When to use edger verses cutting with sawmill

[Country Boy]

I have a Woodmizer lt 40 super and just received my new edger from Meadow Mills. Edger will handle up to 3 1/4 inch material at a feed rate of 90 feet per minute. I am sawing 14-18 inch SYP logs in 12' lengths. Trying to get as many 2 x 10s as possible. I have myself and 1 helper at mill. Will I be more productive sawing everything with mill or will I be more productive sawing logs into 2" fitches and running  thru the edger. Edger has 1 fixed and 1 moveable blade

[Southside]

It's not black and white, but shades of grey.  I send flitches back to the edger, work my way down to a cant that is slightly over my finished target size, then cut over sized "blanks" for lack of a better term. Those blanks then head for the edger as well.  This does several things, first I am grade sawing so my quality is improved, my recovery is better as why waste a 1x  jacket board when the edger can salvage clean lumber from it, and my material is sized with circular blades that are more consistent and accurate than edging on a mill.  

If you simply through saw you will have stress movement in your lumber and your log on the mill. In addition you will find it challenging to clamp many logs once they become odd shaped or towards the tapered end. 

[Dave Shepard]

Welcome to the Forum! 

I set aside anything with bark and edge after the sawing is done. I only edge on mill if it won't fit through my edger. You don't have much choice edging on the mill if you have a lot of taper, but it's easy to take a board out of an odd shaped flitch.

[SawyerTed]

I ran an edger along side my mill for a time.  We would cut flitches and stack them to be edged.  Once we got a stack we edged for a while so we could stack and stick by species or by customer etc.

Edging on the mill was faster but not always "straighter". 

[Bruno of NH]

I have a Woodmizer lt 40 super and just received my new edger from Meadow Mills. Edger will handle up to 3 1/4 inch material at a feed rate of 90 feet per minute. I am sawing 14-18 inch SYP logs in 12' lengths. Trying to get as many 2 x 10s as possible. I have myself and 1 helper at mill. Will I be more productive sawing everything with mill or will I be more productive sawing logs into 2" fitches and running  thru the edger. Edger has 1 fixed and 1 moveable blade

Let me know how you like the Meadows edger.
I priced one out its on my list.
What engine did you get?

[moodnacreek]

I have seen instructions for setting up a mill that called for the edger to be in line and take almost every board. They must of passed slabs over or around it and handled squares on the log deck. This would have produced 2 less slabs and conveyed all the boards and sticks to the tail man.

[WV Sawmiller]

Moody,

   I thought that was the normal procedure in a big circle mill set up and figured you had something similar on yours. I thought the sawyer had a switch he toggled to throw the slabs off at one station while the rest went to various cut off saws or to the edger. I guess I thought the flitches to be edged were kicked off at the edger station.

   Since I am sawing mobile I don't see an edger in my future. I have watched Marty demo the little WM EG50 portable edger and I liked what i saw of it but it did not seem worth the effort or cost for me to have to load, unload, set up and shut the mill down to operate it. Shutting down the mill to edge on a different machine did not look to increase my productivity. The edger no doubt does yield a better finished product but I am producing rough cut lumber from a customer's logs and am satisfied with that niche.

[Crossroads]

I'm still trying to figure out how to incorporate my edger into my process. I'll definitely be watching this thread 

[moodnacreek]

Moody,

  I thought that was the normal procedure in a big circle mill set up and figured you had something similar on yours. I thought the sawyer had a switch he toggled to throw the slabs off at one station while the rest went to various cut off saws or to the edger. I guess I thought the flitches to be edged were kicked off at the edger station.

  Since I am sawing mobile I don't see an edger in my future. I have watched Marty demo the little WM EG50 portable edger and I liked what i saw of it but it did not seem worth the effort or cost for me to have to load, unload, set up and shut the mill down to operate it. Shutting down the mill to edge on a different machine did not look to increase my productivity. The edger no doubt does yield a better finished product but I am producing rough cut lumber from a customer's logs and am satisfied with that niche.

There is more than one way to skin a cat. The edger seldom produces a better product that a board dogged and sawn on a mill. Think about random width high value hardwood, 2 sides off and flitch sawn and every board edged to the max. width as opposed to Me sawing pine on the mill sawn to width with as little edging as possible. I well remember edging on the mill, that's the first reason to get an edger and then it will come to you.

