First issue with the saw mill

[Rob30]

Broke a blade today on the woodland mill. I think it may have been getting dull and I pushed it too hard. Also having trouble setting the fluid drip for lube. Only about 10-15 hours on the blade. Any ideas on possible causes? I was only cutting softwood. The water drip is dripping on the stabilizer instead of the actual blade.
Also any idea on good sharpeners? I can not find anyone locally that sharpens blades.

[Stephen1]

It didn't break because it was dull, it broke because it was old in hours. The blades can only go around so many times. Soft wood -hard wood doesnt not really matter in N America.
I only run the blades 2 hrs of sawing time then time to resharpen. It is easier to resharpen if not completly dull. you can expect 500-1000 bd ft before a blade goes dull.

[Rob30]

10-15 hours is old? When we bought the machine we were told blades are good for 40 hours of cutting. Maybe that's in total. I have 10 blades, so that would only be 20 hours of cutting?

[Chuck White]

I agree, the blade had been run too long!

It's a lot like bending a piece of wire, it only bends just so many times and it will break!

Also, to save blade-life, I always disengage the blade before gigging back to the head of the mill, like it says in the book!

[Southside]

Yes 10-15 hours is too long, WAY too long. 500 BFT is a safe target to remove a band and sharpen it, you want to touch it up before it gets dull and develops gullet cracks. This will give you the longest band life. Think of it the same as rotating your tires, they last longer as a result.  Eventually all bands will fail due to flex life and the nature of steel. You did really well to get what you did out of that one. 

I probably average an hour or two at most. 

[YellowHammer]

As the say, the band needs to undergo the sharpening and gullet grinding process every few hours of use.

[Magicman]

But it broke because it had been run dull.  Any amount of time running dull is too long.  I generally change my blade at noon (4-5 hrs) but occasionally it is mid morning meaning that I will use 3-4 blades during the day.  I suppose that the blades get 5-6+ resharpens before they are rejected.  I say "suppose" because the number of resharpens is an item that does not concern me.  Blades are like diesel, they are expendable and simply an item that is necessary to saw. 

The less dull a blade is when it is removed, the more resharpens it will take and the longer it will last.  Dulling a blade is a blade killer. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Sharpening does 2 things. 

1) It lets the blade cut with much less stress.  
2) It removes little cracks in the gullet (if the full profile is sharpened) which combined with stress will break the blade. 

[Rob30]

Thanks everyone, guess a sharpener is the next purchase.