pinesol/lestoil/grease cutters

woodmills1 · June 05, 2003, 06:06:49 PM

I was gonna post this on fla deadheaders can't keep up thread but decided to put it her so more would see it.

Grease cutters like lestoil are real good at what they do, that is cut grease. So a little in the blade water does seem like a good idea. I soak my planer blades in straight lestoil and boy does the pitch wash right off.

Let me tell you of an experiment i tried. I added a bit of lestoil to the cooling water on my blade sharpener. Nice and clean the blades were just from the cleaning action while sharpening. Three months later i bought a new motor for it. the front bearing seized right up. I think the lestoil washed the lubrication right out of the front bearing.

So IMHO leave the grease cutters out of the water mixes. Pinesol, lestoil, or dawn dish detergent< I won't use them.

If you been reading I am a diesel/bar oil guy with no apparent damage and only a few gallons used in years just a squirt from an old oil can when I see pitch.

Fla._Deadheader · June 05, 2003, 06:46:15 PM

Well, living in NH, you should have a pitch problem. I have sawn the Arkansas "Bull" Pine and the "CCC" pine. Arky posted about the Dawn-Pine-sol mix. I just went nutz, I reckon !! :-[.
  You are probably correct that the mix will de-grease the bearings. We grease our rollers twice a day, with a synthetic grease. Does it work, I Don'T know.
  I DO know that this SYP is, without a doubt, the sappiest stuff I have seen. I originated in the North East and messed with a LOT of Pine there. This stuff has pitch oozing out of the last cut, before you get it off the mill. The dust sticks to the truck, parked 100' from the sawsite. It plugs the discharge chute and we have to hose the mill off every 30 minutes, or, you will need a wire brush or scraper.
  When I had the Corley, I used Diesel and drain oil mixed and would sling a little on the blade to keep it clean. Today's customers read too much false crap and Don'T want the oils on the wood. It WON'T hurt the wood and the smell?? will be gone in a couple of hours.
   The guy we used to sell the sinkers to, uses straight Diesel that is poured into his compressor tank and is then sprayed constantly onto his blade through 6 nozzles. The place reeks of Diesel, but, the wood does not, and he gets top dollar for his Pine.
   Whew, this is long. I agree with you. ;)

:D :D :D

woodmills1 · June 05, 2003, 06:58:00 PM

i have been watchin your posts on the pine problems and knotted old bull pine is the one I have the hardest time cutting without waves. I think first get the blade tire groove thing straighten out. then just maybe try a blade set for frozen hardwood like 18 19 thousanths at no more than 10 degrees and see how it works. then try one set for pine at say 27 or 30 thousanths and see how that works, only as you pass to the knots slow the head speed way down as you enter the knot. My woodmizer has the early small feed motor so I can slow it by just holding it back. dont ever expect a first or second cut in a pig pine to not be wavey. if i am going through both knots and wide and narrow even a very sharp blade will wave. sometimes I use one blade to make the first two passes then change to a fresh sharp one for the body of the log. by the way frozen oak doesn't wave at all.

Fla._Deadheader · June 05, 2003, 07:09:39 PM

I totally agree with this post also. I have not had the chance to experiment like you suggest, but, tomorrow, I will make up a couple of different styles of blade and try them, when we go to the camp, next week. We have a BUNCH of Pine there, plus the Sinkers.
  We started out sawing real nice Pine boards. Size did NOT matter so much. It was the alignment of the rollers with the mis-shaped tire that did us in.
  Tom had set and sharpened my blades, and they worked fine, but, left too much dust. I sharpened without setting and the dust was nearly eliminated.
  I will print your comments and try them tomorrow. Thanks.

ohsoloco · June 05, 2003, 07:25:17 PM

Harold, how did the over-set blades that Tom made up for ya cut? I always have a heck of a time cutting knotty spruce, and I just cut a bunch a few weeks back. After the first batch of logs I cut, I went in to sharpen my blades and decided to set them as well. Seems I over-set them, since there was a bunch of sawdust left on the cant after removing a board...but they cut real nice. Still got my waves, but not quite as bad. Usually, once I get down to a square cant the waves aren't nearly as bad...don't know if it's the bark, or just the wide cut I'm making that causes all the problems.

I sold this spruce to a friend of mine to side his barn with. The twelve footers run from ground to eave no problem. The second load I took him was mostly eight footers, and I got the story about how great the twelves are to put up. I'll bet they are, but I'm not wrestling a 32" diameter log 12 feet long up a ramp with just a cant hook :-/

Fla._Deadheader · June 05, 2003, 07:41:46 PM

I never said the blades were over-set. He set them at 22 thousandths, each side. I would guess that I reduced the set by MAYBE 2-3 thou per side. I didn't have the dial indicator built yet. ALL the blades cut well. We still have the dirty log problem, so, we dull the blades way too soon.
I thought about opening a couple of logs with one blade and then changing, but, it seemed way too slow, so we cut wavy boards instead. :

You should REALLY look into the winch rolling procedure for loading them big logs.

ohsoloco · June 05, 2003, 07:47:27 PM

That's about what mine were set to...23 thousandths, guess I referred to that as over-set since it was leaving a lot of sawdust on the cant. I have also considered the changing of the blade for opening cuts, but then think about how much time it sucks up.

I've thought about the winch loader for my mill, but just don't seem to want to look into building one. Actually, I would really like to get a rough terrain forklift, at least a 4000# jobbie. Considered the skid steer route with forks, but most of them max out at 1800#, and it's the ones that are bigger than that that I need help with.

woodmills1 · June 05, 2003, 08:05:46 PM

on the orange blade changes are short timers

Fla._Deadheader · June 05, 2003, 08:09:06 PM

Yeah, I got a semi-orange one. I was thinkin more about shutdown, change, start back up time. :

;D

woodmills1 · June 05, 2003, 08:15:26 PM

the more i think when i factor in the speed of cut with a new blade along with the lack of waves, the time to change fades well into the distance. 8)

Fla._Deadheader · June 06, 2003, 05:13:07 AM

Gotcha ;D I KNEW you would say that. I have to agree, again. ;) :D :D :D
When we get set up, this time, I am going to try to set opened logs aside and saw several after the blade change. The guy has a 4 X 4 backhoe !! 8) 8) THAT should make it easy to move several at a time.

woodmills1 · June 06, 2003, 02:49:38 PM

when I was makin the 8x8 oaks for the post and beams back a year or two, the mortise cutter was real fussy. seems he wanted to index off the sides of my mill cut beams and not from a center line. If i used the same blade to open them and then to trim and cut to finish there would be the slightest bit of off square or god forbid some crownd on the 8 inch faces. I ended up cutting 10 1/4 by 10 1/4 and setting them aside, then changing to a frsh blade to do all the final cuts. Now I really wasn't being paid enpugh to go to this level but see I like to drive BMW cars. Mind you we only have a 91 318is, not much in the heady world of exotic autos. Seems the end user of the beams was the wife of the owner of the local BMW dealership, and though I new him a little bit before we are like buddies now. :D so maybe just maybe there is an upgrade in my future. 8)