Some things I learned yesterday!

[JCam]

Neighbor John spent three hours showing use the LT40 and talking sawmills.
Most of you've probably heard all this before, maybe it'll help some.

Set the saw up so you walk with the wind. That will help keep the sawdust out of your face.

Keep a clean job site, stack your flitches up on pallets so you can bring them back to the mill with your loader for edging.

Walk you slabs out of the way unto a trailer, don't throw them on the ground or you'll do twice the work getting rid of them.

Always wear leather gloves when handling your blades and don't throw them on the ground to uncoil them. John showed us how to unwind them but I don't get the trick yet.

Start every job with a fresh blade, if you have problems put on a brand new one, then start looking for the problem if the new blade doesn't help.

Enter a log slowly (very important with frozen logs), then pickup speed, and always run the blade out the end of the log.

On the return after finishing a cut bring the blade up 1/8" to check for cant warp.

Buy .045 blades they're much better and last longer than .042's.

You can use your blades until gullets start to hit the guide rollers then keep them for use with yard logs and others you suspect might have trash inside.

Get a chopsaw to cut up your worn out and broken blades. Store the pieces in a 30 gal steel drum then scrap them when it's full.

Use air pressure to clean dirt off logs pressure washers just make a mess.

Keep your sawdust dry and you can sell it, no one wants wet sawdust.

Never step over your operator side tire always go around or you'll get hurt.

Never remove the trailer tires or you could knock the mill over while loading logs.

Always watch the drive belt for excess vibration. Keep it tight and when you tighten loosen the throttle cable to match.

Listen to the motor, don't let it bog, change the oil every 100 hours, keep the air filter clean and shut down as soon as you hear anything out of the norm.

Do not ever run the saw without the blade guards and don't let anyone stand on either side of the mill. A broken blade could shoot out and cut someone in half, even with the guards in place.

It's a good idea to only cut about 6-700 board feet with a blade before you change it out for a fresh one. Then touch it up and you'll get 6 or 8 sharpenings per blade.

When cutting pine use blades with .025 set, use lube sparingly, and put soap in the lube water.

When someone tells you they can get boards somewhere else cheaper tell them they better go there and buy. If they're old customers ask them about board quailty, shrinkage charges and delivery fees. John kiln dries his lumber for 30c brd. ft. and delivers locally for free. He tells me most kilns charge by the green brd.ft. by adding a 7% shrinkage fee.

[JCam]

One other thing from Saturday; regular gas is OK but mid-grade is better to your saw motor and always use fresh premium in your chainsaws.

[Kelvin]

Sounds like some good advice there.  On the gas i was told that changing ocatane is a bad idea as it effectively changes the timing as higher ocatane is more volatile.  Use the octane the machine was designed for.  You won't get better performance out of a machine that is tuned for 87 octane by using 92.  The detonation will simply change in the cycle.  Same with cars.

Do thicker blades break quicker? 

Hook angle is also a big item in blade selection.  Pine wants agressive hook, 12 or more.  Wide, hard and dry wants less, all the way to 4 degrees this is all in addition to set.

[Bibbyman]

Great list.  A lot of stuff sawyers "come to know" but new guys have to learn the hard way.



One thing I'd suggest trying on edging the flitches;  Instead of stacking them on a pallet and then bringing them back onto the mill for edging,  push them over on the partially raised loading arms as you make them and then when you get your cant sawed down to say 6",  raise your loading arms and let the flitches slide up against the cant.  Then clamp them against the cant and edge as required.   Then saw the rest of the cant and go on to the next log.

Again, it's a personal preference.  Some guys save their fliches up for some length of time and others like to edge as they go.   

Also,  I've found that you can fold a blade double and step on it and it'll snap right into. 

[Left Coast Chris]

Great list.   Another item I have learned:  never let unstickered lumber sit more than 24 hours on hot days & always end seal and spray with borer treatment (hardwood only) prior to stickering.

Thanks for the info 

[UNCLEBUCK]

What is borer treatment for hardwoods ? I dont put anything on so should I be doing something different ? Thanks

[JCam]

Bibbyman: Thanks, I really appreciate John taking the time, I'm typing it out here to try and remember. The fold and step technique is a good idea I'll try it for sure.

Kevin: I've never heard anything about different octane gas changing timing. High-octane gas is actually less volatile and less likely to detonate.
Don't know anything about how blade thickness relates to blade life. John said .045 is only three thousands of an inch thicker and you'd be surprised how much better they cut and last.
He talked all about blade set and tooth angle in hard wood, soft wood, dry wood, wet wood and frozen but, I'm afraid, all that blew right over my head.

Here's a few more:

Don't use stickers smaller than 1-1/8 sq. or you'll get mold in the stack.

