Stellite

bandmiller2 · August 02, 2011, 07:02:19 AM

With all this talk about justifying stellite bands the elimination of setting and owning a setter could very well tip the scales in favor of stellite.Stellite bands are easy to sharpen with a ceramic wheel same as you'd use for regular bands.If stellite becomes more popular and theirs some competition the price will surely come down. Frank C.

Bibbyman · August 02, 2011, 07:34:51 AM

Are you running stellite blades? Or just interested in seeing how they perform?

We've got one on our mill right now kind of making another test run. We had some old and dry oak to saw and I wanted the best tool for the job.

ladylake · August 02, 2011, 08:26:02 AM

Old dry white oak with no bark and cracked 3" deep will give a band a good test. I sawed some big ones a couple of years ago, about 1 hour (250bf in that stuff) was all I'd get out of a band. Steve

Bibbyman · August 02, 2011, 05:34:35 PM

We've sawn two mornings with the same RazerTip blade. It's still cutting straight, flat and smooth but is starting to slow a bit. It's time to pull it. We've sawn about 1,000bf of some dry, some fresh 4/4 red oak and 7 6x11s by 20' and 9 6x11 by 10'.

The first log had a lot of embedded creak gravel. I spent a lot of time picking rocks out of the bark but must have missed some as I found the blade starting to make one tooth mark on one side. I thought at first maybe a tooth had come out but upon inspection, none were missing.

For a while we didn't know what was going on. The blade was making a scratchy dry sound. We looked for something jammed in the roller guides our under the blade but didn't find anything. I made sure the lube was still flowing added a little more soap to the mix but that didn't help. I went off to drop some slabs and on my return, Mary was holding a chunk of wood about the size of a Ritz cracker. She found it stuck between the blade and the guide where I'd looked twice. The blade returned to sawing and sounding right again.

We'll go back to the 045x1.25 by 7 deg blades in the morning. I'll have to bump the guides back in an 1/8". When the weather cools a bit, I'll sharpen the RazerTip and put it back on when I need all the help I can get.

New blade on an old log. Probably one of he oldest logs on our lot. The lumber won't grade well but I hope the beam passes inspection. It looked ok inside.

Closer look at RazerTip blade on old log.

For some reason, I got the blade in 1-1/2" width. All our other blades are 1-1/4". I had to bump the blade guide roller assemblies back 1/8". I did my usual - make a scratch mark on the shaft so I could judge the distance. But the sun was so bright and it was so dark under the mill head, I couldn't see the mark. So I just measured the distance. I loosened one bold on the side and one on the bottom. This way the guide shaft can be shifted in and out without effecting alignment.

bandmiller2 · August 02, 2011, 08:33:25 PM

Bibby,I'am not running stellite on my bandmill.All my experiance with stellite is sharpening those Makita wide thin, tipped bands used on the commercial bandsaws.A local timber frame builder drops off a load of dull bands every so often.They cost over 100.00 new I sharpen them for 10.00 he claims their as sharp as new.He just told me he has 130 dull ones to drop off. Frank C.

tommone · August 03, 2011, 04:41:27 PM

Do Stellite narrow bandsaw blades not need setting as well just like induction hardened tooth type?

Bibbyman · August 03, 2011, 05:35:52 PM

I think the Wood-Mizer RazerTip Stellite blades do require setting. The teeth are wider than the blade - at least on the .045s. I've used this one to the point where it could use sharpening. I have a 10° CBN wheel on the way. Maybe it's out there now. The UPS guy just drops things off at the office trailer. My idea was to run the stellite blade, sharpen it and run it again until it dies. I just have the one (if you don't count the one I can't find).

I'll check the set and then sharpen it and then recheck the set and see how much the sharpening reduced the set. If not by much, I may just run it again.

The one I ran for two mornings (see above) maybe didn't go as far as some have used them but I got to thinking about the logs I was sawing and I figure I would have had to use at least 3 if not 4 blades to have done the same sawing.

tommone · August 03, 2011, 08:20:27 PM

In europe large commercial sawmills are experiencing Stellite bandsaw blades lasting an average of three times the life of swaged saws. If you beat this consider it a bonus and be happy.

backwoods sawyer · August 06, 2011, 10:36:26 PM

Quote from: tommone on August 03, 2011, 08:20:27 PM
In europe large commercial sawmills are experiencing Stellite bandsaw blades lasting an average of three times the life of swaged saws. If you beat this consider it a bonus and be happy.

Not just in Europe. When I worked in the high-speed production mill, swedge tooth was the only option, we tried some of those multi profile toothed saws but they were noisy and jagged cutting so stuck with the swedge tooth. A local mill switched over to stellite and I took four of our saw filers over for a tour of there new filling room. Six month later, we had an annealer in our filing room and were running nothing but stellite. Our run time went from 2 ½ hours to 5 hours per saw and we were pulling saws off that were still running strong, on occasions we would run a saw 10 hours.

