I was wondering

[woodhaven]

I was just cutting out some parts on my metal cutting band saw when the blade broke. As I was brazing it back together and grinding the weld down I was thinking so I thought I would ask.
 What do you guys do when you break a mill blade? Do you just trash them or fix them (if the teeth are still good) I always keep extry blades and if I am in a rush I just stick on a new one and fix the broken one latter. These blades are a lot cheaper than the mill blades but I won't throw one out until the teeth are gone or non-existant.

[Tom]

I found a place locally that would weld 1 1/4 blades for me.  They have since gone out of business. The blades that I broke, I found had developed stress cracks in other places on the blade already and would soon break again.  It just wasn't worth the effort to travel so far to get a blade repaired (even for 3 dollars) when it was only luck that it would last.

I scrap broken blades now.  Usually I've gotten the life out of them anyway.

I purchased a jig that would allow me to silver solder blades together but that didn't work either. The stresses on a sawmill band are too great for the solder connection. I could never get one to hold. After talking to the blade shop, I found that the procedure is for small blades of 1/8 to 1/2 inch widths.  Although you can get 3/4 inch blades to hold (depending on the machine they are on), one inch blades and greater require welding.  I thought about buying a "zap" welder until I heard the price.  They are really expensive.

Most of these sawmills are tensioning blades from 1500lbs on up to 3000lbs. That takes a pretty good joint.

[woodhaven]

Tom,
I need to eat some of my words.
I''ve been giving the bandsaw guys a hard time by saying the only thing you all could do that I couldn't was pull your mill behind a truck.
This blade thing has made me rethink. If you destroy a blade you reach in your back pocket pull out $25.00 and you have a new blade. If I destroy a blade I have to go to the bank for a loan.

          Rim,Shanks,Teeth  $$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$$ >:(

[Tom]

You needn't feel that you have to eat your words.

I look at all the mills as having a place in the industry and the ribbing we provide each other as an instrument of fun not un-likened to cheering for your favorite team.  

I admire a circle sawyer who risks so much when he sticks his blade in a log.  Usually you can get away with teeth or shanks but there is always the possibility that the blade will be damaged. You can go through a lot of money real quick.

Of course, we can too.  That $25 for a blade that only cut 6 inches into a log is hard to swallow too.  It's especially difficult when the second blade is destroyed just minutes later.   It's easy to say that we don't care because the log owner is going to pay for it.  I feel just about as bad about losing the blade regardless of who pays for it  I see the thousands of feet that blade could have sawed, the disposal of the blade, the re-ordering and time lost.  Not to mention the diminishing of my blade inventory which puts me at more risk for running out of blades before a new order arrives.

I envy the circle sawyers for the length of time their blades last so I guess there are pluses on both sides. If you don't damage your blade then you are just buying teeth once in a while.  If I don't damage a band, I'm still buying new blades.  If I can get two or three thousand feet to a blade with sharpening, I still will order twenty blades every 40 or 50 thousand feet.  Depending on business, that equates to about once every two months, give or take, that I drop $500 dollars for bands.  

None of this could be considered cheap, regardless of the style mill. :D

I'll bet that a fellow with a broad-axe could make a statement of dollars spent when comparing the cost of his equipment to board-footage and an hourly wage. :D

Now, if the industry could just come up with a way to direct a powerful stream of water through 50 inches of wood we could dispose of the metal all together.  Wouldn't that be great?  They can cut steel with it, why can't they cut wood?  I wonder what kind of sawdust it would create? :D :D

[breederman]

Really wet. :D

[EZ]

Tom, it's funny you brought the water cutter thing up. When are maint. department got the water cutter, they were cutting every thing they could fine. Miled steel, stainless steel, cast iron, they cut a die grinder in half the long way. One guy found a oak 4by4 and when they cut it, they thought it did'nt cut until he pick it up, the cut was so fine you could'nt even see it. They cut cement blocks, stone, but, it did'nt even scar a chunk of cerimic. The machine cost about $150,000.00. :'(
EZ

[Tom]

It sounded good till the last sentence.  $150,000 huh?   That's out of my pocket.  I wonder how thick it will cut?   If they could get rid of the price it would make a good straight-line ripper or end cut-off or pattern saw for wood.  Man!  What a Fret machine that would make. :D

[woodhaven]

Tom,
Now you gonna start something. What kind of Frets are you referring to?

[Tom]

Those pictures that are sawed out of wood using a bandsaw or scroll saws.  I've seen some that must take the patience of Job to create. :P

[woodhaven]

Shucks,
I thought you might be talking about another type of fret.

[Sawyerfortyish]

Tom I was looking at one of my circle blades the other day( only because I screwed it up) But it had a date stamped on it of 1968 and still in use. Well at least I hope it can still be used if the saw Dr can fix it  :. I can only just guess how much lumber that blade has sawn over the years. I have 3 more blades and have bought 2 of them new at about 2000.00 ea with teeth and shanks. Every time I hit steel it usally costs a set of teeth 44 of them at a buck each. So it's not no cheaper running a circle blade than a band.the blade may last longer but the teeth cost more than one band. I believe that you can get much more lumber out of a circle blade before sharpening  vs the bd footage from a band.
  
  I like the water idea. Just a little rough in the winter months : ;D

[Tom]

Yeah, I think the circle mill has it over the band when it comes to quantity/longivity.  It's usually faster too.  The bands can turn out as much wood as I want to handle in a day though, :D

All bets are off when you start talking about hitting metal.  The circle blade will produce more boards, quicker with less maintenance than a band I think......  If you can feed it enough logs.  The band sure comes in handy when you have to get as much out of one log as you can though.

[EZ]

Tom, They put a 8 inch solid chunk of steel in their, and with in a couple seconds it was done. I think the thickness of cutting lighter things is unlimited, like wood. The noise it makes is unbelieveable, it sounds like a high pic rabbit with the volume turned all the way up.
EZ

[woodhaven]

You know it don't even look right.

      Band $25.00       Circle $2,500.00

[beenthere]

EZ
Do a Yahoo! or Google search on Water Jet Cutting Wood  and there are some interesting things to read. From what I read, there is a limit on cutting wood, as far as thickness goes. That is a primary reason, as well as cost of the machine, that water is not used for cutting wood of any size. Puzzle parts - yes.  Things needing to be cut where other than straight lines are desired. If wanting to cut wood in a straight line, nothing yet beats the saw (sometimes getting the saw to cut in a straight line is the problem   ;D )  
Seems when cutting wood with water, the "kerf" gets wider as the depth of the cut increases, thus the cut is not straight through the piece. Similarly with laser cutting of wood, the sides are tapered, but in addition they are charred.

[Buzz-sawyer]

My ol' blade has cut enough wood to build a covered bridge from her to Florida  :D.....in the last 30 years....it still stands up straight when called to attention and marches a straight line in formation... 8)
problem is handling all the wood shell cut in a day....I cant wait to get started on a vertical resaw (bandsaw) to do what she cant....hope to build it this fall...

[Larry]

I saw something in FWW a while back about a guy that cut a pattern out for fretwork in cardboard.  Loaded it up on a CNC machine and went to town with the water cutter.  If I remember right his work was featured on the back cover.

[D._Frederick]

Tom,
It takes a lot of practice to silver solder a blade, you have to grind a scarf joint and have a high tensile strength silver solder. I tried the solder route with solder that had a tensile strength of 45,000lbs/sq. inch. I could get about 10-12hrs run time before the joint broke, but I spent about 1/2hrs. per joint after I got every thing out (tools). I only fix blades if I don't have one of the correct type.