That Thang!!!!!

[macurtis]

   Everywhere I mill lately there are a few old codgers
who come to look. They never make reference to the pretty
orange and black WOOD-MIZER as a sawmill. Its always
that thang!  Who makes that thang, how many boards can you
cut in a day with that thang. They look at it from every angle,top,
side, front and rear. I thought one fellow was going to lay down
under the mill to see what the underside looked like. But, they
like to see that thang cut wood. I think it brings back memories
of what it was like to run a sawmill of yester year. Is your sawmill
a thang??

[Bud Man]

So how is that thang doing ?  Any thang out of the ordinary or has work become ordinary and un- exciting ?  Got any thang to share with us ?

[Bibbyman]

I’ve had about a half a million of those ol’ codgers look at my mill also.  They always ask;  “How’s the log move back and forth on that thang?”

[JoeyLowe]

   Hey guys!

Mike, when you coming back through east Texas?  Maybe you can stop by this time?  I was sawing some logs the other day and this old fella comes by. (He recently suffered a stroke and the state just revoked his license, so he was felling kind of down and blue cause his mind is still sharp, but the body is failing.)  He wanted to know if I could teach him how to run that thang.  I let him sit in the chair and gave him a whirl back and forth.  You would of thought he was ten years old.  

Bud Man, did you decide to get the mill yet?  If you do, here is some more experiential wisdom.  Stick with the WM blades and belts.  I gave the orange ones a try and they slipped more than blades than I care to admit.  I also ordered a couple of boxes of blades from Suffolk and four of the blades were trashed.  Everyone that I have received from WM have been excellent.  Must be the quality controls in place.  Give me a call when you get a chance so we can continue our conversation.

[macurtis]

   Joey we are going to the canton flea market next wed. and
stay through the weekend. If I can talk the boss into a
ltttle detour, I will give you a call. Speaking of blades, I
let a local expert in the next county sharpen 10 blades,
they would not cut a straight board, tried all 10, same
thing. I boxed them up sent to WM, the first one I tried,
I cut 1000bf of pine and it was still cutting when I left
for the day.  If all 10 are this way, then WM knows
how to sharpen blades.

[Bud Man]

My financial flow was lower than I realized and It will be latter June before I can get my chips stacked properly, maybe combine anniverisary trip with getting mill ?  As far as blades and everything else It will be totally WM till they fail-me and I don't expect that to happen !

[JoeyLowe]

Hey Mike:

I'll be in New Orleans next Weds. but then I'll be home the rest of the week.  It would be great if you could stop by the yard that I've set up.  It's kind of rural but it's working for me right now.  If not, I can drive over to Canton.  

Hey Budman, I understand about cash flow.  Mine ebbs in and flows out!  I can honestly say that I have given both Woodmizer and Suffolk ample opportunity and have made an honest comparision between both.  Woodmizer wins hands down.  Be kind of neat if they could make orange blades too.  Speaking of blades, how do some of you more experienced sawyers track your blades.  I have found that it is easy to lose track of how many sharpenings or where a blade came from when cutting a full day.  I typically have two boxes, one for sharp blades and one for dull blades.  I was thinking of using a marker on the inside of the blades.  Is there any tricks of the trade that I should be aware of?  

Happy Memorial Day!

[Tom]

Joey,

I've been through that and it almost drove me nuts.  I tried to keep track of too much stuff on the blades and found that it wasn't benefitting me even if I were able to keep track of it.  I basically stopped when I found that I was able to commit to memory most of the problem blades.  My best move was to limit myself to ten blades and only replace worn or broken ones from my stock in the barn.  Since I resharpened my own,  I knew which ones had been on the mill and how many times.  Now I don't even bother trying to keep track of anything unless there is a problem and use new blades when I want and sharpen when I've nothing else to do.  It  makes for quite an inventory of blades that need to be sharpened.

