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Wood-Mizer's new Turbo 7 blades.

Started by Dave Shepard, December 23, 2013, 06:57:04 PM

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Dave Shepard

Has anyone been running the new Turbo 7° blades? I'm wondering if they would be a good replacement for the 4° and 10° bands I'm running now. If I could just run one style band, that would simplify my blade usage and maintenance program. I have the 51 CAT and I cut mostly white pine, with some oaks and black locust occasionally.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

Chuck White

Dave; I don't know about the 7° Turbo, but the 10° is considered a "general purpose" blade!

The 10° is all I have ever bought however, I have adjusted my sharpener a couple of times and sharpened a few blades to 8°, but I have sawed about everything in this area with the 10's.
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

drobertson

only have a few chain saws I'm not suppose to use, but will at times, one dog Dolly, pretty good dog, just not sure what for yet,  working on getting the gardening back in order, and kinda thinking on maybe a small bbq bizz,  thinking about it,

Dave Shepard

Right now, I use 10° for most sawing, with the 4° being saved for locust and white oak. With the 51 CAT, I'm looking to use up as much of that HP as I can, and I've read that the Turbo is the blade to do that. I'd also like to saw white pine faster without leaving any lumps at the knots.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

bandmiller2

Try them Dave, first time I sharpen a new 10 degree band I cut it back to 6 or 7 seems to work on everything. You certainly have the power to pull them. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

NMFP

The 7 degree turbo bands work good and I sharpen a few for a few guys.  I do know that they have said that when the turbo's are used up in their personal inventory, they will go back to regular 7 degree bands again.  Not sure of the reason but that's what I have been told.

Dave, if you use 4 degree for locust and white oak, why not use them for everything and just stock one band?  Your big mills don't have different bands for different species so why should we in the small mill business? 

Many of my customers used to have 4 7 and 10 degree bands and now most either run only 4 degree or 7 degree. 

Use what works best for you and you have nothing to worry about!

Magicman

I am content with using the 10° blades. 

I bought five 4° blades for sawing the Texas White Oak, and will keep them for such specialty usage when needed. 
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Gasawyer

Several of us down here have tried them and weren't too impressed over std 7degree bands. Didn't seem to cut any faster might have lasted a little longer I only had 3 to try. Personally I run 7deg 1 1/2  .045 for almost everything and haven't wanted anything else. The other mill that tried them was a cat powered LT-70 and same results.  Get you a few and try them might work great for you.
Woodmizer LT-40hdd super hyd.,Lucas 618,Lucas 823dsm,Alaskian chainsaw mill 6',many chainsaws large and small,NH L555 skidsteer, Int. TD-9,JD500 backhoe, and International grapple truck.

stavebuyer

We switched to the Turbo 7's when they first came out and are very pleased. It might depend on what species your sawing and what mill your sawing with. We saw probably 60% White Oak and are running 1 1/2" .055's on a LT70. We haven't sawn any pine, but they work fine on soft hardwoods like cherry and soft maple.

ladylake


Same as Frank here , buy at 10° then sharpen at around 5° which cuts everything good.   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

YellowHammer

I've tried samples of both the 045 and 055 Turbos with mixed results.  Not sure how best to describe it, but when they hit the log, they take a substantial bite and really load the saw.  That want to eat. I have a LT40 diesel, and it grunts but handles the extra load, your engine should have no problem.

What I found out is that they really like, or actually need, to be fed fast and hard which is where I began to notice some issues.  The 045s would wander slightly in knotty hardwood, such as oak, at such a fast feed rate.  If I slowed them down where they would saw flat, the extreme tooth design would kind of grab at the wood, trying to pull in, so would leave a rough surface finish.  It looked similar to a blade bounce finish.

The 055's were a different story, they cut very flat at the fastest feed rate my saw could go under load in hardwood.  Feed pot almost wide open.  Very aggressive blade, and I tried them in knotty oak and they did well.  So then I noticed that I was feeding so hard that I had to re tension my feed belt twice and also my drive belt.  So they were stressing my saw drive train more than the other blades I have run but other than that, I was impressed with the 055 speed and flat cut in hardwoods.  Also noticeably less sawdust residue on the lumber.  I have no idea how they would do in knotty softwood, I didn't saw any.