Don't use stickers longer than 4 ft. (can't remember why  : )

The best money you can spend is for a debarker, it will more than double your blade life.

If you hit a stone change the blade, the stone will take the set out of part of the blade and make the cut rise or fall.

When you hit metal the blade will loose about 10 to 12 teeth, it's trashed.

Cheap metal detectors are worthless and good ones cost too much. You can buy a lot of blades for $2000

Don't' even try to back out of a cut, once you start... finish.

Take a look at the blade tension gauge before every cut, if the gauge reading keeps changing the blades gone soft and it's no good to you anymore.

Make sure to add oil to tensioner as needed, 'bout every 3 months.

Sharpening blades is a pain in the butt so do your sharpening when you want to come inside to warm up or cool off depending on the weather.

[Minnesota_boy]

Wow, what a list.  Some of those things are so right on.....and some are so far off.  Things that are right on in some areas are not at all in others.  Take for instance the part about a blade changing tension and "gon soft".  Weather can do that too.  I've watched the sun heat up part of the mill nad the tension goes right to where it belongs, then a cloud comes along and the tension drops like a rock until the sun comes out and the tension goes right back up.  I could be throwing a lot of good blades away.

In the area I live, the average humidity is not terribly high and we have some open country for the wind to blow, so I use 1" stickers and can make a pile 8 feet wide and get no mold.

I add oil to the tensioner when it needs it too, about every 3 ......years.  If it needs it every 3 months, you have a seal leaking.

[JCam]

Farmer77: Cut and sticker, thanks. What is borer treatment?

Minnesota: Wow, there's more, I just can't remember it all. In your experience what else is in error. I'm green to this and want to avoid as many pitfalls as possible.

The gone soft statment may work for John because he saws indoors and his temp is fairly constant. His North wall is open and the shop walls and roof extend out six feet past the mill. He's replaced this one with a 25 hp electric powerd Super Hydraulic LT40 mill and is now going to put in a 20 foot extension and doors. He wants to be able to saw in any kind of weather.

Our summers in mid-Michigan have been/are very humid and lacking for rain. Spring and fall are usually nice when it isn't raining. Winter is just a mess of ice and slush with three or four good snow falls. The snowmobilers complain almost every winter.

I was told to weigh down every stack of green lumber and keep a cover on it if left outside to air dry.

I think the four foot width limit was to ease handling with forks on the loader.

Don't know a thing about tensioners, I'll look it over for a leaking seal, thanks.

[slowzuki]

High octane is less volitile so you can advance the timing further to get more power but if you don't advance the timing you actually make less power.

If you do advance the timing, make sure you return it when you return to regular gas or you may get pre-ignition.

[Timburr]

Don't use stickers smaller than 1-1/8 sq. or you'll get mold in the stack.

Don't use stickers longer than 4 ft. (can't remember why  : )

Same reason. If the width of the stack is more than 4', there is a greater resistance to airflow through the stack. Dead air...mold

[Tom]

Keeping your air-drying stack to a 4-6 foot width is good practice.  Timburr is right.

I can think of only two reasons to discard a blade. 1: it has gotten too narrow through resharpenings to fit the guides, and 2: It has developed a physical defect such as missing teeth, gullet cracks or cracks across the back. 

Blades may become flimsy through wear by losing metal to the fricton on the bandwheel, guides and kerf in the wood.  But, I've never had one that was too flimsy that it couldn't be made to cut straight.   I think a worn thin blade will eventually break because it can't handle the stress. You never know when.  Get as many board feet out of them as you can.

I disagree about the metal detectors.  I don't think on of the $20 would be much good, but, the leading manufacturers have detectors in the $200 to $600 that will do a good job.  Having one is better than not having one.   They are no guarantee, but without one, you are flying blind.


You will find times when you need to back out of the cut.  Just make sure you have stopped the blade before you do it.  There are things that make it easier, like cleaning the kerf of sawdust with a broken piece of blade and wedging up the board or slab to make more room.

Basically John has given you some good advice.  When you start sawing, you will see why.  It sounds like he might have been snooping around the Forestry Forum a bit. :D

Remember that Sawing is as much art as it is science.  When you begin applying rigid rules, you may be wasting resources or time.

Never skimp on safety!

