I've only ever been around a few edgers in the past, one was a woodmizer with a diesel engine on it, have no idea what model and an old larger unit that was tractor pto driven so my knowledge if very limited.
I've gotten enough sawing done to know I hate edging on the mill, everyone who's helped has told me the same thing.
Now my main question is this, who makes a compact edger with feed rolls that can slowed down considerably, say 25 feet per minute?
The edgers I've been around the board went so fast through them, it took two people or one running his butt off to catch the boards in time. I'm wanting to slow it down and have two blades if possible and power feed.
I suggested a table saw and that was't met with much excitement.
I'm not sure anyone makes what I want, in an ideal world I'd want it small enough and light enough to pick up with my skid steer and stack on the mill when not in use, I'd like rollers on the in and out feed tables and possibly pto drive, I have plenty of tractors to use on it now, no need for now to buy and maintain an engine for an edger I'd need an edger to do 2.5 inch thick material and have split blades on it
Until time and funds allow to build my dream shed, I have my bandsaw mill set up in an existing shed and need to move everything but the mill when not sawing, this is only a part time hobby for me now and will never grow into a business I have enough logs of my own to saw to keep me busy for a long time at the rate I'm going.
Any suggestions on brands of used edgers that might work, or what brands to look for, most smaller units I've seen had belt feeds or were so large and heavy they were more for permanent placement for large blade mills with commercial production. Thanks in advance for any information you can give me.
I got a vintage Bellsaw edger that's not to fast.
I can stick a board in one side and walk around to help it out.
I was looking hard at the Thomas Bandsawmills edger before a used Cooks popped up and I jumped on it. The Cook's can go really slow. Especially if you leave the engine at an idle, it still cuts hardwood fine at idle with real slow feed, and it sounds cool. Thats with a 34hp perkins diesel. I only tried it as an experiment to see what it could do, I usually test the limits on things so that way I know where to be at.
Kbeitz, does your bellsaw have split blades on it or inserted tooth blades, what model and how thick can it cut?
4x4American, is your cooks the model that can cut 4 inch thick material and what size of blades does it have? I was thinking cooks are have belt feed on them, do you have an issue keeping the boards tracking straight with the belt feed?
Randy88, also check out Baker's edger. Available with infinitely adjustable variable flow hydraulic drive in feed. I have seen one that was behind a LT70 WM. Very well built machine.
I can cut up to 4" thick with my 12" blades. I'm not sure what your calling a split blade
but I know I don't have inserted tooth blades.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39553/12_inch_carbide_blades.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1505958653)
Split blades come in halves and can be changed without pulling the arbor ahft.
PC
Yea it can cut 4" thick and I do often. If you overfeed in 4" hardwood you'll get the blades stuck and smoke the drive belt, it happens. It's got 14" split strobe saws. The belts are a big pain in the butt and their tracking will affect how straight the boards come out in my experience. I like the big throat it has and I use all of it frequently. I looked at the Baker edger too but it didn't have the capacities I was looking for and this Cook's popped up. Mine is the model AE4P.
A riehl edger might be worth looking into for you!
It took me around one hour to pull the arbor shaft to put on new blades.
I don't think it would take so long the second time now that I know what
to expect. Split blades would be nice.
I've looked into the Riehl edger, he's never hooked his to a tractor pto and not sure how to go about it, the thing I'm not sure I like about his edger is he uses basically hand held circular saw blades and cuts them in half to use as split saw blades for his edger from what he told me. We discussed using hydraulics to power the edger, but the tractors I'd use really don't have the capability to run much of a hydraulic motor and to buy a pto drive hydraulic pump was kind of defeating the purpose of lowering costs to add on all the valving and motors to run everything on the edger.
I've talked to several people who own edgers, none near me to even go look at their edger, but those with feed belts in the edger all complained about the issue of tracking to feed the board straight and from the wide belts I've run over the years and the issues I've had with the exact same thing in other applications, I'm not wanting those issues back again in this lifetime or the next.
I've seen several manufacturers via the internet and their edgers had a rubber tire set on an angle, like the Thomas and others to feed the board, can anyone shed some light on how well this works. I understand it keeps the board next to the fence or somewhat forces it next to the fence as the board exits the blades and those units have a movable fence that travels with the sliding saw blade. Do these style of edgers work better at keeping the board straight verses those that don't have the movable fence? Just my thinking but the more movable parts, the more wear points to cause trouble and over time I'd think those with the movable fence and angled wheel would be more prone to curved boards and issues with tracking straight or am I completely wrong?
Yes split blades would be a must for me in about any edger I could afford, now If I were to find an affordable antique edger of sorts that wouldn't have split blades on, where can those blade arbors and split blades be bought to install on an edger that never had that style of arbor or blades??
Can anyone tell me the life expectancy of the sliding collars on the sliding blade mechanism, from what I can tell most manufacturers use a fork mechanism that moves the blade much like a shift collar from years gone by. On the older units that haven't been made in decades, where do you find replacement parts for the shift collars and the forks, along with blades??
