Dusty boards

[GTP]

I'm getting a lot of sawdust left on my boards.  I'm sawing SYP right now and the boards are covered with sawdust.  Is this unusual for a bandmill or is there a simple fix to this problem? I'm using a woodmizer 10 degree blade on a lt40 with 35hp diesel.  I have sawed thousands of bf of SYP and oak on a circle sawmill and this was never a problem.  I have sawed enough to know that sometimes just a little advice can solve what seems like a big problem, thanks for your input.  donald

[Scottasheppard]

Welcome to the band mill world. Keep a good stuff brush broom handy

[Bruno of NH]

Try the woodmizer vortex bands
I tried (2) 10° one they cut well and had much less sawdust on the lumber.
Bruno

[DPatton]

Try the sodomized vortex 

Bruno, 
:D :D :D :D
This is a family friendly site. 

[SawyerTed]

Where in the world is this thread going?   :D 

[dgdrls]

Hi GTP

Is the dust packed or loose, feel hot?
How much tooth set does the band have?  

Curious,  what circle mill did u run previous to the WM?

best
D

[sealark37]

The requirement to broom every board is the unspoken curse of the band mill.   Regards, Clark

[ljmathias]

I also have sawdust from pine and most other wood on boards I cut. Don't want to leave it on the boards- health hazard when it dries and mold/blue stain/whatever gets started growing in the sawdust first. Had some broken blades laying around (but that's another story) so I thought to myself, "Self, if that blade broke so easy, why not break it again shorter?"

Wear gloves if you try this, but it snaps pretty clean any length you want. I make a half dozen or so about 6-8" long and use those as scrapers. Works great, takes a few seconds more as I move forward and back cleaning the board surface I can see as I'm making a cut, then flip the board and clean the other face. Gets almost all the sawdust off and doesn't plug up the hand broom I tried once: pine sawdust is gooey and sticks to just about everything (except the saw blade scrapers I use).

Another use for these short pieces of blade is one that someone will surely say is a safety issue. Lot of the yellow pine I cut has so much sap in it that no matter how fast I run water plus pinesol onto it, the blade builds up a layer of sap on it. And of course, that leads to all kinds of waves and such. Solution? Carefully, very carefully, take one of the scrapers and carefully (did I mention you have to be real careful doing this?), use the flat edge to scrape off the blade as it's turning full speed in front of you. Couple of seconds and the blade is clean on the upper side. For some reason, the bottom side of the blade doesn't seem to get sap build up like the top side (looking down on the blade standing next to the mill head). Anyone know why?

Disclaimer: don't try this at home or at work but if you do, be CAREFUL! Haven't had any close calls yet and all my digits are intact, so for me, this is the quick and easy way to clean a blade. For what it's worth...

LJ

[Busysawyer]

I am new to milling and was having sawdust cake on the boards. I'm using the turbo 7 blades. I talked to yellowhammer and gmills and they both said the same thing, speed up in the cut. I was new and very timid with cutting speed. Now I'm riding the point of the engine just before it starts to bog, it's a very fine line with the 7s and wide hardwoods but with some practice I got it pretty good already.  I'm not getting dust caked on the boards anymore. It was explained to me that I was cutting too slow for the band to carry the dust out of the cut. I was sweeping and now the dust just falls off when the board is dropped on the stack. Not sure if this is what's going on with you but speeding up through the cut and riding that powrband growl of the diesel made a world of difference for me.

[Lawg Dawg]

Try a T7, run em hard

[Busysawyer]

Also another thing that has helped a lot is increasing the cleaning agents in the lunemizer tank and turning the flow down.  I had read something that yellowhammer had posted about doing this and it's working for me. I am running a mix of pinesol , Murphy oil soap and water. I cut a few hundred bf of white pine with the lubemizer set at it's lowest setting and had zero buildup of sap and very little dust on the boards. No sweeping required.

[Southside]

This time of year yellow pine is famous for that, the sap is running, middle of winter cut logs not nearly as much of an issue, like the others said try Turbos and run them right up against the engine governor, you have the ponies for it with that engine.  You can not run the 10's nearly as fast as the turbos without getting wavy boards.  

[GTP]

Thanks for all the input.  I will admit I most likely am not pushing the blade as hard as I can, I will work on that. 
dgdrls- I ran a #2 Meadows with a 54" saw it was all manual when I bought it and I had upgraded to a log turner, log deck, air dogs, and computer setworks when I sold it. To tell you the truth I wish I had it back if nothing else to hear that saw suck into wood when you get the that saw right.  I set my feed rate by ear then and I just haven't found that "feel" or "sound" with the band yet. But I only have forty hours on the band mill so I just need to put more hours behind the band.  The circle saw is a whole other animal but I hope to learn the band with time and good advice from the experts. So I hope you all have a lot of patients, lol. GTP

[PAmizerman]

I think builup only occurs on the interior of the blade because sawdust gets pancaked between the drive wheels and blade

[Novascotiamill]

Think ill pass on the blade scraping thing,I just clean em with solvent or something similar before I sharpen em if there gummy,if it builds up fast I always have sharp blades ready to go.i have the same issue with sawdust ,thought it was SOP.

