Band riding up

[JustinW_NZ]

yes, give me the ASH type euc's anyday! - tend to get a fair amount of fastigata (brown barrel) and delegatensis (mountain ash) around here.
This stuff is good flooring wood for sure (which is what they want).
I'm going to end seal the cut boards for them and they have a good spot to stack to dry, as most euc's are very hard to dry correctly.

Small update...
After spending some time down at my other mates mill I've learnt a couple of things from them...
They have reverted there CBN grinders back to drag grinders and there bands are lasting A LONG time as there razor sharp compared to my CBN ones.
I've put an order to WM agent for a different cam to change my sharpener as well. - my CBN wheel is probably end of life anyway (not sure how to tell?)

They also bin the lubemizer setup and run a NZ made lube system, however it requires air so not quite ideal for a mobile guy like me...
I think I might get there old lubemizer as it will still beat my 'flood system'  :D

stellite band arrived, so I will give it some more set and check and go attack that wood this weekend.

Cheers
Justin

[5quarter]

Justin...there's no substitute for razor sharp bands. even after you get it all dialed in and the cutting is good, expect the bands to dull much quicker (ie, less BF per sharpening) in really hard wood as opposed to radatia pine, for example (I'm sure you know this, just a reminder  ). take a bunch with you and change frequently. You should definitely get longer life from the stellite. Keep the RPMs up when you're in the cut. overfeeding and losing RPMs even for a few seconds can quickly heat the blade and ruin a cut. I'm anxious to hear how it turns out this weekend...work hard.  ;)

[JustinW_NZ]

ok, update on this problem...

Went and tried 3 bands today. (been a tad busy to get back to this customer, I wasn't expecting this job to spill over to this week  >:()

The first two bands were 10deg with 0.025" set
One was sharpened by a local mill on there converted drag style setup and the other by myself with CBN wheel.
As expected the added set took the crowning out of the cuts and the waves got WAY better this bands were also sharper than I had before.
Very little if any of that nasty burning black marking...

The bands still got heated and probably caused the small amount of wave and I think my 'tap' lube system on one side of the blade is the last bit letting me down slightly.
I'm thinking I should just bite the bullet and order a proper lubemizer to A- save me filling the water/soap bottle all the time. and B - lube both sides of the blade properly, I would even get some of the local lube the other guys use (looks like good stuff)

Oh, the third band was a stellite one which I set to the above but didn't sharpen it first.
It powered through the middle of the log (splitting for 1/4 sawing) really well.
Haven't run it much at all but out of the box it seems pretty good.

Now what I find interesting is that the 10deg bands are obviously WRONG for this type of timber, but REALLY sharp with lots of set you can get by (I think)
I haven't found a local supplier with a band under 10deg (not that ive REALLY looked hard)
But I suspect, a 7deg or so running sharp and most of my troubled would disappear.

the good news for me is i've fine tuned my sharpening and setting skills a lot better, so i'm getting my other bands ready because next week i've got the entire week booked milling LOTs of eucalypts (softer younger ones) so I suspect I will power through them much better now  :D

I tempted to try more set and see if it helps that last little bit, anyone think that's a good idea?
the sawdust was heavy on the board and fairly packed, so that would suggest more set I think?

Cheers
Justin

[5quarter]

Justin...That's great news.  8) 8) I knew you'd figure it out. You can try a little more set, but remember that more set equals more sawdust, and a wider kerf means more HP needed to make the cut. also means you need wider, thicker bands to compensate for the added stress on the band body. I've used as much as .032" set, but it was cutting some wide, knotty, pitchy pine. Try .026" or .027" set and see if you hit the sweet spot.
   More set may help keep the blade from rubbing on the packed sawdust, or you may have even more spillout. But either way it's still a problem. WM has a new 7° Blade out with a deeper gullet, similar to the Cooks SS profile that may clean that problem up.
The more you experiment in search of a better cut, the better sawyer you become.  ;)
   

[JustinW_NZ]

Thanks for the encouragement!

yes, I'm keen to try the new WM turbo bands but have to wait two months for them to get to NZ sadly.
I am running the lombardini diesel engine which is 35 odd horsepower I think, so it should have enuf grunt I think?

I'm using 1.5 by .45 bands so there are fairly tough I think.

Cheers
Justin