Hey guys, building a barn and have used power poles that I need to square up. I have a EZ boardwalk Junior with bed extensions, 13 hp honda. I have roughly 32 power poles to cut and even with a metal detector and removing nails I know I am still going to hit nails. What is my best option for sawing these? I know the issues with cresote so I am contending with that too. Is there a blade out there that would be best or do I just commit to sacrificing blade after blade? What say you? Thanks. Any and all advise appreciated.
First of all, welcome to forestry forum. Second, no blade is great at cutting metal, if was, I'd have my mill cut in half by now. However, some blades are better than others but I'm not the one to answer that.
Why do you need to square them? Aesthetics?
No, I am not aware of a universal metal/wood blade.
It's hard to define metal strikes and make a flat statement because a hit at various angles will produce different degrees of damage. Some can continue sawing, some can be re-sharpened and some are junk. Removing the curl of metal from the teeth will sometimes allow a blade to continue sawing, but damage was still done.
Utility poles are treated from the outside and removing the outer shell exposes wood that may have minimal treatment and may not have the life expectancy of a non altered treated pole. Bucking treated poles to various lengths also exposes an untreated center area that would be very prone to rot.
Blade heat will also melt creosote and cause buildup on the blade leading to uneven cuts.
Norwood sells a blade that they claim is suitable for "milling tough woods like barn beams, telephone poles, railway ties, and logs riddled with nails". Although I have a Norwood mill I cannot comment the blade.. Never used them..
I ordered some cooks blades last week. The lady made the comment that "they can handle some nails". I didn't ask or bring this up. Got them today and other than not as much oil I see no difference from the Lenox.
I'm in the process of building a pretty good sized saw shed, or barn. I squared off power poles to 6x6, and would not do it again. If the poles are big enough to get 10x10 it might be ok, but 6x6 will cause you to get very creative with bracing if the structure is very big at all.
The next one I do will either be much larger cut posts, or full round power poles, and scab 2x's on for a flat surface to work off of.
Thanks guys for the info. The price is right on these, as I was told "come get-em I've had them for 20 plus years and haven't used them yet". Redprospector, I know exactly what you mean about the size. The poles are old-old, the big boys used for the overhead high voltage transmission prior to their replacement with steel erector set type towers. Currently these are from 40 to 50 footers-would have loved to have seen them as trees. The base of some of these are a full 24-26 inch across. The smallest top on the 32 poles is 13.5 inches. This will be for the misses horse barn so unfortunately aesthetics do play a part but just the sheer mass of these things is the bigger issue. The barn is going to be a raised center isle and the center 10 posts need to be minimum 22 but prefer 24 footers. I was going to use the side slabs from the bases as fence posts for a dry lot. Given there original use and location most of the metal in them was the old screw in steps. I took a hatchet and big pair of vise grips to one that was broken off at the surface and was able to screw it out and they go about 3 inches deep but left a lot of metal scale in the hole.
I don't know if it will work but could you put a blade in so it is spinning backwards? It would slow cutting and you would probably have to run a garden hose on the blade to keep it cool but it may work.
I have never tried it with a band saw blade but in construction we used to put in a saw blade backwards all the time with circular saw to cut pole barn steel and aluminum.
I also think I have seen a video of someone who accidentally put a blade on his sawmill backwards. He complained about how slow it cut but it did cut.