Everything was going so good. Cutting sasifrass and cherry. My wife was off-bearing, everything was going ABCDEFG and then I saw a spark and another. The next cut the blade went limp and started rubbing the guide. It was getting dark anyway, so I'll just come home and watch the game. I will say, I've cut alot of wood so far, and this is the first hardware. Just wanted to vent.
Woody
yah...I was zzipping off some 2x6 earlier today and skinned the top of one of my dogs...didn't do much to the blade but knock the set out of a couple teeth and make the blade sing funny...it was already dull anyhow...needed an excuse to change it.
Woody1, That is a very strange story. I am not saying I don't believe it, just that it sounds kind of unusual Hitting the nail is common, but having the wife off-bearing is not something that happens very often. :o ;D
There are a few of us lucky sawyers on here. She like doing it and I like having her there ! ;) ;)
Mine does it 5 days a week. Of course I have to pay her then I have to pay her again but that is all in the price of sawmilling. If you ask Dang or WDH they would tell you I got a bargin. I tend to agree.
and then there is Bibby and the head sawyer at his place.
Quote from: customsawyer on October 22, 2008, 08:03:18 PM
If you ask Dang or WDH they would tell you I got a bargin.
DanG right ;D.
My wife does 90% of the off-bearing.
It's great having her at the sawmill all day.
I feel very lucky having a wife who wants to be with me 24-7!
Woody, I wish I could tell you thats the last tramp your going to hit,but that would trash the little respectability I have now.Depending how you hit them nails are not the end of the world,hit at right angle 16d and under not bad.Run upon parallel they mess up your set on one side.RRspikes,insulators, fence hardware,barbed wire,and drywall screws bad[ask Pineywoods].Nails if not too bad check for metal burr stuck to the face of the tooth flip it off with your jack knife straighten bent teeth.Frank C.
If your saw went limp and moved over to the guides, you have taken the corners off of the log side of the saw. Your saw started to cut out, due to one side of the tooth being longer than the other side, and that opened up your saw and heated it up down around the eye. The heat caused it to get limp.
It may only be a few of the teeth that have lost the corners. You'll have to swage the tooth out or change them. Swaging is a quick fix if there isn't too much steel that's lost. Use the spider gauge to get your corners even.
Was this one of your logs, or are you cutting someone else's?
Ron..You are dead on, of course. ;D. I resharpened and used your spider gauge at noon today. A couple of the teeth are cornerless. I am going to try my hand at swaging this weekend. I have new bits, but I want to play with this and see how it comes out. The logs were a deal with a guy who had a bunch of firewood right along the road. I didn't need it , but he said take all you want..Ok. Well, he need a few logs cut, What abunch of junk. Two t-tag loads of junk. But, a deals a deal. I an about done with them. I told Hunny " If I can cut this, I can cut anything". I'll get a picture of it tommorrow and post it. you won't believe it.
Woody
Just remember that you want to swage from the center of the bit, not the corners. If you swage on the corners, they'll just break off.
I think I need aroad trip for some schoolin'. :P :P
Sorry woody,I thought you were talking band blade.I'am no authority on swageing but I know you must have a sharp edge to swage a dull blunt tooth takes too much force which is hard on the saws shoulders.Frank C.
Quote from: Ron Wenrich on October 23, 2008, 06:56:01 PM
Just remember that you want to swage from the center of the bit, not the corners. If you swage on the corners, they'll just break off.
I swaged corners for years and it served me well, unless I don't understand the term. :) I struck the swedge twice per tooth. sliding it from one side of the toot hto the other for the alternating strikes. I have a link somewhere to how I did it. I'll see if I can find it.
Here it is. :)
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,5106.0.html
The swage should be used by spreading the steel from the middle of the tooth outwards. I have seen lots of guys use that method and had used that when I first started. After I started to swage from the center of the tooth, they held up better.
That's not to say that you can't swage your corners. But, that makes the steel thin. The corners is what does all the cutting, so you want it as heavy as possible.
Maybe I got away with it because we sawed only exclusively debarked logs? In fact, the mill shut down whenever the debarker happen to brake down as you couldn't get logs past it.
I don't know anything about Aspen, but that may have been a factor as well. A steady diet of Hickory might have made a difference.
Thanks Jeff and Ron. ;)
.................Just wanted to say I'm enjoying the circle mill talk keep it up please............. ;D
Captain
Quote from: DanG on October 24, 2008, 12:11:40 PM
I don't know anything about Aspen, but that may have been a factor as well. A steady diet of Hickory might have made a difference.
I sawed a high % of aspen, but also sawed red oak, white oak, sugar maple, beech, hickory and other dense hardwoods on a regular basis. A steady diet if you will, but feasting on aspen. :)
I love cutting cherry. We have been cutting some walnut, but it smell gets to me.
Jeff I wish I could see your swaging technique better.
Woody
I thought I had never hit a nail...I laid out a 1x6 I had cut for some sub-flooring...1 nail sheared
perfectly flush in the board...but no damage to the blade..it's the one I skimmed the top of the dog
with, and the only damage to it was a couple teeth out of set. Wierd.
The corner to corner method of swaging is simply put the swage over to the right as far as you can and hit it. Then move to the left as far as you can and hit it. It takes that "U" shape of the swage right on the corners. You can flare them out pretty well. It also wears out the edges of the swage. Then you have to flip the swage over and square it off.
Ron or Jeff,is it better to use a light hammer and a fast hit or a heavier hammer and a light hit when swaging.Hardest thing to bring myself to pound on a saw. Frank C.
I use a 2 lb "baby sledge" for my mill hammer. You don't have to hit it really hard like you're driving in a nail. But, you don't want to give it a light tap, either. I hit it one shot, than turn the swage over to square it off. Teeth that are broken on the corners will take a little more work.
One thing you have to watch is that you don't have your swage pulled back too hard or pushed down too hard. That will either pull the tip of the bit back or push it forward. Then you'll end up filing it off to straighten it out. You'll be able to feel if its a good hit.
One side of my swage is hour glass shaped, the other side is a rectangle. I imagine the hour glass side is to swage the sides ?
The hour glass spreads your tooth, the rectangle side is to square it off after you have it spread.
I never used the flat side, ever. I used the hour glass side only. Anything else in my opinion would be unnecessary. Slide the swage to one side smack slide the other side smack. Go around the saw then sharpen. Never had a problem. The jockey squares the tooth.
woody1 if you look at the videos on that thread I linked to, you can see the size of hammer I used. I don't know the weight, but it was a ball-peen. My mill hammer that no one was allowed to use but me. It was the most perfect hammer I ever found and was not about to let it get away from me. :) (It stayed with the mill when I left though) You can also see about how hard I was striking. Mostly the weight of the hammer plus a tad.
I feel a road trip coming up. 8) 8) 8)
One way or the other we are getting together. I think I have a Cobelas girt certificate.
If I can just sell ONE more board....I am on my way ! :D :D
I like this swage talk,the new shanks [#33] I found for my old disston 48" headsaw have a wide shoulder and I'll have to keep the corners of the tooth wider.I have never done much swaging was spoiled rotten ,alot of friends in Fitchburg Ma. Frank C.
Frank.. I am using #33 also. I like Jeffs video, it gives a better idea of what Ron and him are talking about.
Woody