Sharpened my first blade today

[Patrick NC]

 

 
Great advice from everyone who said practice on a junk band first.  I ground off a few teeth before I got it dialed in. Second band turned out good as far as I can tell.  Now I have to put it on the mill and try it out. Hopefully I'll have something to report by the end of the week. 

[Crossroads]

Definitely a bit of satisfaction putting a blade on the mill that you've ground and having it cut well. 

[barbender]

That's a fact, Crossroads👍

[Patrick NC]

Got the setter put together this evening and a vice installed for sharpening chainsaws. Now I have a bona-fide sharpening room. 😃

[Cedarman]

I consider working in the log yard fun.  I consider setting and sharpening as work.  But I put  ear phones on and listen to a book.  I can do 4 to 8 blades per hour depending on whether they need set or not.  But each blade pays me $8.00 .  This is pure profit as the expense is minimal.
$32.00 to $64.00 per hour is not bad pay. It is like being paid to listen to a book.
Sure you can make a lot more gross pay sawing, but net is a different story. I don't do much actual sawing as I do more in the log yard and handle the orders and customers.  So I can work sharpening in during the day or weekend.
Having blades you can trust is rewarding.
In the old days, I really, really disliked setting and sharpening on the old setters and sharpeners after a long day of sawing to get ready for the next day.  So I used resharp.  Understand those of you who love resharp.

[firefighter ontheside]

Good deal.  I had the first real test of the blades that I had sharpened this weekend.  I sawed some ERC for a customer and the blades did really well.  I used one for about 6 logs and it was doing great.  I saw sparks and then it wasn't.  Couldnt find any metal, so there must have been a rock stuck in the bark.  Put another one that I had sharpened and back in business.  I sharpened all of my blades that needed it, but didn't have a setter yet, so I didn't set any.  My setter is on order now from Cooks.  The concensus seems to be that you should set before sharpening, so that the teeth are sharpened square to the blade direction.  I will set before my next round of sharpening.

[GAB]

Great advice from everyone who said practice on a junk band first.  I ground off a few teeth before I got it dialed in. Second band turned out good as far as I can tell.  Now I have to put it on the mill and try it out. Hopefully I'll have something to report by the end of the week.

Thanks for letting us know that there is a use for bands with broken teeth.
GAB

[DanMc]

When you do 8 blades per hour and consider that to be the only time consumer, just consider the time spent when using a sharpening service:  Boxing up the blades, getting them shipped off, paying the bill, and unboxing them.  Sharpening your own probably consumes about the same amount of time.

[jasonb]

I ground off a few teeth before I got it dialed in

:D  Don't turn on the stone until you got it dialed in.  Ask me how I know.

Soon you will learn where to place the bracket to turn it off.

[Southside]

Like anything else that is important to you, I find that by sharpening my own bands I end up with a better cutting band than any other service or even new out of the box.  Commodity vs custom is all it is.  

[Peter Drouin]

Like anything else that is important to you, I find that by sharpening my own bands I end up with a better cutting band than any other service or even new out of the box.  Commodity vs custom is all it is.  

[Durf700]

I am very happy with how my bands have been cutting that I sharpen and set on my BMS 250 and BMT 250.  it definitely feels good to be able to do it myself.  I haven't purchased any new bands in 2 years!  I don't cut full time and have about 50 bands.  20 that I purchased new and about 30 that came with the mill that were ran 1 time.  other than about 6-8 that broke from me running them to long when I first started milling I have had great luck with them.  so I definitely change the bands out now once I notice that I have to slow down more than about 30 % or so from when I start with a sharp band.