The great majority of blades finally break ending their life with a surprising Pop but imagine my surprise when I encountered this:
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_1244.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1474590409)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_1246.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1474590357)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/IMG_1245.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1474590344)
Yup, it penetrated the metal chute as well as the downspout. :o I have had them to come out of the downspout before but I guess that this one wanted the quick way out.
The center guard finger was taken out by a runaway broken blade many moons ago.
hey magicman ,, we had almost the same thing happen the other day, scared the beejesus out of us bent two of the finger s in there, it was a pain to get it out,ours got a little twisted , yours look s easy , good thing you werent standing there,
jim
That's quite a departure, Lynn. :o
I've had them come out the chute and the sawdust hose, but never out through the metal housing!
Just sticking it's tongue out, thats all horn_smiley
Perhaps the metal has been worn thin by thousands-of-gallons of high-velocity sawdust? In any case that looks like it could be bad for one's health.
That is vivid reminder of the reason to keep people away from that side of the mill. Wow.
That could have been bad if someone were standing there. Better not let your insurance man see that...it might make your premium go up.
Wow. It must have been a Woodmizer Turbo blade, I hear they will cut through anything. ;D
Quote from: YellowHammer on September 22, 2016, 11:48:16 PM
Wow. It must have been a Woodmizer Turbo blade, I hear they will cut through anything. ;D
X2, them blades will even cut through petrified cheese with ease.
With a faster feed rate that will not happen. The blade will get stuck in the log.If the blade brakes not in the log then I guess anything can happen.
I have never had a blade come out like that.
MM you should get a lottery ticket . :D :D :D
That's right Peter!
If you're "in the log", the blade won't exit!
That's when you get the wedges out to remove the blade!
That's one of the reasons I disengage the blade as soon as it exits the log!
MM, you know better then cutting metal. I think it's toast. :D
This break happened as I just beginning the opening face on an ERC log. There was hardly any log resistance to stop the blade's motion. Yup, there are always hidden dangers in our sawing business.
Been lucky have never broken a blade. I have only used new blades from WM. Got a pile to get sharpened some day.
Oh my! That is interesting. Ive heard the dreaded zing-zing-zing and had the band break just as I exited the cut a few times and it was wild but this(MM's pics) is a new development. Specially for those who choose to ride the sawdust chute during a cut ;D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/20011/2410/DSCN0291.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1267041250)
I have had a broken blade to exit the sawdust chute several times and I had one to break into three (3) different pieces and one short piece landed beyond the log loader. They generally just curl up and make a mess. :-\ :-\
During recent jobs I have had probably 5-6 to break. It's just the way it is and some of my 10's have had several ReSharps. No big deal because they had earned their keep.
I'm a bit of a prema Donna when it comes to blades. I run them a box of 10 at a time cycling all ten evenly. When the third one of a particular box breaks, I start a new box and save the seven leftovers for crappy dirty logs or tramp
Metal logs. After a while I have a lot of old blades and purge at the scrapyard about once a year.
I have somewhere in the neighborhood of 60-75 blades in circulation. One box of 10 is in route from ReSharp and I have another box ready to go. Mostly 10° but as blades are rejected by ReSharp they are being replaced with Turbos.
As blades break I am not replacing them and am gradually reducing my blade stash back to ~40.
This is what I get when one breaks.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22511/SAM_0890.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1474674311)
See how it went down in the bed. I don't have a blade guard, I enter the log at cutting speed.
Then use a wage and a big hammer. :D :D
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22511/SAM_0891.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1474674329)
Backs out easier that way.
Quote from: Percy on September 23, 2016, 03:50:50 PM
I'm a bit of a prema Donna when it comes to blades. I run them a box of 10 at a time cycling all ten evenly. When the third one of a particular box breaks, I start a new box and save the seven leftovers for crappy dirty logs or tramp
Metal logs. After a while I have a lot of old blades and purge at the scrapyard about once a year.
Seems like a good system. I may have a lot of pine sawing coming up, and have been planning to get a box of 13° blades to try out.
Interesting topic. I had my blower go down this week so I was just shooting dust on the ground. I have done this several times in the past. I feel that atleast with my setup I get less blade life without the blower scavenging the sawdust. It seems to circulate in the safety shield. So I made a test this week leaving the drive side shield off, letting the dust excape wherever. And I had excellent blade life compared to having sheild with no blower attached. Short story long I was nervous all week of blade breakage because who knows were that blade would go. I wouldn't get near it while running.
