Bandmill running backwards?

[broker farmer]

Being new to bandmills and sawing and having recently purchased my first mill, I have a dumb question.  In the process of setting up my mill and placing the first bandblade upon it., it appears the blade is running "backwards".  Could this be possible?  Can a band blade get turned "inside-out"?  Can one of you guys draw me a picture of a blade and its correct direction of travel?  When I stand behind my manual mill and push the head in its normal direction of travel, the blade is turning clockwise.  Is this correct?  The "teeth" of the blade are approaching the log with the "points" (for lack of proper terminology) trailing.  Is this correct? 

[Larry]

It's very easy to turn bands inside out...its done every time the band is set.  The point on the teeth should enter the log first.

If you put it on backwards the feed rate is extremely slow, the band dives, and burns the board.  Don't ask how I know. :-[ :-[

[flip]

I think they are all assembeled "backwards".  I thought the same thing the first band I pulled out-very bad sinking feeling.  Just put some gloves and twist 'er around.

Flip

[Bibbyman]

Does your mill have a dust chute?  The teeth on the bottom side of the blade should be pointing towards it.

[broker farmer]

It does have a dust chute and the teeth are pointing "away" from it.  I think you guys have solved my problem.  Thank goodness.............I thought I was losing it there for a while last night!
You guys have really been good....not a one of you has made fun of me for being stupid! (At least not yet)!

[Bibbyman]

You guys have really been good....not a one of you has made fun of me for being stupid! (At least not yet)!

:D

I've put a blade on backwards two time in the past 12 years.  Once when I had the mill about a month and was sharpining my own blades. (As noted, you have to flip the blades to set the "other" teeth).  Then again last week when I got a blade out of a flat pack and somehow got it flipped.  I thought it didn't look right but went ahead and put it on and ran the blade right up to the log when I noticed the difference.  :D

You're an experianced sawyer now!  :

[Lud]

I use a timberwolf blade and they sent along a video about blade performance.  The tooth cuts, shaving and shearing.   The set pushing every other tooth a little left and a little right is a litlle wider that the back of the blade.   The gullet, the curved part between the points ,carries air into the cut for cooling and both the gullet and the air carries sawdust out.

It's a science and an art.  When the blade starts draggin' and you shut down  it still feels sharp on the points.  It'll come back to sharp more times the quicker you quit and send them out or you can push them harder and get more work time but fewer resharps.  It's a balancing act.

There's lots too learn in life and about sawing.  Learning to laugh at yourself  is a good place to start.

[stumpy]

I have put a blade on backwards as well. No big deal. As far as being made fun of, we are still probably too new here, cause I haven't been made fun of yet either. I'm sure our time will come and I'll take it as a sign of being "one of the guys"

[ely]

heres one for you, i have had my mill at the time of this story about three weeks. so i had only used about 4 bands at the time. luckily they were facing the correct way. my buddy had a saw that he owned for almost 6 months, he had just ordered a new box of timberwolf blades and he seen they were facing wrong. i talked to him a week later and he said he did not have time to send them back cause he had wood to saw. so he just reversed his electric motor to drive the blades as they were.

a couple weeks later i took a few blades up to a different friend that had got me into milling,as he has all the sharpeners and such. i related the experience to him, he grinned real big and whipped one of my blades over his head then asked did they look like this, then he whipped it back the other way. thats when i learned it, then i called my buddy and related it to him. he was unbelieving. he had even went as far to ask a man in town that runs a machine shop if what i said was true.lol and that guy said heck no that fellas crazy you just ordered the wrong blades.  the two of them finnally sat down and made them a bandblade with paper sissors and a stapeler and proceeded to understand.

[Bibbyman]

I don't care who you are.  THAT's FUNNY!!   :D

[chet]

You guys have really been good....not a one of you has made fun of me for being stupid! (At least not yet)!

Stick around you'll git yer turn.  ;D

[Dana]

Haven't put a band blade on backward ... yet. But have put the chain on the chainsaw backward. Couldn't understand how it could be so dull when I had just taken it off to sharpen it!

[pigman]

Last week I almost put a blade on backwards. : I don't mean inverted like broker farmer did, I mean with the teeth facing the front of the mill.   It wasn't my fault,  it was put in the box wrong. ;D  I guess I could have started at the back of the mill and sawed coming forward. I don't think the customer noticed so it was no mistake. ;)  I have only had my mill for seven years so I am still learning.