Sawing Straight and Fast

[Jeff]

I'll have to try and push harder. My lt30 speed control only works in one spot at one speed, so I got no choices.

[OlJarhead]

I think running with a high feed rate is easier to do with plenty of horsepower.

My saw has a 25hp engine, I don't think I can drive the band hard enough to not have sawdust left in the kerf.

You can but it's a toss up.  Even the 747s can leave some but it depends on speed I think so softwood more likely to see it maybe.

[Daburner87]

Were you using lube?  I feel like I have too much lube going to cut and having wet sawdust is hard to clean.

[customsawyer]

First off you have to have the horse power to push the blade/mill that hard. I can do it on softer hardwood (poplar, cypress, maple) and smooth pine. Dense hardwood or knotty pine I get more sawdust as I have to slow down a little. Lots of variables but don't be afraid to push harder than you think. Most of the time you should be hearing the engine loading up a little. If you overload it you will lose band speed and bad things start happening.

[Peter Drouin]

I push the set out a little on my blades 7t. And have a little sawdust on my wood, but, I dry, no lube all the time. For the timber in NH. Pine. Hemlock. Oak. So when lumber comes off the mill, I just tip the wood on its side, and it all falls off.
Pine, pitch will build up on the inside of the blade if I cut too slow. With my 51 horse Cat, I can cut fast enough for that to not happen.
Always cut to put a load on the engine, if it does not cut good change the blade. And new blades out of the box are not always sharp. I have opened a new box and had to sharpen before they would cut right.

[Dan_Shade]

Another point to note is that in woodmizer land, the super (and presumably 70) have a faster band speed than a regular lt40.

Pushing the cut as fast as possible has been the advice I've received when talking to experienced sawyers. 

@Jeff have you tried a potentiometer cleaner on your feed controller? Radio Shack used to sell one that took the scratching from my wah-wah pedal.

I found this on Amazon but have not used it:  

MG Chemicals - 401B-140G 401B Nutrol Control Cleaner, 140g (5 oz) Aerosol Can https://a.co/d/3vInSce

[YellowHammer]

It's important to cut to the maximum speed of the mill or band, but not the maximum speed of the alignment.  As mentioned, the mill should cut straight at full feed speed, to where the mill is at max HP, and just starts to fade.  That in itself is very difficult to do, but is critical.  

This does work with the non LT70 mills, I didn't have to scrape sawdust with my older LT-40.  I long ago threw away the sawdust scraper.  Even with that mill I would strive to hit the magic E flat note (thank for identifying it).  

One point that didn't make the video was remember when the band started to dive and the Diesel engine stared to lug at the same fed speed, and I had to slow way down?  That's how much Hp a crooked cutting band will rob, so if a band is always cutting a little crooked, it will steal so much power that a big mill seems like a weak mill.  Conversely, a straight cutting 25 hp will cut faster than a crooked cutting 35hp.

Even with a smaller mill, as I did with my LT40, it's possible to get a pretty clean board that needs not scraping.  

[Dan_Shade]

What profile blades are you running YellowHammer?

What did you run with your Lt40?

I run 10° and 4° with good results, but I do chase the "elusive" sawdust free kerf.  :D

[boonesyard]

One of the menu selections for the Yanmar is engine load, I run that screen always. 40-50% is the sweet spot.  

[Jeff]

@Jeff have you tried a potentiometer cleaner on your feed controller? Radio Shack used to sell one that took the scratching from my wah-wah pedal.

I found this on Amazon but have not used it:  

MG Chemicals - 401B-140G 401B Nutrol Control Cleaner, 140g (5 oz) Aerosol Can https://a.co/d/3vInSce

At some point I'll start a topic asking for help. No sense in my convoluting Robert's topic.

[Stephen1]

Were you using lube?  I feel like I have too much lube going to cut and having wet sawdust is hard to clean.

I was told to clean the blade after/before the cut, turn off the lube and make the cut. I do This is on Pine all the time. 