I have seen some jumbled messes that were contained by the covers. No matter what, I would never saw without covers and chance a broken blade. I would rather fight a wildcat barehanded. :o
I agree that's why blower parts come back in. I was always nervous someone would come up to mill while it was running and about that time snap. That's how my luck rolls. Though I saw myself, but others don't realize the dangers. And I do get the occasional visiter.
But alot of those smaller tired mills and manual ones I see pictures of don't have safety shields, or maybe removed in pictures
I have seen pictures of many home-built sawmills that do not have guards. I have also seen pictures of folks doing other foolish/dangerous things too. :o
Careless sawyer ordering 5 beers
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10599/image~38.jpeg?easyrotate_cache=1474740699)
Or three beers and two shots. :o
:D :D :D
Quote from: Peter Drouin on September 23, 2016, 06:17:05 AM
With a faster feed rate that will not happen. ...
Careful ;D.
With blades moving at the speed they do (and being made of spring steel) almost anything can happen. I've seen dozens of examples on this forum over the years.
The most common break I've had is the blade snapping at one point inside the blade housing. Sometimes it's easy to get it out, sometimes it's a tangled mess.
One thing that's happened to me (quite a few times) is to have a crack start in 2 or 3 places. If the cracks are 6-12 inches apart, then a piece will often come flying out the chute. Usually it hits the fingers and drops to the ground. Once a 3" long piece turned 90 degrees, passed between two fingers, and kind of tumbled down the chute. I think if it had been longer it would have sliced through the chute.
The strangest one I've seen didn't actually break. My friend Jim asked me to sharpen a few blades for him and brought them over in the back of his pickup (he never folds them). Most of them were damaged in some way but the one that had me :o had multiple cracks in it. As in, 38 cracks. All of them were in the
middle portion of the blade. Not a single crack had started in the gullet or on the back of the blade -- just a bunch of isolated cracks in the middle. As soon as I flexed the blade it would break at a crack. Each crack as clearly caused by fatigue (which is nearly always the case when a blade breaks normally. I have absolutely no idea how so many cracks (or even one) could start away from the edge like that.
Brucer, I have a CBN sharpener and grind heavy. I find it removes cracks well . The 1¼x55x7 will last a long time. ;D
I don't know how many time's Ihave told people to stay away from that end two guy's that were helping me would be right there to grab the bucket when it was full I would stop the mill and tell them to get the hell away from there.
When MM put those pictures on here I made coppys of them now Ican show them why thay need to stay away from there
I caught one before it popped.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22511/SAM_0900.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1475020450)
Quote from: Peter Drouin on September 27, 2016, 08:44:11 PM
I caught one before it popped.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/22511/SAM_0900.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1475020450)
Is that blood on the blade???? Or are you cutting meat in your spare time??? :D :D
I am stealing Peter's thunder, but I also use paint on the weld to quickly identify blade profiles. Red for 7° & green for 4°. 10° blades get no paint.
Red Ink to mark the weld for sharpening. All the blades are the same profile.
Magicman you can have any of my thunder you can steal. ;D
I use a cheap nail polish to mark the weld when I set and sharpen my blades.
Just makes it easier to see.
I use a sharpie to write on all my blades, never had a problem, and, if you don't heat up the blade too much you can sometimes make out the code you write on the blade if you forgot what it was.
Chuck...I ain't askin where you get the cheap nail polish. ;) ;D
I added plywood to the inside of my band wheel covers. The plywood stops broken bands dead in their tracks.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/34867/plywood_guard.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1475109410)
If you have enough room to add plywood; it will stop broken blades from getting tangled up in your band wheels, it will also keep you safe.
Quote from: Peter Drouin on September 26, 2016, 06:09:01 AM
Brucer, I have a CBN sharpener and grind heavy. I find it removes cracks well. ...
Interesting point. Now that I think of it, I haven't had any multiple breaks since I started sharpening my own blades.
With the CBN my blades last longer and are very sharp.
Quote from: 5quarter on September 28, 2016, 11:21:00 PM
Chuck...I ain't askin where you get the cheap nail polish. ;) ;D
Well, since you brought it up, I get it at the Dollar Tree store. ;D
Works good and easy to see.