[Southside]

One way or another every piece of lumber I produce goes through the edger, when is the only difference.  If we are rough sawing knowing the material will be dried and later re-worked then only flitces and over target size lumber will go through the edger for recovery. Once the cant is to target size then the saw will break it down and it goes right to the stack.  

In that scenario when the lumber is dry and heading to the moulder it passes through the edger to be straight lined.

If I am producing a rough sawn product for a customer directly then every piece goes through the edger.  Flitches and oversize at first, the cant is intentionally sawn slightly over the desired finished size and broken down on the saw.  All lumber then hits the edger to be cleaned up and keep much better accuracy. 

A single guy running a saw and edger can be slightly faster than if running the saw alone if you incorporate some sort of rollers or means to avoid setting down then lifting the same piece of material multiple times.  In that scenario recovery and accuracy / quality will be better with speed just a bit higher.  

Two people - absolutely faster to run as described above, the sawyer has to watch the edger man to avoid burying him and help with stacking and such but with a remote operated mill just set the cruise speed, move a piece or two, and you can be back at the controls just as the band exits a 16' cut. 

Three people - the edger becomes key to production, it just becomes a steady stream of finished product.   

[Magicman]

An edger could be an excellent addition to a stationary sawing operation but I found that for my portable sawing an edger would/did not prove to be satisfactory.  I have more control of the exact board width when edging with the sawmill, plus additional processing is not necessary for framing lumber.

An extra trip is needed to transport it plus the tailgunners needed to use it.  I was also not pleased with the rougher edges produced by the circle blades. 

[Peter Drouin]

I don't move and save a lot of wood with an edger.


 

 

 
Fab my Wood Mizer to be a one man one. Love it.

[Bruno of NH]

I don't move and save a lot of wood with an edger.


 

 

 
Fab my Wood Mizer to be a one man one. Love it.

That looks like a great set up Peter
I will have an edger again

[Dave Shepard]

An edger could be an excellent addition to a stationary sawing operation but I found that for my portable sawing an edger would/did not prove to be satisfactory.  I have more control of the exact board width when edging with the sawmill, plus additional processing is not necessary for framing lumber.

An extra trip is needed to transport it plus the tailgunners needed to use it.  I was also not pleased with the rougher edges produced by the circle blades.

How do you figure you have more control over board width on the mill? You just set the edger to the width you want and send it. I think a twin blade edger is essential to getting maximum recovery from flitches, especially if they are really tapered. I realize it's not  convenient for portable sawing jobs.

[Magicman]

The Wood-Mizer edger that I/we used had set width increments for the blade width to be adjusted to.  There was no option for intermediate widths.



I am very often asked to edge ERC boards at random widths as wide as the flitch will allow.  This would not be possible with this edger.

No matter anyway because I am 100% portable and an edger would not work with my sawing profile.

[Dave Shepard]

I have the same edger. It's adjustable in 1/4" increments. Or in metric somethings if you put the pin in the other hole on the handle.

[moodnacreek]

A sawmill, at least one with a carriage cuts straight. If used to edge, the piece is dogged down as opposed to being somewhat held by feed rolls. Edging on the mill is slow and too much extra work. My edger has a sweep table for an outfeed. The sweep feeds a small green chain. Problem is the sticks are in the pile of finished boards. I did not have enough room for a tailer  that would drop the sticks and send the boards to the main green chain. There is no limit to sawmill set ups . A vertical edger on the husk would be the ticket but that would mean another man and a chipper, too much for little old Me.

[Magicman]

I have the same edger. It's adjustable in 1/4" increments.

Which was my point.  For example I need to saw 3 5/8" & 5 5/8" width framing lumber that will not get further millwork, but it is a moot point anyway. 

[Dave Shepard]

Just to beat this dead horse a little more, you could grind notches in between the 1/4" marks.

[Magicman]

 My money ain't on this horse.  :D :D :D

[Dave Shepard]

I'm aware of that, just pointing out that your objection was easily rectified. I wouldn't expect an edger to be effective on a portable job unless it was very large.

[Southside]

Well to kick the horse one more time, my Riehl has 1/16" adjustments. 

[Dave Shepard]

That ought to just about do it for rough lumber. :D

[YellowHammer]

Well to kick the horse one more time, my Riehl has 1/16" adjustments.

I don't think I could run a horse through my edger.  

[melezefarmer]

Sorry to revive this thread but I found your edger's board return fascinating. Do you operate it with air cylinders or with a motor and cam? Are there any sensors that prevent it from operating as the edger is cutting? 

Thank you