Frozen Maple

[catvet]

Newbie question.

Just got a Timberking 1220 last week.  First mill.  Sawed a couple of 10" pine logs to sort of get the feel of it.  I then had a 27" sugar maple that I was going to work on.  I got basically no where with it.  blade would go in about 2" on the butt and basically not cut any more. 

Should I be surprised?  It's been in the 0 degree range at night and up to 20 during the day for the last week or so.

Thanks

Jerry

[Max sawdust]

Jerry,
Welcome to a great forum, I am sure someone with the same mill as yours will come along with the answer but in the mean time here is my experience with frozen wood. ;D
I am not familiar with the Timberking you have but I have a little old Woodmizer LT15 with a 15HP gas engine, and I cut 20 plus inch frozen oak and aspen at zero degrees all the time with no problem.  Even with a dull band  or too high a feed rate I will just get a wandering wavy cut but never not be able to cut.

Sounds like something is wrong with the set up of the mill.  It is not the frozen logs in my opinion.

Max

[Jeff]

Sugar Maple can be hard hard hard! I'm not the one to tell you what set or angle or anything to use, but I would say if this log is not fresh cut, and you have the length to spare, bop off the first 2 or 3 inches of the log with a chainsaw and try it.

[KLH]

Jerry,

I also have a LT 15 and pretty limited experience with it. Three possible causes come to mind. To check all 3 just watch how the blade is turning.

1. Clutch is slipping. Mind would cut fine on 8 to 10 inch logs and blade would just stop on larger logs. I would guess that this is your problem. Easy adjustment on a Wood-Mizer, but I am not familiar with the 1220.
2. Make sure you not hitting something. Blade will run fine. Pretty simplistic answer, but it has happened to me a couple of times mainly from the adjustable blade guide hitting something.
3. You are hitting metal. I only did this once and the blade still turned but seemed to slow some and sound changed. The blade had to be changed.

Ken

[Norm]

I agree on sugar maple being hard, first time I cut one I thought wow hard stuff, no wonder they call it rock maple. You've probably checked but the first time I had a blade turned inside out it went about an inch into the wood and just sat there and smoked. Make sure your drive belt has the proper tension too. Try a new blade after getting rid of the first few inches of that log and see what happens.

[catvet]

Thanks for the feedback.  It's supposed to warm up in a couple of days so I'll see if that helps.  Also I'll try a different blade.  It is not fresh cut so I'll try taking some off the end.  Any feeling for how much to cut?  It's a very long piece.  Probably about 5 feet.  It was cut back in October and has been sitting under a tarp since.

Jerry

[Sawyerfortyish]

I agree maple can get hard but in the six months since it's been cut I don't think it dryed that much in the winter months to stop your saw . I think like someone else suggested dull blade,metal or slipping clutch or something catching and stopping your saw. I'm sawing about 12000 ft of low grade maple right now that was cut about the same time yours was. I'm useing a circle mill and my biggest problem is the frozen mud on them but still cut about half the pile in a day.