New breed of logs to saw

[Chuck White]

In about another 4 weeks I'll be cutting my first White Oak logs as well as my first Red Cedar!

Anything special I should be on the watch for while sawing these?

The customer said a "few" W/O's and a small load of R/C's!

[ladylake]

 Red cedar cuts easy, I use a 4* hook on white oak, 10* will work but not as fast or straight.    Steve

[Gilman]

If the Red Cedar is like western red cedar, you might want to watch out for your blades getting dull quicker than usual.  

Ask the customer if they want the white oak quarter sawn, I charge extra for quarter sawing and i haven't had a customer complain about the extra cost.

[ARKANSAWYER]

 With white oak you will need a good working lube system.  It takes a good drip to keep the blade cool and clean in white oak.  It will sap up a blade.  I saw it with 10 degree blades all the time but 7's and 9' work a bit better.
  ERC is not hard to saw unless you have stress cracks in the logs.  Then you need to rotate it to the edge of boards.  Some people are allergic to ERC dust.

[Larry]

About all I have been sawing the last 6 months is ERC and white oak.  It took me a bit to figure out how to saw ERC some years ago.  It saws so easy I was getting waves because I was feeding too fast.  It also was a learning experience to know when the band is dull.  I like a band with a lower hook angle so I don't get any waves when going though the knots.  And it takes forever to make any footage.

This morning sawed couple ERC along with 300 bf of white oak trailer decking.  It was hot, but for an old man with a manual mill not a bad morning.  Up for tomorrow is this one fresh from the pressure washer.  Butt log maybe 22" on the small end and 27" on the big end...typical of what I've been sawing.  I should probably quartersaw but it is going for decking...on my house deck.



Using a 7 degree WM band with reduced set.  Painfully slow on more than a 18" wide cut with 16 hp but I get the job done somehow and it's well sawn lumber.  I run a wee bit of petroleum lube for sap buildup which is worse in the bark and sapwood.

[Chuck White]

Thanks for the tips.

These WO range from 16 - 22" in diameter.

Not sure how big/small the ERC is.

I've been running water and Simple Green mix in my lube tank.

I also have a car windshield washer mounted on the mill with a line running beside the water line and when
the blade gets sapped up, I run a little kerosene/oil mix on it once it's out of the far end of the log!

[Bibbyman]

ERC tend to have a lot of knots.  We like to saw from the little end to the big end.  Helps keep the blade from angling up the slope of a knot.

Another thing about ERC... wood is soft, knots are hard.  So you think you can run fast but you have to saw slow enough to get through the hard knots.  MORE POWER and good blades go a long way to solve this problem.

[Chuck White]

Good comments!  Thanks.

I've sawn quite a bit of White Cedar and I guess sawing them isn't much different than the Red!

I like to saw from the small end.  It helps in leveling the logs and I think it makes for less blade deflection when the blade comes to a knot!

I guess sawing the knots is the key and the main part of the log is just incidental!  :D ;D

I've also read/heard "stay out of the sawdust", breathing it can mess you up!