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Blade Band Width

Started by MartyParsons, May 15, 2007, 09:52:31 PM

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MartyParsons

Just a thought, What blade width works the best for you and why? I have always used the 1 1/4 width and have moved customers that direction. Are their good results on a wider blade? We now have a 1 3/4" width blade available.  ???

I realy like .055 1 1/4 width. 9 degree hook angle. This would be 34 hp and higher mills. .045 1 1/4" on the 7 hp to 28 hp mills. LT70 mill I like the  1 1/2" .055 10 degree and the 1 1/4" .055 9 degree on the White Oak or frozen logs.

What do you use?
"A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty." -Winston Churchill

Bibbyman

We tried a box of .045x1.5 Wood-Mizer Silvertips.   They cut right through hard spots better than .045 x 1.25s but don't have the sharp life of the DoubleHards. 

They are a lot softer blade and looks like they're going to last for more re-sharps. We decided we'd go for a second box.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Tom

I use 1 1/4" blades too. Mainly because they work and I never have been able to justify a wider blade to myself.

Most of my sawing is in cypress and pine, so my standard blade is a 7/8 pitch with a 13° rake.   I buy a normal 10° and change it on the first sharpening.  Either of these will do a good job.

jpgreen

I've found with my limited experience, the thicker 1.5's robbed at least 1/3 of my 27hp cutting speed, and when I went to thinner 1.25's, the up in production was dramatic. I'm running the same as Tom - 7/8 @ 13dgrs, and that seems the ticket for PRK woods.

The wider blades do not seem to be as finicky if they loose a little set, and cut truer, as I found when the 1.25s get out of whack the slightest, they start to wave.

Interesting Bibby mentioned softness, as I sharpened a guys WM blade recently, and could tell the blade was softer, and the steel seemed to sharpen faster than the blades I have. I don't know what manufacture my blades are, as they were all used and came with the mill.  I'm assuming WM, now I'm not so sure...  :P
-95 Wood-Mizer LT40HD 27 Hp Kawasaki water cooled engine-

MartyParsons

The Wood-Mizer blades will have a stamp beside the weld with serial #. When the blade was produced and they have strict measurments. They take samples of blades at a certin intervial and document the information so if there is a issue they know where to start.
They also do a Test called Green Tag and put it on a mill and make three cuts and document the information on how it cut, at what speed etc. Then do all of the measurements again.
Silver tip blades are designed primarlily for use as a resaw blade. It contains a higher carbon less expensive steel. The Silver tip blade has a softer body than the Double Hard. Induction Hardning of the tooth tips makes the steel harder. This gives the potential for a longer sharp life out of the box. The hardness is not as deep on the Silver Tip so you may not get the multiple resharpenings. Due to the fact the Silver tip blades contain less alloy the flexlife will not stand up as long as the Double Hard Blades.
"A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty." -Winston Churchill

Brucer

I use WoodMizer Double Hards, 1-1/4" x 0.045 with a 10 degree angle. All my sawing is in western softwoods.

Making wide cuts in a Douglas-Fir would often give me a rippled surface, so I tried a 1-1/2" x .055 blade. The 28 HP motor seemed to drive it OK, but it didn't improve things much.

I finally clued in (thanks to advise from FF members), and started pushing the saw harder through the wood. Faster cutting = more cutting time before the blade dulls; sharp blade = less ripple. I realize now that my saw wasn't working very hard when I tried out the thicker blade. 28 HP wouldn't be enough for the thicker blades at my present cutting speed.

My next mill will have a diesel and then I'll probably switch to the wider, thicker blades.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

footer

Quote from: MartyParsons on May 16, 2007, 01:21:57 PM
The Wood-Mizer blades will have a stamp beside the weld with serial #. When the blade was produced and they have strict measurments.


So Marty,  Can  we find out from that serial number what blade we have? If it is a double hard, or silver tip, and the thickness. I have seemed to mix up a lot of used blades, and I know some of the older ones are silver tips, and don't want to send any of them back to get sharpened. I also have some old .042 blades that I don't want to get resharpened.

MartyParsons

The Silver Tip blades are manufactured out of bronze colored steel ,after the sharpening the tips are silver. The serial # will not tell you what blade you have, as far as I know. You can measure the thickness with a Mic..
I will pull a Silver Tip blade out later today and post to see how much difference in the color. I never paid much attention.
Marty
"A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty." -Winston Churchill

pineywoods

I stay with doublehard ,1.25 ,045 20 thou set. On the first sharpening I increase the rake to 15 deg.  works pretty good on dead pine. I used the 042 for a long time. Like the 045 better because they hold the set longer. Usually reset ever 4th sharpening.
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

LeeB

IS it neccesary to change the blade guides to run the 1 1/2" blades or will the 1 1/4" guides work?
  LeeB ???
'98 LT40HDD/Lombardini, Case 580L, Cat D4C, JD 3032 tractor, JD 5410 tractor, Husky 346, 372 and 562XP's. Stihl MS180 and MS361, 1998 and 2006 3/4 Ton 5.9 Cummins 4x4's, 1989 Dodge D100 w/ 318, and a 1966 Chevy C60 w/ dump bed.