If you want to mark damaged blades or special sets, or what-have-you, try using a magic marker on the inside of the blade.
You can write to your hearts content on the inside of the blade and it will stay there until the blade guides wear it off the next time you put the blade on the mill.  If you write on the outside of the blade, the writing, sometimes, will stay on there  through several sharpenings. (unless the kerf closes on it.)

I try to keep in mind what my goals are.  Basically they are to cut wood; and before I get too envolved with record keeping, I ask myself, "how much wood cutting time will this take up and will it really benefit me?"

[woodmills1]

i also almost got stuck in the records thing.  now i have 2 gross separations and 2 fine ones.   blades that hit stuff vs not is the first one.   blades i am using vs those on hand are second.  also i sharpen my own.  good for the cash flow.

[woodman]

  I guss Iam just lazy use them put them in a box when dull send box to WoodMizer about ten day latter allnice and sharp onley in the good ol U.S.A.

[JoeyLowe]

I'm not one for a lot of record-keeping myself.  I was just curious as to how you guys keep track of the blades and the number of sharpenings on each blade.  I know the obvious answer is to dump the blade when it won't hold an edge anymore.  However, that opens up a whole new can of worms.

Whether you use Suffolk, Woodmizer or whoever to sharpen your blades, the cost typically falls under $10 per blade, plus shipping and handling both ways.  That makes resharpening cheaper than ordering new, but still an expensive proposition.  Purchasing my own sharpener and setter seems the way to go, but even they are expensive with most costing between $2-$3k.  So my next question is what is the best performing, yet inexpensive sharpener and is it possible to find used sharpener/setters or are there other alternatives that I am missing?

[Bibbyman]

When we still had our sharpening equipment,  I would run my blades over the grinder but not the setter the first time they were dull.   I’d use them on some “light duty sawing”.  Then the next time they were dull,  I’d send them off to Re-sharp.  

It sure saved a lot of time on sharpening and the $$$ but they never cut as good as the Re-sharp blades.  Mary would shy away from using them.  Finally,  I gave in and started sending all our blades to Re-sharp.  We lucked onto a couple of Mennonite brothers that ran a Wood-Mizer but sharpened their blades by hand.  We sold our sharpening equipment to them and we are both happy!

I’ve been tempted to do about the same thing by putting the blade down of the truck bed and using a fine-toothed file or a heavy whetstone to take a stroke off each tooth.  Again,  sending the blade to Re-sharp every other time.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  I pulled in to get gas the other night and an ole boy asked me "What's that orange thang thar behind your truck?"   When I told him it was a sawmill he says " No, really what's that thang?"  I told him it was a $21,000 dollar wood splitter.  He just grunted and said that he got one from Wal Mart for $450 and it was easier to pull around.  
 
 Joey,
 I used to mark the back side of my blades with a "A" and a line  with an ingraver to track my blades.  I now own over 70 and could care less.  I have 15 that are missing teeth and I use them for root balls.  The rest I use as I get to them and keep 20 to 30 in the mail to re-sharp a  time.  They do such a good job that I do not keep track any more other then which box is in the mail.  I get 800 bdft with a blade in red oak and 1,000 in cedar and pine so that is less then 1 cent a bdft for blades.  It cost about $8.50 per round trip and they replace bad blades so inventory stays the same.  It is one less thing for me to worry about or watch and if I do not have sawing to do then I am going fishing or hunting.  Sharping blades does not pay and I could not do as good as job as Marty.  Besides   how many blades could you buy and sharpen for the cost of the machine?
ARKANSAWYER

[LeeB]

HAs anyone tried sharpening by hand with a hand grinder? I tried a few, but haven't used them yet. Thought I would give it a try to see how it works. These are old blades that I was going to trash, so nothing to lose. LeeB

[Tom]

I played around with a manual sharpener once.  about all I was able to do was face grind.  It must take a real artist to gum and backgrind with one of those things.  Gimme a automatic with a cam anyday.