WM Turbo 747 blades

[Patrick NC]

Has anyone with a low horsepower mill tried using turbo747 blades? I've heard some conflicting stories about hp requirements. My mill is 14 hp and I've been running timbery 9° blades with pretty good results in softwood,  but struggling in hardwood and wider cuts. WM has them in 132" that fit my mill, but I'd hate to waste the money if I don't have the power to pull them.

[SawyerTed]

When I took delivery on my mill, Joe insisted that I spent 30 minutes with the Resharp guys learning about blades.  If you didn't get a chance to talk to them, I suggest you give them a call.  Then balance what 5hey say with what you learn here.

[Bruno of NH]

I ran a 13hp mill (my first mill)
I used ripper 37 bands in 7° and cut lots of hardwood with great results.
Also 4° Kasco bands also.
That mill would cut 30" between the guides.

[caveman]

When we were using a 25 Kohler, we got best results with Kasco or WM 4° bands.  We were interested in sawing flat lumber more than sawing fast lumber.  The 4° blades cut heart pine, live oak and Ipe flatter than  any other profile that we used.  We only tried one 7° on that mill but hit a screw before we could give it a good test.  For what it is worth, we ordered another box of 4° blades today to saw live oak, hickory and heart pine even though we have more HP available now.  There are others who have sawn a lot more BF but this has been my experience.

[ladylake]

We were interested in sawing flat lumber more than sawing fast lumber.

 That's what I like to hear.   Steve

[dgdrls]

Has anyone with a low horsepower mill tried using turbo747 blades? I've heard some conflicting stories about hp requirements. My mill is 14 hp and I've been running timbery 9° blades with pretty good results in softwood,  but struggling in hardwood and wider cuts. WM has them in 132" that fit my mill, but I'd hate to waste the money if I don't have the power to pull them.

Patrick NC,
would you further detail what "struggling in hardwoods and wider cuts." has been for you.
Its not always the tooth angle that creates challenges,

D

[Hoopty5.0]

I use them with 16hp and a slipping clutch that I need to replace. I saw very slowly as I'm interested more in flat cuts than speed. Results are usually always great, I imagine they will improve drastically as soon as I convert to a direct drive.

[Patrick NC]

Has anyone with a low horsepower mill tried using turbo747 blades? I've heard some conflicting stories about hp requirements. My mill is 14 hp and I've been running timbery 9° blades with pretty good results in softwood,  but struggling in hardwood and wider cuts. WM has them in 132" that fit my mill, but I'd hate to waste the money if I don't have the power to pull them.

Patrick NC,
would you further detail what "struggling in hardwoods and wider cuts." has been for you.
Its not always the tooth angle that creates challenges,

D

When I try to cut chestnut oak or any white oak that's wider than 8 inches I get some wavy cuts. I've tried debarking,  changing to a new blade,  checked alignment and guides. WM even suggested raising the torque on the tensioning but to 45 foot pounds  from 42. Raising the tension helped a little.  When I cut softer woods like pine or tulip poplar it cuts straight as an arrow,  even in cuts up to 20" wide. 

[dgdrls]

Has anyone with a low horsepower mill tried using turbo747 blades? I've heard some conflicting stories about hp requirements. My mill is 14 hp and I've been running timbery 9° blades with pretty good results in softwood,  but struggling in hardwood and wider cuts. WM has them in 132" that fit my mill, but I'd hate to waste the money if I don't have the power to pull them.

Patrick NC,
would you further detail what "struggling in hardwoods and wider cuts." has been for you.
Its not always the tooth angle that creates challenges,

D

When I try to cut chestnut oak or any white oak that's wider than 8 inches I get some wavy cuts. I've tried debarking,  changing to a new blade,  checked alignment and guides. WM even suggested raising the torque on the tensioning but to 45 foot pounds  from 42. Raising the tension helped a little.  When I cut softer woods like pine or tulip poplar it cuts straight as an arrow,  even in cuts up to 20" wide.

Do you know what the teeth are set at?   when you saw the oaks is there packed or loose sawdust left on the log?

[Patrick NC]

Loose sawdust. Teeth are set at whatever factory set from woodmizer is.

[JamieK]

I called WM a few weeks ago asking the same question. They told me it is not good for  25 hp and under but the website says "25+". Wouldn't that mean to include 25hp? I hear alot of good pertaining to this blade and would also like to get a good answer to your question.

Concerning wavy cuts. I used to get them also then learned that if your feed rate is too slow it will cause the waves. I cranked up the feed rate cutting hard maple to as fast as it will cut without stalling the motor and I now have perfect cuts using 9° blades

[barbender]

Check your drive belt tension.

[dgdrls]

Standard 7 degree vs Turbo 7 or stick with 10? in Sawmills and Milling

More on T-7's, and 7's,

you'll find tooth set makes a difference
as well, depending on how hard or soft your
logs are, 

D

[PAmizerman]

We were interested in sawing flat lumber more than sawing fast lumber.

That's what I like to hear.   Steve

Is it too much to ask for both?
With the new 7/47 it is achievable

[caveman]

I have a 7/47 sample band that I will put to the test with either longleaf pine heartwood, hickory or live oak.  My intuition tells me that a 4°, 1.5", .050 will saw all of these flatter.  

[richhiway]

I have 26.5 h.p. use 9* in pine 4* in hardwoods.

7* in frozen pine, pine and some hardwoods. When the nines wear out I am replacing them with turbo 7's

loose drive belts and too slow a feed rate seem to be two common problems with bad cuts.
Woodmizer manual tells you to cut as fast as you can because cutting to slow causes the blade to heat up and does not remove the sawdust from the cut well. After some experience you can hear that the engine is under some load in the cut,without loosing rpm, that is your "sweetspot" 

[Oddman]

I recently got a couple 747's to try and honestly wasn't impressed. Not that they cut badly but they were no improvement over my normal 10 degree bands from timberwolf. They left a rougher finish and didn't cut any faster/flatter that I could tell. This is a 24hp manual mill cutting hardwood.