[YellowHammer]

As said, increase the feed speed which actually cools the band, increase the solvent and detergent ratio in the lube tank, then decrease the flow rate, and add some type of water soluble oil and detergent to keep the bands slick and non stick.  Murphys oil soap and PinSol works fine, they are available right next to each other on the rack at Tractor Supply and I used them for a good while.  I use Cotton Picker Spindle Cleaner as it works a little better and is actually a little cheaper.    

The majority of sawdust should be dry enough to drop off the board if turned in its side or dropped on the stack.  No more scraping or brushing.  

[Just Right]

I have been using the spindle cleaner too.  Found it online for 5.00 a gallon with a flat rate 9.00 shipping.  Been working great.

[Alberta Wolf]

I'm getting a lot of sawdust left on my boards.  I'm sawing SYP right now and the boards are covered with sawdust.  Is this unusual for a bandmill or is there a simple fix to this problem? I'm using a woodmizer 10 degree blade on a lt40 with 35hp diesel.  I have sawed thousands of bf of SYP and oak on a circle sawmill and this was never a problem.  I have sawed enough to know that sometimes just a little advice can solve what seems like a big problem, thanks for your input.  donald

I know that bandsaw cuts horizontal where as the circle mill cuts vertical,Thus I found the reason of less sawdust.All the different band mill I've seen do leave sawdust while the circle mill leaves large splinters.Comparted to the band mill.

[Rhodemont]

I do not have this figured out at all.  Have been using water with pinesol.  Sawdust on the boards seems to be different every day/blade/species even if I just shutdown and come back another day.  So, I end up adjusting the flow and speed until I get the best result I can and go at it.  My red oak seems to be the least sensitive to this with the ewp getting build up on the blade and white oak wet packed dust on the boards if the variables are not tweeked just right at that moment. There is definitely a difference if I run a 4 deg vs a 10 deg blade, the 10 clears the dust better. I have some ash, poplar, maple and what I think is apple and am not sure what is going to happen with them.  Important tool for me is a sixteen inch level that I use as a straight edge to scrape the top board as I walk along making the next cut. Then I flip and scrape the bottom when off loading.  I am sure you guys sawing for production would hate having to do this but as a hobby it works and the extra couple minutes is ok with me.

[clintnelms]

Been meaning to pick me one up, but keep forgetting every time I go to Lowe's or Home Depot. But supposedly a 12 inch drywall scrapper works great.

[highleadtimber16]

A 12" Richard drywall scraper sits in my back right pocket all day long. I clean every board.

[Bruno of NH]

I clean every board and slab with a drywall knife.
Just some thing I like doing when the customer loads up they aren't covered in saw dust.

[YellowHammer]

I'm not a blade dynamisyst, so bear with me, but the primary way a band clears sawdust is to have it become a air/sawdust suspension in the air pocket of the gullet of the band and be relatively cleanly ejected as a suspension.  If the sawdust gets too wet or heavy, it will not suspend properly in the air and will pack and spill to the sides of the band in the excess space between the band body and the kerf, opened by the set.  That's why it's always good to mill using the least amount of fluid required to prevent pitch buildup.  If the band gets pitchy, then it can't function optimally, and the sawdust won't suspend and eject.  

Having some sawdust on the board is fine, it just can be scraped and I've done that to many, many thousand boards.  I prefer a drywall scraper.  Sometimes, in some wood, it's hard to get thing optimal, and scraping is required.  However, when things are working great the sawdust blows out of the chute light and relatively dry.  The boards are clean and life is good. :D

Different bands give different results and some species are just a total pain, like hickory, which generally needs more flow and and the sawdust gets a little too wet.

If you are using a drip system, it's easy to see if the mixture is optimal by having it drip on a stationary band.  If it hits and the majority of the fluid bounces off, rejected by the band metal, then that's not the best.  If it drops on the stationary band and clings to it, puddles then runs or crawls the top of the band for several inches, actually wetting and clinging to the metal, not wanting to drip off, then that will give more effective results.    

[DPatton]

I'm not a blade dynamisyst, 

YellowHammer,
Are you using big words again :D :D :D?
Big or small I agree with what your laying down. I don't think pouring on more lube is better. In fact if I'm getting buildup sometimes I take time to clean the blade with additional lube or brushing between cuts then back off the lube in the cut. All depends on what species I'm Sawing too.

[Peter Drouin]

Lumber coming off my mill gets banged around when it's stick, all the dust comes off. Cutting dry all the time lets the stuff fall off. The only time I have to scrap a board is when it's 0° outside when the sawdust freezes to the lumber.