[Kelvin]

On the amount of board feet per blade, it varies greatly, but personally i never get what some people say.
I sharpen my own, so it might not be as well done as factory, but then again i never get more than 2-300 ft on a factory new double hard woodmizer blade.  Probably b/c i saw such widely varing stock.  I saw a lot of wide stuff, so i'm sure i could use a 4 degree blade, but i don't want to change cams on my sharpener to do so, so i average at about 9 degrees.  I also change blades when they are not so dull they take a long time to resharpen.  Metal takes the points off and requires a lot of time grinding back down to a point.
So, i've never gotten 600 bd ft on any blade, anywhere, and i do have a debarker on my machine.  The debarker ads quite a bit to blade life if you have a dirty log for instance.  Without a debarker you couldn't saw squat, with one, you can saw as usual.  Most of my logs don't get in the dirt.  I wouldn't say it doubles the life of the blade though.
One biggie in sawing is how you postion and stack your lumber.  THe foundation and the cover is very critical.  Pay careful attention otherwise you will ruin your work.  Steel roofing can't be beat for a lid.  I've tried everything else, and it is the best.  Concrete pad can't be beat for a level foundation.  I don't have one yet so i just do as well as i can on blocks and cants.
Good luck.
KP

[Minnesota_boy]

For your first log, choose a very large white spruce with lots of big knots.  Fell it in mid-summer and let it lay for 4 to 8 weeks before you saw it.  Make sure it gets dragged through the sand so your blade dulls quickly.  Saw it as fast as you can.  Make the engine work hard all the way.

Now that you have the hardest wood to saw behind you, everything else will saw easier and better.  8)

Sawing a partially dried log is always more difficult than a fresh cut one.

This week I felled a large white pine on Wednesday afternoon and milled it on Friday morning.  950 bd-ft, only used one blade, cut some 2X15's for wide table tops, visited with the customer's neighbor, and was out of there in 3 hours.  8) 8) :D

[Left Coast Chris]

Jcam & Unclebuck......... the borer treatment for hardwoods I use is Timbor.   Most folks on the FF talk about using Solubor.   They are the same thing.   A borate concentrate that disolves easily in water.   I use a 15% solution and spray every hardwood board on all four sides before stickering.   Without it I get powderpost beatles (in the borer stage) within 3 to 6 months.  Left unchecked they will reduce a hardwood board to a fine saw dust in a matter of months.  They tend to like the sapwood and produce like crazy.   Since I air dry, Im not sure if kiln dryed wood is immune.  Not likely since they attack dried boards years after drying.

If you do not have borers.......... WOW......thats great.  Just be carefull of importing them from somewhere else.

[PineNut]

I use a homemade solution that is similar to Boracare. I find that this product provides better penetration than a solution similar to Timbor. The surface of the lumber stays damp longer and crystals do not form on the surface of the timber. Also I do not have the problem with crystals forming in the working solution. 

Kiln drying (at over 130 degrees) will kill powerpost beetles but will not prevent infestation.

[JCam]

Kelvin: You're scaring me with your blade life figures! 2-300 bd-ft seems low if the LT40's can saw that much wood per hour. You're changing blades every hour of saw time. At $22 per blade and $10 per resharping I'd be sawing wood to buy gas, oil and blades to saw more wood.

Minnesota: Sounds like a plan I want to stay away from, stay away from spruce that is, never liked it much anyway. The white pine you cut sounds like a good run for 3 hours ;D.

Farmer77 & PineNut: Where do you get this stuff to kill borers?

[footer]

Kelvin: You're scaring me with your blade life figures! 2-300 bd-ft seems low if the LT40's can saw that much wood per hour. You're changing blades every hour of saw time. At $22 per blade and $10 per resharping I'd be sawing wood to buy gas, oil and blades to saw more wood.

Minnesota: Sounds like a plan I want to stay away from, stay away from spruce that is, never liked it much anyway. The white pine you cut sounds like a good run for 3 hours ;D.

Farmer77 & PineNut: Where do you get this stuff to kill borers?

My blade life is close to kevins. I do not have a debarker either. I have gotten anywhere between 50 and maybe 500 bdft from a new double hard woodmizer blade. Probably 300 average. Also I have found that resharpened blades only last maybe 1/2 as long as a new blade, so by the time you pay shipping and spend more time changing blades, it is almost a waste of money having them sharpened unless you can do it yourself. I have had resharpened blades that won't make one cut before getting dull.

[BBTom]

  Wow,  I must be doing something wrong!!!  

I just complained to WM Resharp about the last box of blades only lasting about 200 BDFT each.  They had a set problem too, which might have caused the fast dulling.

I normally get 400-500 out of a WM Resharp blade,  500-700 out of a new blade.  I like to change blades before they get too dull, cause they are so much easier to sharpen.  After I sharpen them a couple times, they go back to WM Resharp to get set and sharpened.   I have more blades rejected for too narrow than I have blades that break.   

[JCam]

  I guess a sharpener and setter are in the near future. Who makes good ones?

[Tom]

I favor my Woodmizer sharpeners and setters but it would be a good place to start to visit the Sponsers on the left, first.

[PineNut]

Farmer77 & PineNut: Where do you get this stuff to kill borers?

I use a mixture of antifreeze, boric acid and borax, all available from Wal Mart. Let me write up the procedures I use and I will post them.