Edger opinions

[OakSavannah]

In the market for a gas powered edger. Would also like it to be a pretty accurate straight line rip as well.  Watched Mr. Miltons video of his custom Baker - nice but how does the WM EG200 compare with the stock baker edger? I will be edging both off the mill and kiln dried hardwoods mostly (flooring) so consistent and repeatable widths is a big plus.  Can you get lasers on the WM? Thanks.  

[Stuart Caruk]

The WM200 is a great little edger. It's only real flaw is that it only accepts a 24" wide flitch which is pretty small for the newer wide cut mills. I sold mine for just that reason. I added a roof to my edger so I could mount a couple Amazon green line lasers over the top. They worked great.

[customsawyer]

I've had many edgers over the years. Morgan, 2 Cooks, Woodmizer, and Baker. I liked the accuracy and consistency of the WM but didn't like the fact that it only had about 3.5" to the right of the stationary blade. I think having the knurled rollers fed the lumber straighter than a belt feed on the other edgers I have had. I also liked that when you set the moveable blade to a certain width it locked in place and that is where it stayed. They all have pluses and minuses. I guess to get one exactly like I want it, I would have to build it myself.

[YellowHammer]

Edging green wood is (should be) easy for any edger, the wood is flat so won't feed following the brown, is rough so grips easily, and is wet so is its soft and easy to cut.  Edging dry wood is a very difficult task for any edger because it is hard, slick and cupped.  

Of all the edger manufacturers I called, which was every one I could find, only two said they could do it,  Baker and Woodmizer.  Even then, both said it would be difficult.  The Baker took two tries to get it right, and I've never run KD planed wood through a WM edger.

We use our Baker a lot, we really like it.

A single blade SLR is much more accurate than an edger, but 3X slower.  A gang rip would be best for KD wood.  The most accurate way to use an edger for fast ripping it to make sure it has enough horsepower to mount several fixed blades to it's left or non movable side at pre selected distances, so that flooring wood is fed in the left side of the machine, wood to be edged are fed through the right side of the machine.