Swingblade bed and bandsaw blade ideas

[woodbowl]

How much of a shock load do you think you're going to get?  .

I don't know. I didn't even consider it a factor untill I started going through some of my old pics.

Circlemills that are belt driven are simular to a shock. Swingmills are direct to the gearbox, yet have belts between the motor and gearbox. It sounds like everything has some sort of shock absorbtion.

Here are a couple of more pics of the homemade dimensional mill.

This is the above view, it almost seems too simple doesn't it.



This is the below view, I remember the owner telling me that there is a shimmy or labor vibe in the cut and he thought it may be from the fact that the horizontal blade follows rather than leads. Mobile Dimensions configures this blade to lead.

[DanG]

Woodbowl, I can't tell a whole lot about that mill from the pics.  Did the guy not build in any lead adjustments for that edger?  That's a major design error if he didn't, IMHO.  My MD feels real good with about 1 mm of lead in the edger.  Flat works fairly well, but anything more negative than that will lift the saw right off the beam.

[woodbowl]

Did the guy not build in any lead adjustments for that edger?

I should have said that the edger trails the main vertical blade. Your MD edger blade runs ahead first.

There's some geometry going on here that I don't quite understand. Somehow, there is more stability with the edger leading the way.

Somebody knows something here, I can feel it! Where's sawmill John at?  :P

[DanG]

OK, we was talking two different "lead/follow" relationships. :D :D :D

The main reason I can see to have the edgers out front, is so that the vertically sawn face is released from the log last.  That way, the board doesn't drop onto the trailing edge of the edger blade.  Another design error, methinks. ??? :

[woodbowl]

That makes sense, he probably had some missiles because of it.

I've heard the swingblade talk say that if you cut the vertical first the board has a tendancy to want to close up on the blade, but if the edge cut is made first it releases the tension that would cause that.

He may have been running into something like that too.

[DanG]

The tension that would cause that would be gravity. When my headsaw releases the board from the log, the board drops ¼ inch.  When this happens on my saw, the edger is already well clear of the log.  On rare occasions, when removing the "standing slab", and that slab is skinny enough to miss the following knife behind the saw, the slab will take off across the yard.   It usually only makes it to the end of the mill, but I've had them launch about 30 feet before.  It ain't something I'd want happening on a regular basis.

[Ron Wenrich]

Vertical edgers are always in front of your main saw, for all the reasons that DanG said.  As for the tension, I have had slabs that will curl behind my board splitter and will cause some problems.  Usually its on a crooked log, or a log with a lot of tension.  If I split the slab, a lot of the tension is released, and it straightens the board out and clears the board splitter.

As for missles, I've had my share.  Since I'm moving my log through the saws, I may get pieces that won't quite clear my head saw.  On the return, those pieces sometimes hits the vertical edger.  I've put edger strips through a 1" board wall.  We have since put metal plates up to help preserve the wall, but, now I'm starting to knock them down.

[genegillis5]

This shock coupling in the picture looks like a clutch for a brush hog shaft. Do you suppose this would be to allow for kickback and shock too? Would a brush hog gearbox work for the gearbox on a swing blade? Just a thought. If not appropriate , please remove my 2 cents.