Any one have issues with their woodland hm122 blades coming off and being destroyed in the process? First time I wedged itself in behind the drive pulley had to cut the blade out and last night it came off again and jammed hard breaking two teeth off in the process and kinking the blade. It runs fine for quite a period of time and then this seems to happen. I've screwed three blades and have yet to process 20 logs. Thanks for any help
I don't have a woodland mill but was having a similar issue with my mighty mite caused by my lack of experience, so I lined the inside of the metal guards with belting , including behind the saw wheel, that has stopped the band from wedging behind the band wheel. I ruined 2 or 3 bands before mounting the belting behind the wheel, since then none.
I know it's a different saw, but my LT35 hates blades with pitch buildup. For me, if it pops off when exiting a cut, I can guarantee you that my blade has pitch. I have had no problems if I keep the blade clean.
I have had several bone head blade issues, as anyone who is learning.
Doc
This is a pretty common complaint on the WM Facebook groups (great resource).
Typically it's too much lube on the blade. Use as little as possible.
Also check that your blade is completely clean of the oil it's covered in for shipping. I seem to be the only newbie without this issue and I clean mine with acetone before mounting. If you've done a poor job of cleaning your blades, you'll probably want to wipe the belt down too, but with something safer for the rubber than acetone.
I hear this fairly often from new owners. It's usually related to alignment and setup. Sawing with a dull blade can compound or cause the problem. If everything is aligned properly even pushing a dull blade will not lead to this result, although it can with extreme pressure or diving.
It can take a couple times through the adjustment and alignment procedures to get them right. You can tell when everything is right when the blades are staying put.
Blades dull a lot faster than we all expect when we start out with a bandmill. This is especially true with lower powered saws like my hm126/9.5hp. Bark is a blade killer and dirty logs will kill a blade in less than one cut. Typically I get about 150 bd ft out of a blade if the log s clean and I've blown some grit out of the bark. Removing a strip of bark on the entrance side of the cut helps a lot (like a debarker attachment would do). To get 150 bf means I just sawed one good size log. A bunch of smaller logs reduce that figure because of the number of times I sawed bark to get cants.
Go through the alignment carefully, keep buidup of the blade andwheels as pointed out above, and make sure you're sawing with a sharp blade. You'll be fine. We all had to work our way up the learning curve before everything went smoothly.
To add to that a dull band creates heat from the increased friction while sawing, metal expands when it gets hot, band tension drops, suddenly it's not such a snug fit and the band walks around until it is forced off.
You want to change your bands BEFORE they are dull, just as they start to loose their edge. May seem counter intuitive, but you will get more total board feet out of a band this way.
Great info folks, I'm sure it's my lack of experience I like the idea of the belting behind the pulleys to avoid that disaster again. Hopefully sort it out soon cause it's an addicting pastime.