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Woodmizer blade numbers

Started by shopteacher, May 05, 2013, 12:01:05 PM

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shopteacher

Is there anyway to tell the blade pitch from the numbers etched on woodmizer blades?
Proud owner of a LT40HDSE25, Corley Circle mill, JD 450C, JD 8875, MF 1240E
Tilt Bed Truck  and well equipted wood shop.

Tee

From what I understood from the service tech that did the annual on my mill last week, that just tells production info. Such as original coil of material, grinder, setter. welder, etc.

shopteacher

Thanks for the info.  I got so many blades setting around anymore I was hoping that number might give the blade pitch.
Proud owner of a LT40HDSE25, Corley Circle mill, JD 450C, JD 8875, MF 1240E
Tilt Bed Truck  and well equipted wood shop.

OneWithWood

The length and depth of the gullet will tell you the pitch.  I don't know how it all corresponds but your WM rep should have the info.
One With Wood
LT40HDG25, Woodmizer DH4000 Kiln

Tee

Here's an idea I've considered though; take a blade you know 100% what angle it is that is no good, and cut a 4-6'  section and mark it plainly. Do this with all blades angles you run and if you can put a hole in them, put them on a ring to keep them together. When your in question of what you looking at / for, lay them on top and compare.
I only have 7 and 10 degree so this would be easy and really unnecessary for me after a while but more experienced folks would have to say if this may work when your comparing blades that are only 1 degree different from each other.

jcbrotz

Woodmizer sells a metal gauge for something like 13-14 bucks. It has all the blade profiles on it. I got one not to long ago and it works great.
2004 woodmizer lt40hd 33hp kubota, Cat 262B skidsteer and way to many tractors to list. www.Brotzmanswoodworks.com and www.Brotzmanscenturyfarm.com

shopteacher

Thanks for the ideas. I think I'll take the easy route and buy the guage. smiley_jester
Proud owner of a LT40HDSE25, Corley Circle mill, JD 450C, JD 8875, MF 1240E
Tilt Bed Truck  and well equipted wood shop.

Larry

Pitch is the distance between teeth tips.  Most common for our portable mills is 7/8", followed by 3/4" and 1".  A lot of times for shop bandsaws the pitch is expressed as teeth per inch (TPI). 

Tooth  hook angle is measured with a protractor of some sort.  After a while you can tell the difference just by looking.  Some bands will have a distinctive gullet shape such as the WM 7 degree.

A lot of hardware stores carry a cheap protractor gauge made by General.  It will do the job as well as an expensive Starrett.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

Brian_Rhoad

A cheap protractor is not accurate enough. The blades are only a couple of degrees in difference and a cheap protractor can be off that much. I have a General brand and it is off 2-3 degrees and varies at different areas of the scale.

terrifictimbersllc

The WM gauge is a great tool . it is about 8 inches in diameter, has 5 sides I think, and has the profile of 3 teeth on each of the sides.  4, 7, 9, 10 and one other profiles.  One fits these profiles into the blade and there is no mistaking which profile you are holding in your hand.  I'll get a picture of it.
DJ Hoover, Terrific Timbers LLC,  Mystic CT Woodmizer Million Board Foot Club member. 2019 LT70 Super Wide 55 Yanmar,  LogRite fetching arch, WM BMS250 sharpener/BMT250 setter.  2001 F350 7.3L PSD 6 spd manual ZF 4x4 Crew Cab Long Bed

Jim_Rogers

Back in '94 when I first started sawing, my brother was helping me. I came in one morning and he said, "I sharpened the blade hanging up on the sharpener, this morning!" I said: "I sharpened the blade hanging up on the sharpener, last night!".... so we both did.

After that, I decided I'd better keep track of which blade had been sharpened and which wasn't. So I went out and bought some luggage tags that I could paper clip to the blade. And each has notes on it so I know what's going on with that blade.

Some of you guys may think my system is crazy but it works for me and I know exactly what's what (most of the time) with my blades.

I write on the tag, oh well I guess I should just show you a couple of tags:



 

Now, first of all is the box number. In the upper left hand tag it says 707. That means I bought that box in the year 2007 and the month of July (7 for the year, and 07 for the month). On the upper right is #2. That is the second blade I took out of that box, and below that is the actual blade serial number.

Next is four columns. One is the date, one is the degree of set, one is whether or not if it's "Dull" "D" or if blank it is sharp. And then "Comments" like how long it was on the mill, and or if it hit anything that made me take it off the mill.

On the left hand tag you can see I took it out of the box on September 19th and it was "new". I didn't set it myself, so it is "NS" or not set. After I sawed with it for 1/2 hr (one half hour) I hit some nails. So it was "D".

The next line shows the date I sharpened it. (9/20) and that I ran it around my sharpener twice "T". I didn't set it "NS" and again I hit nails with it. But I guess I missed how long it was on the mill before I hit nails with it.

On the 21st I sharpened it again. But this time I setup the blade grinding wheel with the weld in the blade on the "back side" of the sharpener, (B) before the "T" which means it was again ran around the sharpener twice.

What I mean by the "back side" of the sharpener, is that one time I sharpen the blade with the weld at the clamp at the grinding wheel. And I test the setting by grinding a couple of teeth. If the settings for push or depth isn't right then I adjust it a little until it is set right. But this means a couple of teeth are either over ground, or under ground by the grinding wheel. So next time I set it up; I slide the blade around the grinder clamp until the weld is near the back support arm on the back side of the grinder. Then, when the teeth near the weld come through the clamp and past the grinder wheel they will get "ground correctly" this time around. So I alternate setups; once in the front and then once in the back. This hopefully keeps all teeth sharpened correctly each time.

After three times sharpening it, and by the looks hitting lots of nails, I set it aside to go to resharp, on 10/5. It should have been set to 19 or 21 from them, but my tag doesn't show that.

And you can see it broke on me.

The second tag on the right is about the same.

When I sharpen a blade I keep the tag with the blade and make notes on it. When I take a blade off the peg on the wall and put it on the mill, I set the tag aside so I know where it is and I get it when I take the blade off the mill and make more notes on it so that I know if it's sharp or not.

Since I started using 4° blades, I simply mark 4° on the tag next to the box number so that I know it's a 4° blade.

Resharp of course won't do a thing with my tags, so I don't send them with the blades. And when they come back from resharp as I take the blades out of the box to use on the mill, I just read the serial number off the blade and find the tag that matches it and put them back together again. And as I mentioned I paper clip the tag to the side of the blade.

The only problem with my system is when I go out to do a road job. The coiled blades in a cube box bounce around a bit in driving down the road and the tags slide off the blade and the paper clip doesn't work very well there and then. So I use the string; and loop the string around the blade so it doesn't fall off during travels.

As I said this system works for me. And I know a lot of you will think this is crazy but I know what each blade has been through and when it is sharp or not, at any time by looking at the tag.

I know this is a long post. But I hope it will help you some.

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

bandmiller2

Do all bands have serial no.'s, I've never noticed them, or just WM.My L S Starett protractor is more accurate than my eyes.It helps if you have a white background behind the band and leave a slight gap between the ruler and the tooth face,easier to gauge the gap with your eyes. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

Jim_Rogers

Frank, I don't know about other brands but it seems like most WM blades do. Although I have run into a few that didn't.

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

Brian_Rhoad

Woodmizer blades are the only ones I have seen with numbers. I number my blades and keep track of them in a notebook with running time and sharpening and setting notes.

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