blades for nails... again

[spencerhenry]

i hate to start this thread, i know it has been visited many times. i did a search and couldnt find what i was looking for, then i went page by page looking for a thread with this topic, still no luck. so here goes.
i have read here before about lenox bi-metal blades with some people saying that they work better than regular WM blades for the ocassional nail. right now i am edging, then resawing some reclaimed heart pine 3x into 1x12 flooring. the weathered dirty face is to be the finish face so digging out nails is not an option. it took me 2 sets of edger blades but i got it all edged, then began the resawing. i am hitting on average about 5 to 7 nails per 16' board. the nails are all old square nails that are far softer than modern round nails. i can cut 4 to 6 boards before the blade starts to wander. the piece that is cut to size goes into the finish stack, the leftover piece gets de-nailed from the cut face, and then gets run through when i put a new blade on.
of course my customer is complaining about cost, and i hate changing blades every 15 minutes especially when i am using the resaw attatchment. my question is for anyone that has used bi-metal blades, is a bi-metal blade going to allow me to cut more nails, or cut faster after hitting nails, and ultimately are they worth messing with? i am willing to try a couple and see what happens, but i also dont know where to get them.

if i were any good at uploading photos, i would upload pictures of all my "metal detectors" starting with the chainsaw, then the edger, then the mill.

[LeeB]

I don't know what to tell you about the blades, but to my thinking if the customer whants that rough and ready look without pulling the nails, it's gonna cost him.

[Chico]

I'm with Lee there is no good saw for nails He'd be buying me some saws to use and I'd saw till you ran out of his saws and see how much more he needs at that time also I would explain that the time consumed in changing saws instead of sawing will also be on the final tally jmo
Chico
Here's another idea if you know about how long the nails fig a multiple that would saw out 1 board deeper bust it there let him drive the nails out backwards as you should be able to see some blue and I'm assuming that there would be some kind of consistant layout
just and idea

[spencerhenry]

i charge him by the hour plus blades, so in reality the more nails i hit, the more money i make. i dont want it to get so expensive that he finds someone else, but i also get frustrated changing blades so often. but if i can find a way to up my production, i can also charge more for my time, making more money.
doing this reclaimed material is a double edged sword, it is a large percentage of what i do to make money, but it is dirty and frustrating. i also wonder about what toxins are on some of this material. old barnboard was probably painted with lead paint, some timbers have a grime on them from the factory they came out of. being that all this material is old, it was back before emissions standards, and workplace controls.

[spencerhenry]

after averaging about 6 nails per piece, and then breaking a bolt that holds the blade guide rollers, stripping out threads on the outboard blade guide adjuster, a special trip to town, aligning the mill, then double checking the alignment, and then triple checking the alignment, checking drive belt tension, finally calling woodmizer and determining that i probably have a couple of blades that though sharp, wont cut straight. i used up one box of re-sharps, and right about the time i started the new box, i couldnt get the mill to cut right, the blades would track for about a foot, and then dive about a 1/4" and stay there to the end of the cut. that is when i started to check everything, during the massive frustration time with 2 guys standing around costing me money watching me align the mill, the customer calls and asks how its going. i didnt sugar coat it, crappy i said, and i also told him that i wont ever mill material than i know has nails in it again. either denail it before it gets to me, or have someone else mill it.