue to  me. You probably could cut a little faster. When you start getting into hickory and some of the hardest ones, I just think they are more stable. I would not go with the .055 on an LT 40. It would work, but the band wheels just aren't big enough that you would get a lot of sharpenings. At least that was our experience. The blade cost difference is small. They may actually last longer. I did a quick check on Cooks and just the roller is 59 each. Of course, Woodmizer would have them. I don't know if you can put a 1 1/2 inch roller on the existing shaft or not. I would talk to them. Others may chime in here with different opinions, but given what you are cutting, I tend to think long term you would be better off. If you do, Woodmizer double hard .045 blade would be the way to go. 4 or 8% degree. Talk to Woodmizer and get their opinion as well.

[Kansas]

I just thought of something. I would have thought a LT40 super would have come stock with
1 1/2 inch rollers. You could run a 1 1/4 inch blade on the 1 1/2 inch roller, just some minor adjustment. But you can't go the other way. You may already be set up for the wider blades. Trying to remember when I picked up our original one at Indy, and don't remember them asking what width blade I would be running. We never did bother to check the used one we bought awhile back, but it seems to be working. We never even bothered measuring the rollers.

[Magicman]

You could run a 1 1/4 inch blade on the 1 1/2 inch roller, just some minor adjustment. 

??  I do not see how you could keep the 1¼" teeth from ever contacting the 1½" roller.  Sure, you could adjust the tracking and allow the blade to ride out on the front edge of the roller, but I would think that there would be times when the blade would be pushed back and the teeth would contact the roller before the back blade edge contacted the rear roller flange.

[Magic Smoke]

Magicman is right.
You can run 1 1/2" bands on an 1 1/4" roller but not vice-versa.

[Kansas]

Well, now that you mention it, that does sound correct. But one winter when the logs were frozen solid, we switched to 1 3/4 blades from 2 inch and never gave it a thought. (the 2 inch blades were getting frozen by the sawdust before it could pass through). We got along a lot better. We were however, running heavy tension.  I guess the question is, what is the actual depth of a roller for 1 1/2 inch blades. 1 1/4? I never really thought about it.

Back in the day when we used resharp services, we had some blades that got really narrow, yet seemed to get along fine. Some of those had to be down close to an inch.  Sharpening ourselves, we don't take that much off. Still, we do whittle them down a bunch. I have never seen it an issue, and now I wonder why.

[pineywoods]

I normally run 1 1/4 045 blades. Neighbor gave me a used 1 1/2 055 blade. In my ignorance, I put it on the mill and sawed a log. No adjustments, no nothing. It sawed just fine. I kept sharpening and using it till it finally broke..Ignorance is bliss  ;D

[Kansas]

If ignorance is bliss, then I am in heaven.

[Kansas]

I just went out and checked a roller on the LT70. The depth from the flange to the front of the roller is right at 1 inch. So they are allowing for the teeth, plus better than a quarter inch. I suppose you could run a 1 1/4 blade on that. The teeth certainly aren't a quarter inch tall. But the more I think about it, I would bet that LT Super is set up to run 1 1/2 inch blades.

[rmack]

I just went out and checked a roller on the LT70. The depth from the flange to the front of the roller is right at 1 inch. So they are allowing for the teeth, plus better than a quarter inch. I suppose you could run a 1 1/4 blade on that. The teeth certainly aren't a quarter inch tall. But the more I think about it, I would bet that LT Super is set up to run 1 1/2 inch blades.

my 2012 lt40 super is set up for 1 1/4 blades, 1 1/2 need different rollers. 20 minute job to swap rollers.

I was told that the mill would easily run 1 1/2 blades, but that for cutting douglas fir in the winter the 1 1/4 would work better. evidently the sawdust building up along the back side of the blade causes diving on the 1 1/2 in frozen wood. 1 1/2 in doug fir the rest of year is evidently the better option.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

I never really liked running 1&1/4 inch bands myself I always ran 1&1/2inch bands even on My little band mill I use to also get a heap of resharpens outa them and took them down to about an inch wide and never relly broke that many either  ;)

Regards Chris