Questions about edger operation

[Remle]

 I'm thinking of purchasing a Corley 14 ", 2 blade edger. The seller says that it has new teeth recently installed, but that it seems to have excessive tear out on the bottom surface of the edged material. My question is, do edgers normally have tear out of this sort or is their something wrong with the machine that can be adjusted to eliminate the excessive tear out ? It currently is powered by a 220 volt electric motor, would  speed affect the tear out, if so what speed should it be running at?  I plan on looking at this in the next couple of days and would appreciate any in site from those who run an edger as what to look for. Thanks..

[customsawyer]

I have run a few smaller edgers but none of them have had the tear out that you mention. I don't what would cause this but I would start looking at the blade speed vs. the feed speed.

[ellmoe]

   If the teeth are sharp, then I do believe Custom Sawyer has identified the likely cause. Increase speed of blades, or slow down feed rate and see what happens.
Mark

[Corley5]

It sounds like it's underpowered too.  How many Hp is the 220V motor? 

[drobertson]

sounds like feeds and speeds to me as well,  220v, but what hp?      david

[Remle]

Gentlemen, Thank you for replying, at this time I've not been able to go see the edger so I don't know the HP of the motor. I have my fathers hand held RPM meter which should give me an idea as to the blade speed. I will post back when I have more information, again thank you.

[shelbycharger400]

How many teeth are in that blade too, or if it has the correct ones,  ie ripping or cross cut blades

[beenthere]

The seller says that it has new teeth recently installed, but that it seems to have excessive tear out on the bottom surface of the edged material.

Check that these are the right teeth or even the right saws for that edger.

And check what is meant by "excessive" tear out. May be normal for a rough cut edger.

[Ron Wenrich]

Usually, the feed rate is factored in with the RPM on a self feeding edger.  You line your cut up, stick it in the edger, and the feed rolls will feed it at the set speed.  You would have to change some gearing to change the feed rate. 

You should have 5 hp per inch of material per saw.  So, if you're running 1" boards, you should have 10 hp.  You can probably get away with less, but that's the rule of thumb. 

What are you trying to cut?

[Remle]

Update on the edger as it stands after seeing it. I passed on buying the edger, the tear out was as told by the seller was excessive as he stated over the phone. Metering the RPM's, the blade shaft was about 750 and the feed roller feed shaft about 175. Their was no plate on the motor to tell what it's rpm was and I wasn't about to climb in between the belts and blades to find out. What I did find was the teeth were set at different heights, some as much as 1/4" as you go around the blade. I would think this would cause some real stress problems with the blade shaft, could it have bent it ? The only way to know for sure would be to pull it check it, to see if it is strait. In addition one of the babbitt bearings had been replaced with a pillow block bearing. I'm sure some one could put it back into working condition, but that some one is not me. Again thank you all for responding..

[backwoods sawyer]

My Cooks edger has a flow control to adjust the feed rate from zero to full speed.

Sounds like teeth placement would be the issue with the tear out,
When i bought the edger it had a bent arbor, Still cut fine but had a bad vibration and the movable saw would not move,

Worked in the carbide shop for a while, we were running thin kerf saws in the 4" and 6" sherman edgers. Tooth placement was critical and done under a video microscope. then placed in a computerized grinder to insure all teeth were the same hight and width,