I recently purchased a Woodmizer EG100 14hp gas Edger. Took a while to get it assembled and running and then tweaking to get tables and fence level and straight. Have been edging a lot of Ash 5/4 boards to 6,8,10,12. I sawed the boards oversize to allow for shrink during air drying before edging to finish width. They feed in and start sawing smooth but after the first couple feet they start to jerk about a bit making the edges not quite as smooth as I would like. I have checked level of feed tables, alignment of feed/withdrawal belt, blade set up, etc. with no improvement. It seems that the feed rate is too fast for the blade power. The Website says the electric motor units have a variable speed. Being the gas unit my only control is the fuel lever so I can not adjust belt speed without turning down power to blades a well. Thoughts?
I'm not familiar with that edger, but if it is chain driven, you may be able to swap the sprockets to achieve a slower feed speed.
Does it do the exact same thing with green boards in similar thickness? IF the answer is yes, your problem is probably not power because the green boards should cut easier than dry. This is assuming that your blades are very sharp...
If green cuts ok but dry doesn't, then I'd consider changing either a chain sprocket size or pulley speed to slow the feed rate down 15% or so.
Before I did that though, I'd speak with Woodmizer's technical support to see if they have any advice. I have their 15hp 3 phase twin blade edger and while I've never had a problem with dry 5/4 in mine, I have had a problem with dry 8/4 bogging the machine down when green material of the same species / thickness goes through just fine.
A 15hp electric motor would have more torque to keep the blade spinning than a 14hp gasoline engine too.
I ran more boards through the edger today. I spent more time tweaking than running. The thought "why does it run ok then start the chatter was stuck in my head." Hard to see the exit when running alone. The chatter starts after running ok for a bit. Well, that bit is just the distance when the board reaches the exit belt. Tweak, tweak, tweak the withdrawal alignment, and I am only talking a tiny bit, and finally got it running great. The belts are aggressive and grab the board. So, the exit has to be aligned PERFECTLY with the feed and blades to run smooth. My issues had nothing to do with power...all about set up. (the unit is built in Poland and the set up instructions are not all that great)
Good for you! The devil is always in those pesky little details. Watching and thinking and trying, then watching some more and trying again will always lead to learning and getting it right.
Nicely done!
Glad you figured it out! Yes, everything has to be properly aligned in order for it to work well.
Woodmizer is going to have to start giving us all Polish language courses😁