I have looked at edgers for the last 2 years trying to get ideas to build one.
The collars and forks was one thing I was really looking at. All the edgers I
looked at was antiques. All had original collars and forks. It looked to me that
they almost last forever. On a few of the machines I seen some brazing done
to the fork to make up for the ware. Any good machine shop could make you
new collars. On the edger I ended up getting I could make any part that's on
the machine except the blades so I'm not worried about parts.
I know that you said you want an auto feed machine with 2 blades and there is nothing wrong with that.
I started out with an WM single blade edger. I didnt know or think I needed an edger as my biggest market was 3x4 cants and you can make a lot of them without making a lot of side lumber. I bought a nicer LT40 and got a single blade edger. The things we learned using it is very valuable to us even today. With it you could walk all the way down one side. There is enough rollers on the side to roll the board back, so it easily works with 1 person. It could be easily adjusted for board width quickly. Blades could be found locally and were cheap. Sometimes I wish I had it back. A very good friend of mine still uses one and it keeps up with his LT40 and his edger person does most of his offbearing too.
When we were using it we had 1 LT40 running and I hired a 58 yo man to edge and cut stringers to 4' out of the boards. He was waiting most of the time. Even with cutting off the boards we couldnt make much too much for him to keep up.
Your table saw idea might work for a while. Give it a try. If your table saw has the blade mounted on the motor I am afraid it may not last too long as an edger.
I no longer have the Baker edger because of difficulty changing blades. They were split but very difficult to get to and had allen head bolts that could not be seen and the heads of them fill up with dust.
I have been real happy with my Reihl edger. The motor uses very little fuel, and I still wish it was electric. I have a 15hp 3 phase motor sitting there but I havent looked at changing it yet. We lifted mine to make it more comfortable to feed. It is sitting on 9'' blocks so I dont have to bend over to shift the blade.
I guess I didnt realize that Riehl was making their blades out of circular saw blades but what does it matter. They are cheap at $89 each. I think the ones I bought from baker were much higher. We have edged out everything we needed since middle of may on it and have yet to change the blades. Although they still cut well, hickory 4/4 makes it pull down some. For prospective that is about 2500 bdft of 4/4 per week.
Looking for an edger is the easy/fun part. Putting it to good use is the backbreaking sweat rolling not so much fun part. Happy hunting!
PC
I have the same edger as Kbeitz but with insert tooth blades. Real easy to change
Paul, I've read you posts on your Riehl edger and also your single blade woodmizer.
I've thought about the single blade more than a little, maybe you can answer some questions, first how close do you get to the blade while feeding the board, to me, having never run one, it was about like a table saw and my main concern is this, my better half would be the one feeding it, and my thoughts are this, she can line it up on a two bladed edger and the self feeder will take over and pull it though and spit out out the back, her never having to get near the blade for any reason. With a non powered feed roller single blade edger she'd have to push each board through just like a table saw? Am I wrong in thinking this is how its done, I've never seen in person a single bladed edger ever, only on video's and from what I've seen on the internet, woodmizer is the only manufacturer making one?
You got the deal figured out on the single blade edger. The blade has a heavy steel cover over it with guard/hold downs on each side of the blade. I am not saying that you cant run your finger through the blade but it would be a reach. The hold down cover keeps it from just running the board over top of the blade, which is very dangerous and can happen with a table saw. The other thing on the wm single blade edger is they put a T bar right behind the blade to keep your cut going straight. We also learned that you need to push the board against the guide as far as you can. Many boards tend to scoot away from it making a small end on the board. I figured it was simply tension wood causing that.
I dont see many used ones but I sold mine for $750.
PC
Paul, the difficulty in changing the stationary saw on a baker edger is you HAVE to loosen up the lock collar and scoot it over.
Split saws are nice but inserted tooth saw are where it's at.
The problem with the changing blades on my baker were to do with the motor right over the top of 2 stationary blades and the collar and said bolts were on the side away from the opening. Pain.
PC
Thats the same way the baker edger at work is. I don't find it to be that bad, still it is kinda a pain.
I'd never given that a thought with the engine over top of the edger being in the way of servicing the edger, so where do you guys prefer to have the engine mounted then, under the edger??
Riehl is beside and that works well. The wm single is under and it is out of the way there.
I failed to mention a difference between the wm single and any table saw I ever used is speed. The wm eg50 will edge 4/4 about as fast as you want to push it through on oak.
PC
I was about ready to buy one of those wm single saw edgers until I seen it wasn't power feed.
Paul, I wish I would've got that edger for $750, that's a steal!
Considering a Baker 2 blade unit, but Riehl looks nice (and fairly close to me).
Is it power feed? Any caveats or issues with it?
The Baker is tow-able, so that's a definite plus for it.
Yes the Riehl edger is power feed.
It is still working well for me.
