Resawing 12x12 bridge beams

[Crossroads]

Tuesday I'm doing a job sawing a bunch of 12x12x16' beams from a bridge. I have a box of 7* bands and 2 boxes of 4* bands. If I understand correctly, the 7's are made for sawing dry reclaimed lumber. Sounds like I'll be cutting 1x12's, any tips or suggestions? I've not cut dry reclaimed wood before, should I feed it slow, or push it a bit? Thanks! Kevin

[terrifictimbersllc]

I use 4 degree bands almost exclusively to resaw dry timbers.   Never thought of 7s being best suited for that purpose.   Talking about Woodmizer double hard blades 045 x 1-1/4"

[Kbeitz]

I would think they would be full of dirt....

[Magicman]

Are these creosote bridge timbers?     If so you will have much more to think about than which blade to use.

[Crossroads]

I hadn't thought of them being full of dirt, I better take lots of blades.

I asked about them being treated and the gentleman claims that they're not treated.

4's are my favorite blade as well. I guess I'll try both and see which works best in this application. 

[Southside]

If that's an old logging bridge they won't be timbers full of dirt, rather they will be dirt with some wood fiber holding the timbers together.  Seriously the rock dust gets pushed a long way into the wood.  I do some reclaimed for a customer - but no bridge timbers - slow and lots of water as dry white oak is hard on bands.  Personally on my saw turbos work better than 4's on that stuff, I did not think that would be the case. 

[Crossroads]

I might have to talk the guy into taking 1 board off, then roll it it give me a clean entry.

[Brad_bb]

Since you're in Oregon I'm guessing they'll be Doug Fir??  l
If they are Creosote, Don't even bother.  It's not worth the lung damage and cancer.  Do not be breathing that stuff if it's Creosote.

If they aren't treated, you may want to skin all four sides and then saw the cant.  If there's any stress left you may need to alternate your cuts.  It'll just be an experiment until you get more info.

What about Nails and hardware?  Are you metal detecting and being paid for that time and de-nailing?  I spent two months denailing 100 timbers before ever laying a blade to them.  Even after we metal detected the heck out of them, some nails still snuck by and we found them with the mill.

[Crossroads]

The guy claims that they're not treated. If I show up to find them treated, I'll walk away. He says he's had some sawn before and there wasn't any metal. I'll probably take the metal detector anyway. I'm charging by the hour on this one and my time will start when the first cut starts and ends when the last board comes off the mill. Hopefully there isn't much stress, only time will tell. Oh, your correct, they are Doug fir.

[Peter Drouin]

If was me my time will start when I drive in on the job and stop when I get in the truck to go home. + $40.00 a blade.
And I can't tell you how many times I heard, No nails in the wood.  :D :D

[Crossroads]

I charge a set up/travel fee, so my set up and tear down are both covered. I do only charge $25 per metal strike though and that's a carryover from the old mill. This spring I'll probably bump that up since that price barely covers a new blade fore the wide head.

[Jim_Rogers]

Plan on using lots of lube on your blade to keep it clean and cool.
I like to saw one face and then roll so you enter that face.

Jim Rogers

[Crossroads]

Ended up cutting those beams today instead of yesterday. It went pretty well. The customer had a handheld metal detector that worked really well when he used it while the mill wasn't running. After 3 nail strikes in a short time, he started being pretty diligent about getting the nails out. As mentioned about the beams did have dirt impregnated and was pretty hard on blades. Ended up cutting just over 4800 board feet of 1x. In the future I'll definitely add a fee for dirty dry wood. The 7* blades cut really well right up until they don't lol.