Just in case it saves anyone some time or grief. Short story: all spindle cleaners are not the same. I recommend looking for one based on ethoxylated alcohols - they are almost four times the cost of the others, but require much less and are definitely worth it.

I've spent years wondering about blade lubricants. We cut almost exclusively longleaf pine, which is dense, pitchy material. When I came on, we were using diesel mixed with water - I don't think they even added an emulsifier - with the lubemizer set to pulse on 6. It was smelly and only worked OK, plus the combination of diesel and water seemed hard on the paint on the frame. Soon after, looking for an alternative I came across posts here and elsewhere recommending cotton picker spindle cleaner, which seemed like a more user-friendly alternative. So I went to the local ag store and bought what they had - AgSmart/PickSmart Cotton Picker Spindle Cleaner. We used for a couple years with OK results- we had to use a fair amount, and set the lubmizer to pulse at 6. We were using a five gallon bucket (mixed ~1:9 with water) every couple days to a week. This volume of liquid made sawdust clump and stick to boards, didn't seem great for the roller bearings and other parts that weren't cleaned off every evening as they should have been, and it still didn't do the trick for really pitchy logs. So then we tried straight diesel at the lowest setting, or just bumped before each cut (was going to install a drip system if we decided to stick with it, and that probably would have helped). It used much less liquid and was great at cutting pitch, but again smelly and also seemed to be resulting in belt wear and thrown blades. So I cast about again, and found that different brands of spindle cleaner have fundamentally different formulations. Read More

I wanted to ask the group here their thoughts on whether carbide bands are worth their cost when used exclusively, assuming no metal strikes. Based on my experience alone I'm seeing maybe 2-3 days of reasonable use where their performance diminishes from say 100% sharp, to 70% sharp, then snap. As compared to a carbon steel band that does 100% sharp to 20% sharp in perhaps 1-2 hours of use (at which point you might do another log or two, if they're small and free of knots, or might swap it out), then can be sharpened 10-20 times. My theory is the carbide bands would go a lot longer if the gullets were polished every couple of hours like the carbon steel bands are, but there doesn't seem to be any carbide sharpening solution that addresses this? The vendor supplied a diamond sharpening wheel to fit to our sharpener but it only touches the TCT, none of the bands have made it to needing this yet anyway.Read More