I've only run a limited number of these blades, but these are my observations.  055 Turbos saw very fast and flat, but because of that, induce more stress on the saw, especially the feed and main drive belt. 
YH

YellowHammerisms:

Take steps to save steps.

If it won't roll, its not a log; it's still a tree.  Sawmills cut logs, not trees.

Kiln drying wood: When the cookies are burned, they're burned, and you can't fix them.

Sawing is fun for the first couple million boards.

Be smarter than the sawdust

Bibbyman

We switched to using the 7° as soon as it came out.  We like them because they tend to handle oak that has some to a lot of age on them. A lot of our customers bring us dry logs to saw.  The 10 or 4 would probably work well for fresh or really dry logs but the 7° works well for most everything.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Dave Shepard

Quote from: NMFP on December 23, 2013, 08:24:20 PM
The 7 degree turbo bands work good and I sharpen a few for a few guys.  I do know that they have said that when the turbo's are used up in their personal inventory, they will go back to regular 7 degree bands again.  Not sure of the reason but that's what I have been told.

Dave, if you use 4 degree for locust and white oak, why not use them for everything and just stock one band?  Your big mills don't have different bands for different species so why should we in the small mill business? 

Many of my customers used to have 4 7 and 10 degree bands and now most either run only 4 degree or 7 degree. 

Use what works best for you and you have nothing to worry about!

I find that the 4° are not as good as 10° in unfrozen pine. Maybe I'll start with the regular 7°.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

Dave Shepard

I've been running Turbo 7°s at work and really like them. I had to saw a couple of days with a really worn out belt, so I couldn't push very hard. The new belt came this afternoon and I only got a couple of passes before I had to quit, but I'm sold on them so far. The mill is a standard hydraulic with a Kubota 33hp, I think. The bands are .045 thick for this mill, but I'm going to get .055 for my Super. I'm really amazed at how little sawdust there is left on the cant.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

red oaks lumber

dave
going with the .055 1 1/4 bands 9's work really well  cutting ewp. and 4's in the winter really cut nice on ewp.we got lazy and just ran 4's all the time :)the stiffer back and thicker blade seemed to work well with the 51 hp cat. you can haul the mail with them and still cut true and flat ,until it gets dull then it will look like a roller coaster at 6 flags :D
you'll find that the b.f. cut per blade will be more than than .045 or .042  even thou they break sooner than the thinner blades. but like most charging by the b.f. puts more cabbage in the pocket
the experts think i do things wrong
over 18 million b.f. processed and 7341 happy customers i disagree

petefrom bearswamp

I cut 95 percent Hemlock.
The turbo 7x39 blades really work for me.
At a reasonable feed speed the engine just comes against the governor which is how I like to saw with very little wander over or under knots (seems like mostly over) .
I sharpened one on my old drag sharpener and it worked OK but the other 14 blades are at re sharp and I plan to pick them up Thursday and take some older .055s for them to sharpen.
Kubota 8540 tractor, FEL bucket and forks, Farmi winch
Kubota 900 RTV
Polaris 570 Sportsman ATV
3 Huskies 1 gas Echo 1 cordless Echo vintage Homelite super xl12
57 acres of woodland

Dave Shepard

I'm after the gullet depth of the sevens. The other bands don't cut like a seven or thirteen with the deep gullet.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

AnthonyW

What is the difference between the regular 7 and the turbo 7? WM blade site does not list the turbo as a good selection for anything less than the LT40 (I have an LT25).

Is the gullet deeper on the 7 degree blades than the 10 degree? I don't see much difference. Or does that only apply to the turbo 7 vs 10 degree.

Too bad WM doesn't offer a variety starter pack. I could use that.
'97 Wood-Mizer LT25 All Manual with 15HP Kohler

YoungStump

I run almost exclusively Turbo 7's in unfrozen hardwoods, overall I'm very happy with them. I never used regular 7's but I know a few fulltime sawyers who have switched and are very happy with the increased feed rates of the turbo 7.