If you are running your mill full time, they may just pencil out. They may come in handy to have in your saw collection from time to time as well.

Magicman · August 07, 2011, 10:17:05 AM

I just got a Stellite blade here at the Pig Roast. The instructions say: "Blade Lubrication; Highly recommend soybean, vegetable, or palm oil by itself." "Do not use water by itself."

They also issue a warning that "if you've never used oil by itself, be sure to track and test with a non-tipped blade to ensure the blade will not come off."

The above sorta adds a new challenge with replacing my lube medium. I also have questions regarding "how much"? I guess that a call to WM and talking with the Blade Expert is in order.

bandmiller2 · August 07, 2011, 03:15:39 PM

Majic,have you found like Bibby that the mizer stellite bands do in fact have tooth set or does the width of the tip give clearance. Frank C.

Bibbyman · August 07, 2011, 03:22:36 PM

We've got a couple of topics going on Stellite blades. Brucer answered the lube mix question on another one. Maybe save you a phone call.

Quote from: Brucer on July 31, 2011, 02:37:45 AM
Quote from: Bibbyman on July 30, 2011, 05:35:40 PM
But when it came, it came with some instructions to use vegetable base oil for lube – soy, palm, etc. Where do you get this kind of oil? (Besides out of Mary's pantry.) Do you mix it with anything? Soap? Water? Windshield washer fluid?

I had the same question(s) when I opened my box. My local WM dealer didn't have an answer but he gave me the number for the head honcho at Wood-Mizer Blades. Here's what he told me ...

"Fill your water jug with 4 gallons minus two Pepsi tins of water. Pour in 1 Pepsi tin of vegetable oil, and then pour in 1 Pepsi tin of liquid dishwashing soap. Don't pour the water into the soap and oil as it will foam up something fierce."

OK, that kind of made sense -- oil and water don't mix, but dishwashing soap is an emulsifier and will allow them to disperse through each other. So here's what I tried (successfully).

1) Put 3 gallons of water in the water jug.
2) Take a gallon container and fill it almost full of water.
3) Pour 12 ounces (more or less) of cheap vegetable oil into the container.
4) Pour 12 ounces (more or less) of cheap liquid dishwashing soap into the container.
5) Cap the container tightly and roll the container back an forth in your hands.
6) After a bit of mixing you will get a cloudy-looking mixture of soap, oil, and water.
7) Pour this mixture into the water jug.

Use this sparingly. It sure keeps the pitch off. It also tends to coat the bed rails with a very thing film of oil which makes timbers turn and slide a lot easier.

I used the above mix and had no problems.

Magicman · August 07, 2011, 05:02:09 PM

Thanks Bibby. I didn't have a Stellite blade then and wasn't paying any attention. It seems to make a difference when stuff actually applies to me. ;D

Bibbyman · August 07, 2011, 06:04:08 PM

Not a problem. Now you've got some reading on a topic of interest. :P

Road Runner · August 07, 2011, 10:09:23 PM

I'm fairly new to milling and after reading about the Stellite bands I am thinking about trying one, but have a rookie question. Is the WM RazorTip band Stellite? I have a old WM catalog and it only lists DoubleHard, SilverTip, and RazorTip bands.

west penn · August 07, 2011, 10:15:34 PM

Would a stellite band handle a railroad tie? I have about 200 that would make great fence posts if I could saw them down the middle. Wonder how many I could get to a blade. A regular blade got me almost one once upon a time.

Magicman · August 07, 2011, 10:35:34 PM

No blade is designed to saw through dirt, sand, rocks, or metal. Creosote stopped me from sawing treated timbers or poles due to the buildup on the blade. I simple will not saw anything treated.

If your blade dulled, then it was most likely caused by dirt and Stellite would not be your answer. The WM representatives told me yesterday to avoid sawing dirty logs.

The Stellite blades were originally designed to saw exotic logs with a high silica content. He recommended that I use it to saw White Oak because it is hard or ERC because it does contain some silica.

Brucer · August 08, 2011, 12:38:12 AM

They will not saw rocks :(. I haven't had a log with an embedded rock for a couple of years but I managed to find one with only 350 BF on a new stellite blade.

With a brand new $125 blade on the mill I was exceptionally conscious of where the moveable metal parts of the mill were :D.

Bibbyman · August 08, 2011, 04:50:14 AM

Quote from: Road Runner on August 07, 2011, 10:09:23 PM
I'm fairly new to milling and after reading about the Stellite bands I am thinking about trying one, but have a rookie question. Is the WM RazorTip band Stellite? I have a old WM catalog and it only lists DoubleHard, SilverTip, and RazorTip bands.

Yes, the Wood-Mizer RazorTip blades are tipped with Stellite^®.

http://www.woodmizerblades.com/bladeTypes/stellite/stellite.aspx