I asked some questions about sawing frozen wood a few weeks back and I've been sawing poplar ever since with no problems except for dealing with the frozen sawdust. I'm spending more time scraping off the frozen sawdust than sawing the boards! I'm using an old metal framing square as a scraper and I'm thinking it would be worth the time to weldup a tool just for this job. Any suggestions?
Quinton
What's to prevent the buildup inside the cut? That's where the problem arises. Are you cleaning the inside of the cut with a framing square or the outside of the board that has just been cut?
The frozen sawdust is the problem. Your logs are not entirely frozen. What is happening is that the frozen sawdust from the outer section of the tree is freezing to the unfrozen wood on the inner portion or vice versa depending on the time of year.
I run a circle mill and find that the most problems I have with poplar is the logs that have been laying on the ground. They seem to get so much colder than the others. Also, logs that have been laying on the deck will have problems after a very cold night.
In a couple of weeks, it'll all be behind us (I hope).
Hey Ron,
I'm cleaning the board after it's been cut. It's not too bad when I have a helper but since my wife and daughter have gone back to Texas, I'm working on my own most of the time. Two people can get four times as much work done as one person working alone...it's a lot more fun too!
I'm going back to Texas next Monday for a few weeks and hopefully when I return it'll be SPRING!!!
Quinton
I sweep the sawed board and the cant as soon as I pull the board. Very little sawdust freezes on the wood that way. But yesterday it was 45 F here so there was no problems. 8) Do you use windshield antifreeze in your lube tank? ??? That may help.
Joe
I've never had problems with sawdust after the board is sawn. But, I'm sawing on the vertical, not the horizontal. Seems to me that if you put the board on the side and just drop the end that should cause the dust to fall off. I know my dust falls off well before it gets to the green chain, just from handling.
Like Qweaver, we were sawing poplar Sunday morning when it was 14 degrees. :o :o :o And the biggest problem we had was the saw dust freezing to the board before we could clean it off. We sawed it with no lub. I hate to see what it would have been like if we had the lub running. With the wind blowing could we get/keep it running, me thinks not. :D :D :D
Bruce
Qweaver,
The handiest tool I have found to clean frozen sawdust off the boards is a cement finishing trowel. You can get them in lengths ranging from 10" to 14".
The cause of all that packed sawdust is too much set in the blade. In frozen wood lower sets produce less sawdust. The blade gullets are able to carry most of the sawdust out of the cut. If your using WM blades their factory sets can range from 20 thou to as high as 28thou depending on tooth profile and blade thickness. In completely frozen wood I've have used as little as 10 thou set. Straight cuts and clean boards. For the past two weeks I've been cutting Red Oak and running my blades at 15 thou. Very little dust left on the boards. If I set them up to 20 thou I'm getting too much sawdust freezing back to the boards and I have to scrape the dust off the boards. >:( >:( >:( The ability to change sets is one of the many reasons why I have my own sharpener and setter.
Hey Bruce, I was sawing Sunday as well and with the temps in the teens in the morning I couldn't keep the lube tank valve from freezing up. I proceeded with no lube but made narrower cuts to keep less blade in the wood and prevent heat buildup (swingmill). Seemed to work very well. So that had me wondering what others do in very cold weather. Is lube really necessary on frozen wood? Are there any other tips or concerns with milling this way? The frozen white oak I was sawing seemed to cut very well.