PC
Look around and see if you might find a Miner. I bet mine is 60 years old and works great. Meadows mills bought them out and parts are still available.
Yes, look for a miner; good advice
I've talked to meadows about the miner edger, they were very informative and helpful, and yes I've been keeping an eye out for a good used I can afford, probably far overkill for what I need, but for the right price and condition, why not. Thanks for thinking of me and this thread.
Miner looks like a great unit. I'm too looking and will keep an eye out over my way (East Coast).
I was about to purchase a Baker 2-blade unit. Due to the talk about the blade change difficulty, have been shying away.
Any further elaboration about this or someone who has one that will endorse it?
thx
My dad and his brother climbed into a '72 Ford dump truck and drove from North Georgia to Meridian Mississippi to bring back a used Miner from the original company. That was somewhere mid 70's. We even still have that ole dump truck, used almost daily. The edger has been a great piece of equipment. One saw stationary and one selectable from 4 to 12 inches. It can edge up to 4 inches thick. Increadibly simple and built like a tank. In my 41 years I can remember changing saws once. It wasn't all that bad, maybe half days work. I know there are still a bunch of them still out there. You may have to dig them out of a junk pile but they are easy to get up and running.
Quote from: paul case on October 09, 2017, 09:02:49 AM
Yes the Riehl edger is power feed.
It is still working well for me.
PC
I'm interested in one also. How straight does it feed and cut? Do you have to fiddle with it to get it right?
Straight cutting is easily attained. The worst problem we have is a board with tension that wants to do all sort of moving when cut. However we make mostly stringers through it and they only have to be 4' so I am not sure how it may do on longer stuff. I expect it would do fine. Getting trained to help it hold straight was no trick, but we didn't have to worry about that at all with the belt feed on the baker.
PC
I'll endorse the baker. Blade changes are not that difficult IF you remember to move the lock collar. The one at work has edged around 3-4 million foot of lumber mostly oak. Hyd. variable speed is the best thing since sliced bread for an edger, allows you instantly go from 1" feed speed to 2" speed with the move of a lever.
Just scored a Baker 2-blade and, gheeesh....where's this thing been all my life! :o
Original owner put a Kubota diesel on it, so it's a rip-snorter!
With the LT40 and the edger, can completely bury a helper on the other end.
On the topic of safety, I am VERY safety minded around the equipment. The Baker's "business stuff" is so far down the line from the operator, I'd feel safe even letting my teenage kids edging.
A caution I'd make is to be sure to not have any loose clothing, etc. but other than that it would take getting onto the belts and past the kickback fingers to grab you.
Good for you!
How thick will it edge? I had a friend with one that was essentially the same as mine, but his had bigger blades and the kickback fingers were raised up some to allow for edging thicker boards. Seems like his would edge 10/4 or maybe 12/4.
PC
I purchase a Baker edger new last year. It is stationary with 20 hp electric and the larger blades. My only word of caution or recommendation would be to take out the spacers between the kickback fingers and add finger side by side all the way across. Alternate the short and long fingers. The tips of the fingers are thin and I had several that showed signs of being curled or bent back. Also add the lasers and you will love this machine! I'll take a few picture of the fingers and post them.
Took a few picture today that will show the reason for my concern.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39234/IMG_1337.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1508179191)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39234/IMG_1456.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1508179283)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39234/IMG_1455.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1508179359)
Great edger just a little better now.
Awesome pix and mod! Can you show one about how you added lasers?
Thx
Will be glad to show pic of the lasers, I'll take a few pics and post them. The lasers will be so helpful you will never give them up. I can put a pencil mark on the end of a board and when the board comes out the other side it is gone cut runs right through the mark.
Wow!! I need that--like yesterday! 😳
Thanks!
I purchase two CL 810 lasers from Cemar Electro Inc., they project a red line. You can get the laser to run on 9 volt batteries or 110 outlet. I am stationary and the edger is electric so adding a receptacle was simple. The pictures should help explain the obvious.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39234/IMG_1467.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1508381602)
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/39234/IMG_1469.JPG?easyrotate_cache=1508381757) Adjusting the laser is very simple, to start pick a wide board you don't care about. Mark the laser line in two places close to the anti kickback finger and out near the end of the board. Hold the line on the mark and feed the board through the edger. Bring the board back around and measure the distance from the cut to the mark. Then mark the laser line again and measure our the appropriate distance and adjust the lase line to the new mark.
Excellent info! Thanks for your efforts.
Are they bright enough to work outside? My edger is portable, thus is outside almost ALL the time.
I was thinking about lasers for my LT40, but the dealer said that they aren't very good outside in bright sunlight.
Hopefully the Cemar ones are bright enough!
Thx
If you are in bright light the green will work better I am told. Haven't used them but the folks at Cemar should be able to help. Umbrella may help to, for you and the laser :D :D :D :D.
Hoping to get mill and edger under roof yet this year. The tasks list keeps growing. :o