I have the possibility of re-sawing truckload quantities of heartpine timbers. The lumber are 4x4s, taken from whiskey warehouses, to be ressawn into 1x4s. Does anyone on the FF have experience with sawing heart pine? It's appraently about as hard as red oak, but contains "microsilicates", which are very hard on blades. We would saw these timbers on a 25 HP electric horizontal band resaw, with hydraulic infeed and return tables. The type often used in pallet mills. What kind of production can we expect? How many board feet can we expect between blade changes? Any help is appreciated!
It's hard, but, worse than that, it's Sappy. Common blade lube is Diesel fuel. Soap works to some extent. Blade will wander if not extremely sharp. Can't comment on re-saws. Only use a band mill with 1¼" blade. ;D
If its like the white cedar up here, ya better have two sharp blades ready for a quick change on the mill. :D
The narrow width may be your salvation.
The first concern is tramp metal. Make sure they are very clean.
the second concern is paint or accumulated dirt/dust that will abrade the points on the teeth. You will find that the "microsilicates" you've been told are in the pine is actually years of accumulated dust, etc. on the outside of the timber.
The third thing is the gumming. (you shouldn't have too much as long as the teeth are ultra sharp.) Make sure you keep sharp blades handy and change frequently. It will save a lot of headaches.
--------------------------
You may save wear and tear on your planer later if you make a thin squaring cut on the 4x4's. (just skim it) It]s hard on the blades but will clean the dirt off and save planer blades as well as help straighten the timbers and save you from having to make deep cuts with the planer.
------------------------------
I would try to stop gumming with water first, water and soap second, canola oil or its like third and diesel only if nothing else works. The big resaw outfit here in town uses canola and says that it is economical. You don't need much on the blade and you can buy it from Resturant supply houses pretty cheap.
----------------------------------
Expect your production to drop by a third to as much as a half if the pine is real "fat". Don't be surprised to find a lot of it doesn't give you any trouble at all.
----------------------------
Think Sharp Blades over everything else.
All good advice,I've cut a bunch of old beams both on a WM,and resaw. The only thing that I can think of you might try if you have trouble with gumming is to increase the set alittle. That might give you more clearencefoor the body of the blade,thus less heat
Here's a link to another thread on the forum that describes some of my Heart Pine escapades.
https://forestryforum.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?board=sawmill;action=display;num=1056155841;start=0
One started by Fla Deadheader
https://forestryforum.com/cgi-bin/board/YaBB.pl?board=sawmill;action=display;num=1063488060;start=0
Tom: In reference to reading from your first thread on the pine, back in 2003 sometime. I know you have a handle on your wood species as good as anyone sawing. But, from what you describe, its awefully familiar up here as hemlock. But those guys pullin the nails would be leaving alot of headless nails in the boards 'cause its holds like a vise. Same is true if you try to drive a nail down through dry hemlock, the nail bends like spagetti. Or if ya get the nail through it splits the board into brittle splinters. ::) You must be talking about sawing a hard pine species. I don't know what red pine is like resawn. I know the wood made the folks a nice kitchen table over the years, but it was new wood. (round pedstal). Western hemlock is much nicer wood. :)
The pine marketed as Heart Pine is generally assumed to be SYP from Virgin Forests. It is a hard pine.(yellow Pine) and many thousands of board feet were shipped north in the late 1800's and early 1900's. Actually, there was a call for these timbers up into the 1950's but it was slacking off and being replaced by steel.
These boys taking the nails from the timbers were really good. Many of the nails could be pulled. Many of them had to have the head carved from the wood and then pulled. Many of the nails did break off and the boys would dig every last smidgeon of metal out of the timber. The timber wasn't given to me until it was thoroughly passed by a metal detector with no metal found. What I hit was a result of
1. someone mixed up some of the contaminated timbers with those that had already been cleaned.
2. one nail was just flat missed.
I thought it was a pretty good record. These fellows were consciencous and good at what they did. It's an example of how misled an observer could be. Like a good off-bearer, these "cleaners" could make or break the operation. They weren't just some passing labor off of the street but rather trained one another and took a lot of pride in the job they did.
These same boys installed the milled flooring too. I think they were paid hourly with a "piece work" commission.
8) Hard to find good workers, that's what all the contractors say, well not all, but most. But job security, the pay and benefits sings all whole different tune in most folks ears. I think you'll all agree. ;)