[YellowHammer]

I ran .055 Turbo 7's and even WM Hardwood 7's on my LT-40.  The thicker band will cut straighter at higher loads.  Yes, it will fatigue crack sooner than .045 bands, but using Silvertips will reduce that, and the time spent not scraping sawdust makes up for that.  

I guess the real goal is to minimize the amount of sawdust on a board to get to the point where sawdust scraping is eliminated, then that's a huge "step to save steps." One less thing to do.

I used Cotton Picker Spindle oil on my LT-40, mostly Diesel for lube on my LT-70.  At most, the sawdust should be dry and light enough where merely flipping the board on its side to sticker stack it should allow the sawdust to fall off.  Even if there is a very large log or cant, maybe it's necessary to slow down for them, but as soon as the cant get smaller, the sawing speed should keep increasing up so there is minimal sawdust on those boards.  Either way, no scraping.

Here is a real old video of my LT-40 sawing red oak.  Even though the mill isn't cutting as fast, there is minimal sawdust on the boards as they are being fed back, but you cant really see it that well with the low resolution video, other than the boards are being stacked as soon as the head moves forward and there was no scraping required.  Cut em, stack em...

Hobby Hardwood Alabama and Woodmizer LT40 sawing red oak - YouTube

  

[OlJarhead]

Was milling dead and super dry black locust last week.  Ate up bands like crazy and left so much sawdust on them I could have filled a bucket after each pass  

No matter what I did, I was just begging for trouble...fresh band and it cut well for 1 or 2 passes, then back to slowing down and hoping to get through the log!  Hardest stuff I've ever milled and I don't wanna mill it again! hahaha  Maybe carbides would have been better.

[barbender]

I was going to say, sounds like a good spot to try a carbide.

[Durf700]

thank you so much for posting great videos like this to help us rookies out!  please continue to do educational videos for the mill as well as your sharpener and setter. 

your videos have been a great help! 

[moodnacreek]

I saw my share of locust, some of it dead and steel bits dull quick so I use chrome. The smaller the saw the less abuse it will take and dead locust is abuse. Breathing the dust is no fun either.

[YellowHammer]

Thanks for watching the videos, I try to make them so they may help people not make the same mistakes I've made.

It never occurred to me that it may even help non sawmill owners, but this weekend I had that discussion with a customer who had watched this video and a couple others of mine, I guess for entertainment or he was bored.  Anyway, he had contracted with a local portable sawyer last week and quickly recognized the guy was cutting bad boards and our customer told him to stop and change bands!  I bet that went over like a lead brick!  He said immediately the boards started coming out straight.  Anyway, our customer said the videos help educate and allow him to get straight flat wood, even though he's never owned or used a mill.  I thought that was pretty cool.  

I'm glad some of the videos help folks out, and many time it revolves around questions or comments I read on this Forum, or I get from other sawyers.  

For example, one of the more famous YouTube sawyers called me this weekend and was telling me how he had a band dive so bad and hang in a log that it started smoking.  So he had to stop mid log and cut it out with a chainsaw and butchered up a lot of wood and time.  So I asked "Why didn't you do this, or this?" and he exclaimed "That's so easy!  I never even thought of that!"  So I'll probably make a video on the technique in the near future.

[Peter Drouin]

Green logs cut better than the dry stuff. 
Always charge more cutting dry stuff, 

[OlJarhead]

Green logs cut better than the dry stuff.
Always charge more cutting dry stuff,

I do, in a way ;)  I charge by the hour so.....

[Stephen1]

Green logs cut better than the dry stuff.
Always charge more cutting dry stuff,

I do, in a way ;)  I charge by the hour so.....

I also charge by the hr. I was sawing ash yesterday, have I said how much I hate sawing Dead ash, powder not sawdust. 5 blades for 6 hrs of sawing 4/4 1x8 , 1300 bd ft. . It turned out very nice for flooring, I think there was only 2 knots in all that wood.  I will suffer for a few days after. I have to rinse my eyes for days after. 

[OlJarhead]

Yup powder, that's what I see in dead dry locust and brutal on the band!