hey guys, I've got a question. I'm going to look at an old 2 blade edger tomorrow. I don't know many specifics on it at this point, other than it needs a power source. My question is, how accurate can I expect one of these to be, if it is all tuned up and running correctly? Can I set it at 6" and expect the boards to come out at 6", or are they going to vary a lot? I've never operated one before, would like to tail behind my bandmill with it. The guy wants $750 for it, I have a 16 hp engine lying around...
Depends on your def. I have a sliding blade Corley that is around 80 years old. It has one fixed blade and the other slides on a shaft from 4" to 22". It is used manly for 12" planks so that I don't have to run back thru the main saw. It is set within 1/8" and does a fine consistant job. I drive it off my main engine with a 6" flat belt. As for as the price you can't beat those old solid machines. If it is intact and the legs are not welded on the price sounds about right. If you want a fancier machine you'll pay much more than this price. I want ever sell mine. Good luck Chuck
Gday Barbender and Chuck
Barbender Id need to see the edger before I make any coments as to the best way to set it up Like most sawmilling equipment It will be as accurate as You want it to be But I think that for the older heaver edgers 18 hp aint gonna cut it 30 to 40 hp deisel would be about the minimum size powerplant Id use for edging boards up to 2" thick and even then Id only have a max of 3 saws in the cut .
Chuck I wouldent mind hearing more about how You setup the edger to drive of the main saw shaft do You have any pics of it ? as im thinking along thoes lines at the moment
Reguards Chris McMahon
Rule of thumb is 5 hp per blade per inch of cut.
I am rebulding a frick 2 blade edger. I am running it with a 19 hp gas engine. It is not near large enough. The big problem is the feed rate is going to be too fast for the blades to keep up. I installed a larger pulley on the feed rollers, but it is still feeding too fast. Bottom line, I need more power. It will rip 4/4, but it takes every fration of h.p. to do it.
Woody
Gday
Woody are the frick feed rollers gear or chain driven of the mandrel? If there chain driven you can change the size of the cog on the the mandrel and that should slow it down a touch if thats not enough you can increse the dia of the cogs on the feed rollers and if that sounds like to much work You might just have to up the horsepower Ive read Your post on this but never gotten around to replying . Im sorry for that Mate.
Reguards Chris
My edger has a gear reduction box for the infeed then flat belt to the outfeed. I changed the pulley from 9" to 12", it helped, but no bingo. Once i get a 16" pulley it'll work for what I'm doing. I don't want to run it off the power unit, I don't like flapping belts.
Thanks mate,
Woody
Evening MeadowsMiller, I'm still at work but will get some shots when I get home for next trips posting. There is probably better ways of doing it but this is how I grew up doing it and I have the HP to use it like this. If I was to rebuild the other one I might think of a seperate power source. Have a good one. Chuck
At my last job we had what I believe is an old Chase three blade edger. We were running only two. It has a 10 HP electric motor, and it would edge 10/4 elm cutting with both blades. It edges at 21 feet per minute, which was fine for the manual bandmill. The WM edger at the new job runs a 26HP diesel, but it is also running at 80 fpm. It will edge 8/4 locust with both blades, but doesn't like it so much. It can be set up to run slower. What will you be edging? I guess that is most important, and how fast does it have to go? I'm guessing if you stay at the lower end of feed speeds, your 16 hp will work, after all many commercially available gas edgers are running HP in that area.
The Chase edger was quite accurate. The way it was setup, it was about a 1/4" heavy, so a 6" was usually about 6 1/4". It would vary sometimes, but even the new one will, depends on how much the wood wants to move as it's being edged.
Dave
Well, I never did get up to look at that edger yet. Been too busy at work :( Thanks for all the replies though, I'm always looking to learn about this stuff.
Quote from: Ron Wenrich on September 20, 2008, 06:21:27 AM
Rule of thumb is 5 hp per blade per inch of cut.
Would not the blade kerf be a factor in that equation?
Our Morgan Little Champ has two 14" strobe blades that have at most 1/10" wide teeth. It's powered by a 15 hp 3ph motor. We can do 2" oak ok but its max.
Its a rule of thumb, not an absolute. ;) I don't think the kerf has that much to do with it. It has to do with feed rates and optimum cutting. Too little power just makes it harder on the equipment.
Gday
I second those comments Ron . Variable feed speed (eg hyd) is the way to go but You dont want to run them to slow in the cut either for every good settup Ive seen running Ive seen at least 4 that where settup pretty roughly the worst edger I ever ran was at the h/wood sawmill where I ran the kilns it was a 4 saw that had cost them over 1 million dollars when the owner asked Me how to fix it I said unbolt it of the floor and send it back to the manufaturer and put the old one back in ;) :D :D :D ;D that was after 12 months of mucking around with it as soon as you fixd one prob ;D another started >:( the old one s#@t all over it :) ::)
Reguards Chris