Problem with the Wide Head Turbo 7 Blade

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Im running the Turbo 7 blades on my wide head.
Sawing mostly Pine, Poplar, Oaks.

I can get several resharps out of each blade from Woodmizer.
I can use by resharp blades on above species with no problems as Ive done for years.

Now.....quite often Cedar jobs come in by the trailer loads.

I can put on a resharp blade that has only been sharpened once and you can bet your 
sweet bippy its gonna break and it will before it gets dull.....only in Cedar.

I had 4 break today within 2 hours.
1 break was in the weld and the other 3 was random breaks.

Again....only in Cedar.

There is nothing wrong with the mill.
Sawing perfect lumber from all species including Cedar.

I'm running 3,000 psi and pouring the lube when cutting Cedar.
Belts are fine and clean, blade rollers perfect, blade not touch anything its not suppose to when engaged.

I talked to WM in Ga. where I get them sharpened.
Lee said he would look into it.

I'm checking blades more often now and actually finding cracks in some of the blades 
when I start to hear them "ticking".

We all know that Cedar is a very abrasive wood and can be harder on a blade than other species.


I'm wondering if I maybe should go to a 4 degree on my Wide Head instead of using the Turbo 7
when sawing Cedar? 





 

[Bruno of NH]

I have a wide head and use turbo 7's but also use 4's on very wide cuts in heavily knotted pine.
The 4's don't wave around the knots as much
I have not broken a 7 turbo yet and have some that have been sharpened 3 times.

[E-Tex]

i had an identical situation a couple weeks ago.   saw'd 3400bf of SYP.  saw'd perfect for most of the day then broke 3 Re-sharp turbo 7's in quick order.  one at the weld.....these re-sharps were on 3rd re-sharp.

milled fine since then.  not sure what happened that day but i have managed to break a few re-sharp turbo 7's this year.

[donbj]

I've never used resharp but wonder, are you guaranteed the same blades back that you send in?

[Magicman]

No question that you absolutely get your same blades back from ReSharp.

ERC is very abrasive and will dull a blade quicker than anything else that I saw.  Easily within a couple of hours.  A dull blade is pushing back against the guide rollers and will break.

[donbj]

Wasn't trying to steer this in a wrong direction, just asking. I've cut lots of wrc and yes it heats the blades up very quick, especially larger wood with lots of heartwood.

[ladylake]

No question that you absolutely get your same blades back from ReSharp.

ERC is very abrasive and will dull a blade quicker than anything else that I saw.  Easily within a couple of hours.  A dull blade is pushing back against the guide rollers and will break.

 
 A dull blade is pushing back against the guide rollers and will break..  

 You hit the nail on the head, get the flange on the blade guide 1/4" behind the back of the blade which allows some push back before hitting the flange.  You will get better blade life.  Steve

[Peter Drouin]

No question that you absolutely get your same blades back from ReSharp.

ERC is very abrasive and will dull a blade quicker than anything else that I saw.  Easily within a couple of hours.  A dull blade is pushing back against the guide rollers and will break.

 A dull blade is pushing back against the guide rollers and will break..  

You hit the nail on the head, get the flange on the blade guide 1/4" behind the back of the blade which allows some push back before hitting the flange.  You will get better blade life.  Steve

Funny When I saw I'm up against the flange all the time cutting and get 4 or 5 sharpenings
with a 1 1/4"x 55x 7t all the time. Maybe cutting to slow dulling the blade gets hot and snaps.
Then I don't cut much ERC. Good luck goat man.

[ladylake]

  

 When something gets out of adjustment and the flange gets too close to the back of the blade I'll get 1 or 2 sharpening at most out of a blade, with the flange 1/4" back most last 10 to 15 sharpening's , The only way  I can see not breaking blades with the flange to close is sawing slow in soft wood, with a higher hook angle which doesn't push back as much and maybe over tensioning the  band which would keep it from pushing back as much,  Steve

[YellowHammer]

Where are the cracks originating?  In the gullet or on the back of the band? 

[xlogger]

I agree with Steve and MM your blades are too close to flange. I had more of a problem cutting ERC awhile back also more than other species. I did move my flange back a little from the blade more and I think cutting cedar the bark is stringy than others species and you get bark going around you wheel also. I put on a deflector for that. On the lube, I don't run any lube when cutting cedar and the blades last several sharpening maybe 10, can't really keep up with the numbers. I mostly run Kasco 4 degree.
I also find out if you get your blades with build up on them cutting other logs like pine, etc. I can make a few cuts thru cedar and it cleans the blade up for me.

[Southside]

For the guys getting 7-10+ sharpenings out of a band, is that a full profile, CBN, type of grind or are you using something else? 

[xlogger]

I've got a WM 250 with CBN wheel.

[ladylake]

 I'm using a Wright drag sharpener.  Steve

[Sixacresand]

Nothing to do with the original blade breaking in cedar post:

I kinda thought the function of roller flange was to prevent the bands from sliding off the main wheels. I did not know you could set them back.  For sure, if I get "hung up" in a log and try to back the mill head, the band will come off the wheels.  (And yes, YH's method works sometimes)

On the other hand,  the WM LT10 did not have any roller guides and the band always stayed on the wheels.  

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Good advice y’all.

The cracks I find are at the back of the blade.

And yes, I get my same blades back I send to Woodmizer......always.

I’ll check the flange.

[Magicman]

Cracks in the back indicates to me that the blades are being flexed back because they are dull.  Yes they may and can contact the blade guide flanges, but they are being flexed back that ¼" to do so. 

My blade guide flanges are well polished because stuff happens.

[Peter Drouin]

And you have to turn them a 1/8 " away from the inboard side turn to the right looking at the back of the blade.
You don't want to pull down on the back of the blade.

[moodnacreek]

Only in cedar? What about frozen hemlock top logs?

[Southside]

Yup, lots of frozen Hemlock in South Carolina..

[moodnacreek]

Yeah, right, thought the problem was in N.H.   Eastern red cedar and frozen hemlock knots will chip carbide teeth, just an example of how these two share a sawing problem.  If you are sawing with chipped tooth corners [and heating the bands and cracking them] I would think you would not be able to saw straight enough to do this.

[millwright]

I am surprised to see some of you only get 2-3 sharpenings , if I don’t get at least 8 or more it is unusual . I am using a WM cbn wheel on a homemade sharpener and set every other time.