New "Old" edger

[Rick Schmalzried]

I have been messaging with Noble regarding an old edger I am getting from my BIL in S. Missouri. 8)  I hope to go down sometime in Sept and pick it up so I can start refurbishing it.  I don't know any real details about it, other than it is a 2 blade unit (solid blades), the bearings seem good (ie shafts still spin), and it runs off of a flat belt on a line shaft driven mill.  I need to do quite a bit of research once I get it back home. :P

I am going to have to re-power it with something but need to determine how.  I have thought of picking up an old garden tractor (at least 15hp) as well as rigging up a PTO input.  (How to get the speed up and keep from tying up the tractor to move logs???).  What have some of you done in the same situation?

Finally, is it possible to change the blades to a split type and where can I get "supplies" for this type of equipment.  Bearings won't be a problem but replacement blades and shaft collars won't be as easy aroung here.  ;D

[Ron Wenrich]

I''ve run edgers with a hydraulic motor.  If you have hydraulic power, and you have an excess, it can be an easy way to power the edger.  I've also seen some use a small Deutz diesel.  

A lot will depend on what you will be sawing.  If it is 4/4 lumber, you should have at least a 20 hp motor.  We're running a 50 hp electric on our horizontal edger, and 75 hp on our vertical.  

You should be able to pick up new saws from any saw shop.  Pacific Hoe, Payne, Simonds all make a style of saw to fit edgers.  

Depending on the equipment, many parts can be located.  Companies like Frick are still in business, and may be able to either supply or locate parts.  

If that doesn't work out, you can always go to a machine shop.  We have improved our collars and had the work done at a local shop and they are much better than factory.

[D._Frederick]

Rick,
There was a posting on the woodweb the past 30 days of converting a TOWER edger to power takeoff.  There were a couple of good pictures that might give you some ideas.
Unless you want to spend a lot of money, I would stay with the type of blades the edger was designed to use. The split blades require a different hub most likely and you are looking at big bucks to have them machined.
The power to run an edge depends on the saw diameter,  the number of teeth, the kerf, feed rate, and the type of wood and size.  Most of the older edgers had a fixed feed rate, so they required more power. A 30 hp tractor would saw a least 2 inch wood.

[Bro. Noble]

Rick,

If your rpm's work out close enough, you couldn't rig up any simpler than the pictures D_Frederick refered to.

You could make a deck along side the edger and wait till you had a pile of boards before edging, thus allowing you to use one tractor.  We do that except use the forks of a tractor as a deck.  With one person feeding the edger and another off-bearing, you can edge all the boards you and Perry saw in a day in half an hour or less.

If the blades are good that are on the edger, I'd stick with them.  They will last forever the way you will be using it.  Just have to file the teeth once in a while and perhaps replace the teeth every few years.  The only special tool you have to have is a tooth wrench and they don't cost much.

Noble

[Fla._Deadheader]

How about a link to the "woodweb". Thanks, Harold
  Had a Corley Edger along with a #2 Corley circle mill when I was in Arkansas. Used a UD-9 International power unit on the edger and a Detroit 4-71 on the mill. We had a 4 man crew and would sometimes edge on off days instead of at the same time we sawed. That way, we tailed the edger directly onto the truck for delivery, while grading the lumber.
  Until now, I never knew how much I missed the mill. Sure was interesting, figuring out what was "in" the logs.  Harold

[mitch]

I rebuilt an old 30 inch, two 14 inch saws, 2 1/2 inserted bits  Tower edger to run from a PTO. Some images are at URL

http://152.15.51.26/Char/Edger/

[Jeff]

Great pix Mitch, glad you joined the mix.

Did I say that?

[Corley5]

We pile our boards to be edged on 4X4s beside the edger and edge at the end of a day or two of sawing.  Depends on how fast they pile up.  I've been using an H Farmall with a 14" pulley to run it with a flat belt.  The way the tractor is set up with a high compression head and one size over bore, 3 7/16" rather than the stock 3 3/8", it puts out around 25hp on the belt.  It has plenty of power to run it and would do even better if the blades were sharpened in the edger.  If I was going to do a lot of 2" hardwood I'd opt to use our W-6 which puts out around ten more horses.  Grandpa used either the 300 (38hp) or the W-6 depending on which tractor the pulley was on.  Edger blades do seem to stay sharp a long time.  The blades haven't been out of mine in many years.  The two sliding blades are still fairly sharp but the stationary blade which has seen the most use is very dull.  In fact I try not to use it because of its dullness.  When I finally get the mill moved, I wanted to this summer but time didn't allow it, I'm going to set it up so I can run the edger off the saw mandrell.  The mandrel has a pulley on it for just that purpose and is how the mill was originally setup.  As it is now the building isn't wide enough to do it this way.  The new building will be.

[Frank_Pender]

Nice choice of colors for your tractors.  Welcome to the forum, Mitch. ;D

[Bro. Noble]

Corley,

How come you don't sharpen your DanG edger blades?

Noble

[Corley5]

They haven't been sharpened because it's a major overhaul to get them out or to even get to them to file them.  The way the machine is built it's all enclosed.  The in and out feed have large HEAVY smooth idler rollers that swing up as the board is fed and hold it down on the bottom driven feed rollers.  These are attached to a frame made of angle iron and heavy mesh.  This whole affair is better than 3' wide and 16" tall.  To get one of these off to gain access to the blades requires a chain fall which requires building a tripod or something similar.  Even if you do this there isn't hardly room enough to see what you're doing while lying on your belly on the in or outfeed table to file the saws.  The other alternative is to pull the whole arbor out of it and sharpen the saws with them out of the machine.  But this also requires getting inside the "cabinet" to slip the saws off as the arbor shaft is pulled out and back on as it is slipped back in and to disconnect the levers from the sliding collars.  That's why it hasn't been done in years.  One of these days ;D
I also need to shim the rip fence on it.  When using the staionary blade and the fence to edge boards with one square edge it doesn't feed square and the board will bind coming out.  

[Bro. Noble]

Corley,

Sounds like your edger is made about like ours except we don,t have any kind of cover over the blades.  I believe if I were you, I would take that cover off and replace it with something lighter and easier to move.  I,ll bet that outfit makes a racket with dull blades.

A temporary fix for your dull stationary blade and the binding would be to get a board that just blocks off the stationary saw and hinge it to your infeed table with strips of inner tubes.  You would then use the board as a fence and cut with your movable sharper saw.  We do this sometimes for other reasons.

If you can see the blades from the right angle which in this case would be a wright angle,  maybe you could rig up a ' file on a stick' ------------there's gotta be some way.

Congratulations,  It's nice that after the weeding Dee kept you for the wedding.

Noble