iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

band sharpener

Started by beav39, March 05, 2008, 10:11:39 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

beav39

just wandering how many guys are sharpening your on bands?with the price of shipping going up ,thinking about getting a sharpener.how long does it take to do a blade?
sawdust in the blood

Brad_S.

Do a search on sharpeners and you'll be reading for hours. :D

I spend 10 minutes give or take (depends on how abused the blade was) setting with a single tooth setter and the sharpener takes about another 10 minutes to do 2 light passes on the blade while I am setting the next one.
"Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans." J. Lennon

MrMoo

I have been doing mine for a long time.

My bands are 19 feet so I spend about 20 minutes setting with a 1 tooth setter and then about 45 minutes to an hour to sharpen.

John Bartley

My information provided here is based on very limited experience as I am a very new sawyer.

My bands are .042" - 7/8" - 162" long.

I use a manual, single sided setter that measures using a dial indicator. I sharpen with a semi-automatic sharpener that uses a grinding wheel of about 5" diameter. My sharpener is a 120volt model.

I find that I spend as much time cleaning that bands as I do either setting or sharpening. I use a wire brush and a bit of WD40 and brush by hand (not a wire wheel o a bench grinder). That takes about 5-10 minutes per blade depending on how hard the sawdust is stuck on. Then I spend about 10 minutes setting the teeth. Then it takes about 5-10 minutes to sharpen, depending on how much I have to remove. I don't run my bands very long, so I find that they're in pretty good shape before I start.

So.... from 20 to 30 minutes depending on band condition.

Note to self :: Based on MrMoo's post, I wonder if I'm working too quick and could be doing a better job? I'll have to slow down a bit and see if the job gets better.  I thought they were coming out pretty good but ... always have room to learn.

cheers
Kioti DK35HSE w/loader & forks
Champion 25hp band mill, 20' bed
Stihl MS361
Stihl 026

Dan_Shade

my sharpener is a WM sharpener, and it probably takes 8-10 minutes to get around and do a decent job.

I can't imagine it taking 45 minutes....  that seems excessive
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

New Brunswick

  My bands are 14 feet long and it takes 1/2 hr to sharpen and set them. Before I take the band off the mill I crank on the lube and the band comes off clean as a whistle, and it only takes about 3 seconds to do that. I usually only set every 2nd or 3rd time, if they look like they still have good set in them, I just sharpen, and that takes me about 10 minutes. I also change them every 200 bd ft or so, they still may be cutting well, but I find I cut better lumber, and spend less time at the sharpener, a light pass or 2 and it is ready to go again. Good luck on the sharpener.

1938farmall

same as new brunswick says - turn on the water, hold a rub stick on the blade, and it comes clean as new. al
aka oldnorskie

Robert Long

I too clean the bands before I remove them from the mill.....I use a brass bristle bar-b-que brush with a long handle and with the lube turned up, I just touch the top and bottom of the band as it moves.

They come out clean like new and it saves lots of time at the sharpener.

As to sharpening, I make 1 pass to clean up the grind edge, then I remove the blade and set it, then return it to the sharpener for another fine sharpening,  I believe this squares the edge true to the set.

It takes time but I'd rather spend the time at the sharpener then at the mill in frustration. :-\

by the way, it's a WM sharpening/setting system.

Robert

ladylake

I have a Wright sharpener from TK, it takes 6 minutes.  Run enough lube and it doesn't get any build up. It's hard to saw straight with a build up on the blade.   Steve
Timberking B20  18000  hours +  Case75xt grapple + forks+8" snow bucket + dirt bucket   770 Oliver   Lots(too many) of chainsaws, Like the Echo saws and the Stihl and Husky     W5  Case loader   1  trailers  Wright sharpener     Suffolk  setter Volvo MCT125c skid loader

Kelvin

I think the difference you see here between people who take an hour per blade and 8 mins is the size of the motor on their mills and how new their sharpeners are.  I have a whimpy 25hp kohler so i need my blades set and sharpened perfect to gettting any amount of bd ft per blade, and i have a 100 year old woodmizer sharpener that appears to have a lot smaller grind motor on it then the new ones, so maybe it takes less of a bite per pass.  I to take about an hour to grind and set a blade with my manual one tooth setter.  I think guys who set only every 2-3 times must have either big thick stable blades or big motors on their mills to power through the small amount of imbalances.
Don't buy one new however, there are good ones here for sale and on ebay from time to time.  Every mill sold for the last 30 years has debated this and maybe bought one.  Lot of used ones around.  It takes time to set up.  THe other thing to think about is do you use only one type of blade?  Hard to reconfigure mine for hook and pitch and what not.  When you send in, its up to the factory not you, so you can use 4 degree blades and 12 degree blades... you follow?
Happy sawing,
kelvin

New Brunswick

  I have a 20 hp onan, so I use less power than Kelvin, the trick for me is to change often, while your still breezing through the log. Like I said before, every 200 bdf works for me, there still is set in the tooth and it is not dull, so it takes less time on the sharpener. But.... if you hit somthing in the first 10 bdf, you will have to change it and spend alot of time with that band at the sharpener to get her back. I spent a couple hrs with a fellow who sharpens all the bands for a larger mill, and it was very helpfull to me as he showed me things to look for and how to dress a stone. If you have an opportunity to do that you should, hard to beat expierence, from fellows who do that for a living.