Fla._Deadheader


On Homey, it doesn't matter. We have a couple of WM 1½" blades we use on knotty(er) Pine. Same guide setting as the 1¼".
All truth passes through three stages:
   First, it is ridiculed;
   Second, it is violently opposed; and
   Third, it is accepted as self-evident.

-- Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860)

TexasTimbers

Quote from: Tom on May 15, 2007, 10:50:45 PM. . . . Most of my sawing is in cypress and pine . . . .

Well that's odd. I wasn't aware that you do any sawing at all. When did you come out of retirement ???  And I'd like to know what you are using to saw with - that old chainsaw you dug out of the trash. :D ;)
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

cut2size

A couple of weeks ago, I dug out some old 036" blades from a box that must be 10 years old.  I sharpened and set the blades and used them.  I was very surprised.  Cutting cherry and locust they did an excellent job (smooth and straight).  Do they still make the 036's?  I usually use 041 Monkey saver blades with great success. but I have some 042 and 045 woodmizer blades that still cut pretty well.  I do not see much difference in the 042s and 045s and I have never tried the 050s or 055s.  I would like to have some more of the 036s.  The cherry looked like it had ben planed with a finish planer.
David
cut2size

Cypress Man

Hi everyone,

    I use the 1 1/4 x .055's on my 25Hp 3-phase electric Lt40.  Out of the box they will cut 1,000bf but I can only sharpen them once.  After the first sharpening they will cut another 500 - 800bf then break.  You can probably get more flex life using the .045 but I rather the increased speed in cutting with the .055.
LT70 wide head electric, IC5 Power conveyor, transfer table, Stop and Load Log Deck, Catapiller 360B Telehandler, Cat tl642c Teleloader, Cat TH514 Telehandler, Woodmizer EG400 edger, Logosol PH360 moulder, Extrema 26" Planner, Grizzly 16" dual conveyor resaw, Prentice 285 log loader

FiremanEd

Quote from: LeeB on May 19, 2007, 11:18:55 AM
IS it neccesary to change the blade guides to run the 1 1/2" blades or will the 1 1/4" guides work?
  LeeB ???

Not really. We got a couple 1 1/4'' roller guides by accident. We put them on, as they were all I had left when I found the mistake, and they did fine.
Full time Firefighter / Paramedic
WoodMizer LT300 as secondary, full time job.
AccuTrac Electric Edger

FiremanEd

Marty,

Howdy, Haven't been on here much lately.

On the LT300 and LT70 (electric) we did a lot of trial and error cutting all hardwoods. 90%oak, 10% mixed. We settled on 1 1/2" .055" double hard's with the 4degree angle. They give us the same saw speed and last 1/2 or more longer per sharpening than the 9 or 10 degree blades. We tried a couple boxes of the Silvertips but they didn't hold up to the pace. They all broke by the run following the 2nd sharpening, about 1/2 after the 1st sharpening. The Doublehards generally go 3 or more sharpenings, for 4+ runs.

We also have them set a little heavy at .022'' set year round.

We're going through about 40-50 blades a week with new ones mixed in to replace the culls.

Eddie
Full time Firefighter / Paramedic
WoodMizer LT300 as secondary, full time job.
AccuTrac Electric Edger

MartyParsons

Wood-Mizer Makes a 1 1/2 " wide roller, they are not needed if you have the e-z glide blocks under the blade by the roller. Most customers use the narrow roller, My personal prefference is the narrow roller A04925 but we see a few 1 1/2 rollers out there even on the LT70. You really need to watch if you are running the wide roller that you do not roll the set out of the blades.
Hey Fireman ED.
Cypress Man, try to change the blade a little sooner 800 bd/ft? You may get a longer run time on the blade. The blade cracks at the gullett when the blade is Re Sharpened we grind the gullett to remove the crack and extend the flex life. Might be worth the try? Wood-Mizer recomends a two hour run time on the .055.
Marty
"A pessimist sees difficulty in every opportunity; an optimist sees opportunity in every difficulty." -Winston Churchill

Kansas

We never noticed much improvement as far as stability with the 055 compared to the 045 on our LT 40. That was with the 1 1/2 " wide.  We did notice much faster blade breakage. I do think you can push the 055 a little farther dull, which certainly contributes to early blade breakage. I also think the wheels arent quite big enough on an LT 40 to get a lot of sharpenings out of a 055 blade. We have been trying the new Woodmizer 2 inch  055 wide blades on our other mill, with 30" band wheels. So far, we are up to around 5 sharpenings with them, and have yet to break a blade. It appears Woodmizer has really come up with a winner there.

theorm

Kansas,

That is real cute beer holder y'all got there. Does he growl when you try to steal his beer?

Theo

smiley_beertoast
The essence of loyalty is reciprocity.

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