Do wide boards really take longer?

[Dave Shepard]

I didn't want to hijack the Price per hour thread. I make a lot of wide pine boards on our Manual Wood Mizer, and it is when I am sawing out wide boards from big logs that I make my highest bdft/hour. I know it can take a while to shave a 150 feet of boards off the side of a 32"+x 16'-18' log, maybe an hour, but once you get a roughly 22"x24" tall cant, you can turn out many times that in the next hour. I have averaged over 400 feet an hour on these big logs( and gone in the other direction when they are just a little too big  ;) )

I know I have to slow down some for the wide cuts. I know that I can cut pine easily at 30 fpm for a 10" wide cut, but I can also cut 20" at about 20 fpm, maybe a little better. That isn't half the speed, and less handling time for 20" boards. This is just my experience with the mill I am running. I would like to hear from other people what their experience has been cutting wide boards, and what they are cutting them on.


Dave

[MikeH]

 I was cutting a large frozen hard maple today that made a 24" cant and put my first 4 degree blade on I've ever used and it was amazing. I could go through at a good clip without waves and thats hard to do on maple.

[Dave Shepard]

I like the 4° DoubleHards too. Used a whole box last winter during a couple of weeks when it was a little too cold to be sawing. :D I find my feed rates are slower when sawing thawed out pine, however.


Dave

[moonhill]

Dave, wide pine is delicious.  I find 12' logs are just about right.  I have to turn manually.  On really big 20"or larger I use the forklift and straps, and lift and roll in one turn,  this goes for long stock as well 30'-40'ers.   Working alone is a drag,  I try to find help on the big stuff.  When I go to the local lumber store and look at the pine in stock, I think, wow, how people are limited to what they have avaliable.  I sheathed the side of my mill building with 16' x 24" vertical pine,  thats equal to a sheet of ply-wood.  I installed it myself with a block and lever.   One log covered the whole 60' wall with extra boards.  How do you put a price on that?  So I am not keeping track of how long it takes to saw wide boards, it's my educated guess, that I turn out more BF with in the wide stuff but I don't have exact numbers to back this up.  I find a compromise some where around 20" topped logs yield the quickest BF yields/hr, sawing 16" wide boards.  Next winter I may try this 4 degree blade stuff.  Tim B.

[woodmills1]

It seems certain logs at certain diameters will cut much faster than others.  I do think wider boards give more bd ft per time as long as the log isn't so large that there are lots of wide flitches to edge.  Flipping those can turn into a time consuming finger pinching exercise.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Wide boards may make the bdft per cut higher and there are times when it makes the per hour tally better.  But if you are sawing all day and have to handel 1x24x16' boards from 30 inch logs your footage will have dropped.  Also if you are sawing a target size, like 1x12 ,you have to plan your cuts different to get there.  Now if I am cutting 1x10x12 from 18"x12' logs I am in the range where I can cut the most with the less effort.  Extra wide flitchings take longer to edge and large logs make for more edging which if you do on the mill cuts you tally.
  I try not to run logs larger then 24 inches through the main line during production.  I saw them later or on Wanda.  Logs 12 to 20 inches on the main line make the most bdftage per hour then any thing else.
  When you look at Manufacturs specs they often give their bdft per hour with 12 ft logs in the 16 to 18 inch range.  Swing mills are different as the larger the log the longer they can cut and since all boads are edged on the log and are not very wide the make up tally by cutting down and back.

  Even LBJ loves wide boards.

[beav39]

i do well with wide boards as long as the log is good enough to set up for them meaning that if i have to mess around with edging or turning .depends on the log for me ,