My experience is in nice hardwood I can use every last one of my 55 ponies and still get a nice flat cut with the turbos, I'm running 1 1/2"x .055s.
Echo Enterprises 45HD2 production series band mill, Cook's Edger, sawing mostly pallet cants, rr ties, and grade lumber.

gmmills

   The difference between a regular 7 And a turbo 7 is quite significant. The regular 7 has a back angle of 34 degrees. The turbo 7 has a back angle of 39.5 degrees. Also a big difference in tooth height, gullet depth. The regular 7 has a gullet depth of .295 . The turbo 7's gullet depth is .330 . Very easy to see the difference between the two just by eye.  In comparison, the 10 degree blade has a gullet depth of .250 .
Custom sawing full-time since 2000. 
WM LT70D62 Remote with Accuset
Sawing since 1995

Peter Drouin

Quote from: YoungStump on June 29, 2015, 09:40:34 PM
I run almost exclusively Turbo 7's in unfrozen hardwoods, overall I'm very happy with them. I never used regular 7's but I know a few fulltime sawyers who have switched and are very happy with the increased feed rates of the turbo 7.

My experience is in nice hardwood I can use every last one of my 55 ponies and still get a nice flat cut with the turbos, I'm running 1 1/2"x .055s.



Do you find with the 1½ blades you get a lot of pieces of wood and junk cot around the wheels and the blade covers. I tried the 1½ blades and would get a wood wedge in there and heat the blade.
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

YoungStump

No I can't recall that I ever have. I'm thinking the 70 might have more room around the blade than the 40.?
Echo Enterprises 45HD2 production series band mill, Cook's Edger, sawing mostly pallet cants, rr ties, and grade lumber.

Peter Drouin

Quote from: YoungStump on June 29, 2015, 10:17:58 PM
No I can't recall that I ever have. I'm thinking the 70 might have more room around the blade than the 40.?



Maybe, I went back to the 1¼ .
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

AnthonyW

Quote from: gmmills on June 29, 2015, 09:54:22 PM
   The difference between a regular 7 And a turbo 7 is quite significant. The regular 7 has a back angle of 34 degrees. The turbo 7 has a back angle of 39.5 degrees. Also a big difference in tooth height, gullet depth. The regular 7 has a gullet depth of .295 . The turbo 7's gullet depth is .330 . Very easy to see the difference between the two just by eye.  In comparison, the 10 degree blade has a gullet depth of .250 .

I never considered the blades would have different size gullets. I did not consider the difference in the gullet when I switched from the 10 degree to the 7 degree. Now I have a whole bunch of questions.

When you say
Quote from: gmmills on June 29, 2015, 09:54:22 PMbig difference in tooth height
is the tooth height a result of the change in the back angle? Is the deeper gullet a result of the difference back angle? Anyone know what the size of the gullet on a 1 1/4" 4 degree band?
'97 Wood-Mizer LT25 All Manual with 15HP Kohler

Dave Shepard

I think the 4° has a .250" gullet.

I sawed some old white oak timbers today with the Turbo .045" band. Did a great job. I was impressed. I don't think a 4° would have done any better.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

bkaimwood

I don't own, and have never tried anything but turbo 7's...I have cut everything from white pine, which I saw alot of, to white oak...they have been an awesome all around blade for me...you can do some crazy production in white pine with them, and still make a nice finish in oak...unfortunately, like the rest, they hate cutting chain...I had some trouble with a rather knotty spruce, large, say 24'...was wavy, but the old set the tensioner at 6:00 and slow down fixed that...I also slabbed some huge black walnut logs last week that were dry as a fart...just flooded the blade and stiffened the tension, and was OK...16 logs, one day, 4 blades...great all around blade, but nothing is perfect...like a few minor things some fellers already mentioned...heavy exit fray on some stuff...but nothing to make me change, for now...
bk

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