moonhill

I have had very little contact with other bandmillers than found the FF and have been reading and asborbing info for a few months.  I have often wondered if I was being to kind to my bands by changing them every few hundred feet, in a long day 5-6 bands used.  Some seem to last for over 30 sharpenings,  where the manufacturer says 6-10.  If I push them past the 200-300 foot mark the quality drops, usually with a wierd noise and a dive.  That usually happens when I am away from the mill multi-tasking and rushing.  Does every mill work like this or is it horse power?  Than do you with the larger HP mills see band life drop to the 6-10 sharpening level?  Maybe that question needs a post of its own or has been covered before. 

As for grinding I do mine by hand on a bench grinder.  The system I followed was from Soffolk Machine maker of  Timber Wolf band blades.  My mill is a Breezewood B-2000 with a 28 hp diesel, band length 13'-2".  It takes about 3-4 minutes to go around the band once, and typically I go twice so 7-8 minutes.  I also use thier dual tooth setter, only
This is a test, please stand by...

moonhill

Sorry, I think I ran out of blue space or something, and lost some words.  I had been going on about shaping the grinding wheel.  That has it's challenges.  I also run a 10 degree angle Winter and Summer, and find it works fine for me and the saw.  Tim B.
This is a test, please stand by...

Brian_Rhoad

Setting with a manual dial indicator type setter takes about 10 minutes. Sharpening with hand crank s Dino takes about 5 minutes or less. Auto sharpener is nice. Put the blade on and set another blade while it sharpens.

fat olde elf

My times are very similar to Brad S.  This is not a coincidence as we have the same equipment, Cook's Cat Claw sharpener......We also are using similar bands.  I do spend a few minutes more that him at setting.  But that is improving as I get more practice.  The really critical aspect to sharpening is to maintaining the correct profile on the stone.  Cooks has a great instructional CD for their equipment done by Tim Cook....They also sell top quality stones......I enjoy the independence of doing my own sharpening and have sharpened for other sawyers...
Cook's MP-32 saw, MF-35, Several Husky Saws, Too Many Woodworking Tools, 4 PU's, Kind Wife.

bandmiller2

Most of us are independent cusses thats why we cut our own.I don't like to ship out something I can do myself.Money spent on good sharpening equip. is money well spent.I have a cooks cats claw, built like a brick one.A must have is a diamond wheel dresser to shape the stone,or as our southern friends call them grinding rocks.Running a dull band stresses them and cut their life short.I sharpened with the timberwolf hand grind system for a wile , a job best done before miller time,it works ok but tiring to the hands.I check the set on every band before i sharpen it about half don't need resetting.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

moonhill

bandmiller2, I find sharpening with the bench grinder is stressfull on the hands, but it's almost like running a marathon and you hit the wall and think I can't go on but you keep going and than there is the finish line 8), all done.  6 bands yesterday morning and didn't even think about it, radio headphone help.  I've been using this method for 12 years now.

     Can some one explain how they touch up their wheels?  Thanks Tim B.
This is a test, please stand by...

Warren

LT 40 SHD, 42 hp Kubota,  .055" x 1.25" blades. 

I find that I need to run the 0.55" blades around at least twice, usually three times on a WM sharpener to fully clean up the gullet and get a good looking blade.  When I first started sharpening my blades, about 50 % broke shortly after I resharpened them.   At first I thought it was just a matter of the thicker blade.  But after reading about the need to fully grind out any potential micro cracks in the gullet, I started taking heavier cuts out of the blades.  My breakage after resharpening went down significantly. 

I bought a tooth setter. I used it regularly at first. But, only use it occassionally now. The .055" blades come from WM with about .025" to .028" of set.  They will have .021" to .023" set after the first sharpening. Maybe .017" to .020" set after the second sharpening.  This is sufficient set for the hardwoods I frequently saw. Third time around, I send them to WM resharp.

There are a number of used WM blade sharpeners out there and Yes, they are several hundred dollars less than a new set up from WM.  HOWEVER, after looking at several used set ups, I bought a new sharening and setting package from WM.  I considered it well worth the money for two specific reasons:

1) The full package comes with quite a few small pieces (cams, magnets, stones, wheels, sample blade profiles, instructions) that I did not see with the used units.  These have proven to be very usefull.

2) I picked up my sharpener set up  from WM in Indy when I had my mill serviced.  While I was waiting for the service work, I asked if someone could give me a quick intro to blade sharpening.  Gene from WM spent about 45 minutes walking me thru the set up and use of both the sharpener and the setter.  The insight and hands on training he provided was well worth the additional money I spent on a new unit.   I know not everyone can go to Indy (or to another regional WM office) to pick up a unit and get training.  But if you can, it is worth it.

I am not going to knock anybody else's product.  But I will say that the WM folks have treated me very well...

Warren

LT40SHD42, Case 1845C,  Baker Edger ...  And still not near enough time in the day ...

Thank You Sponsors!