Sawing Frozen Oak with Circular Mill

[Thomas Ruga]

Are there going to be any issues with sawing frozen oak. We need boards for a 48' trailer and the guys have the wood on the rack. We have never sawed frozen before....

Thanks for your thoughts in advance.
tom

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

What type of blade are you using?

[Peter Drouin]

A circular one :D :D ;D

[Ron Wenrich]

Depends on if they're frozen through or half frozen.  I don't think you're frozen quite through yet.  You'll be sawing 2 types of wood - frozen and unfrozen.  The sawdust may cake onto your unfrozen wood, and that will push your blade out.  It will also heat your blade.  After its totally frozen, the problem lessens.

Your shanks are going to have to be in good shape.  You don't want the spillage out of your gullets, which helps cause the above problem.  Also, your sawdust is going to be finer. 

You also won't be able to saw as long between sharpenings.  All that dirt that is on your logs will now be frozen onto them.  It is a lot worse if the logs have been laying on the ground. 

[torqueporting]

I have sawn frozen oak and pine in the past. Carriage speed was slower and we would get saw dust leakage that would refreeze to the log. Higher carriage speed would have lessened the dust but we didn't have the power to keep the saw speed up. Sawing fully frozen logs was better than sawing logs with thawed and frozen sections. We ran standall bits (best for frozen wood) year round.

My advice is saw at a slower carriage speed and make sure the bunks have a good hold on the log. Frozen logs are slippery and hard to grip especially when debarked.

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

that would be true Peter  ;)  :D You can still fiddle with a circ a lill bit but not like just changing a band that being said a Circ will cut bloody anything if the mills tuned rite  ;)

Thomas I assume your running a B/F pattern saw and I cant really add much apart from the time of year and the weather you have been having overthere you should not have to many dramas as the logs will be frozen properly so should make for pretty consistant sawing conditions how many teeth and what Hp are you running Mate  ???

I am pretty sure afew fellas with expeirence up your way will chime in  ;) "edit" Ron's Chimed in  ;) ;D

Regards Chris

[bandmiller2]

Tom, I doubt your logs are really frozen,you won't know till you cut them, don't think you will have any problems.My first circular mill was before forestry forum I didn't know I should be having trouble with frozen logs and never did.Theirs so many variables you just have to try. Frank C.

[Meadows Miller]

Frank Thats just Sawmillin aint it  ;) Its All Bloody Hard Going :D :D :D :D ;D ;D ;D ;D 8) 8)

[captain_crunch]

Don't freeze that hard hereabouts very often but when it does only difference I find is lots of steam almost think you are on fire : :

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

As mentioned, the issue with a frozen log is that the sawdust freezes and that creates rubbing, etc.  So, to keep the sawdust moving in the gullet for an inserted tooth saw, a special bit was developed called a Standall bit.  It has a small shoulder inside the gullet to stir the sawdust as it is in the gullet.  It works, as we used them in the wintertime in Virginia.  You can leave them in all year, but they do reduce the gullet capacity a little.

[Ron Wenrich]

There are also winter shanks.  It takes the place of the standall bits.  You can't combine a winter shank and a standall bit, because you end up with a reduced gullet size and the same gullet configuration as a summer shank and regular bit.

I never liked the standall bits, and I don't recommend them.  But, you can try them.  Winter shanks cost no more than a regular shank.  The standall bit costs about 20% more than a regular bit.  You change bits a lot more than you do shanks.  You can run a winter shank and regular bit all year long.  Most guys in my area do just that. 

[KnotBB]

Mobile Dimension used to offer "ice teeth" and basically they were just 1/16th smaller than the regular teeth.  I just started using them all the time because of the smaller kerf.