edge board while sawing board

[wscott]

hi everyone
looking for info on the Western Sawyer Sawmill that is made in Washington state. it has vertical blades that can edge your board as you cut it. has anyone ever seen this, are know any that about it. looks like a good idea if it works? i am in nascar country, about 3 mill from The Rock.
thank wscott

[Tom]

Good Mornin' wscott.

I'm not familiar with a Western Sawyer.  It sounds like a fair idea to keep from having to remount a board or buy a separate piece of equipment.  But, I wonder if it negates the possibility of mounting "drag backs" on the mill.  Those trimmngs need to be removed from the mill as well as the board and it sounds like a lot of manual labor to me.

Now, not having seen one operate, I'm talking out of school. :-/  

[Ron Wenrich]

I can't find anything out about this type of mill.  Is it a bandmill or circle mill?

I run a circle mill with a verticle edger.  I can't imagine running a thin kerf band mill with a vertical edger.  Most of those units cut on the horizontal.  Woodland mills are the only vertical bandmills that I'm aware of.  Even they ran a seperate edger.  

Vertical edgers can be pretty dangerous.  I have a 1/4" steel plate on the back of the mill to catch edging strips and other chunks of wood that gets thrown by the edger.  Its pretty well dinged up.  I've put edging strips through a 1" wooden wall.  

I'd sure like to see what it looks like.  

[wscott]

have seen a picture of it. looks like the edger blades turn toward the band blade, they are mounted right behide the band blade. the picture did not show a drag back system but the way it looked one could be put on it. a lot about it i do not know. hope someone will enlighten us on this system. tried to call there phones put all i got was they were not in service anymore
thanks wsott

[Ron Wenrich]

Sounds like they went out of business.

I think I know how that edger can work.  The only problem would be how they power it.  Rule-of-thumb on circle saws is 5 hp/blade/inch of wood cut.  To cut 2" stock you need about 20 hp for 2 saws.

If you power that and the bandsaw from the same unit, it would probably slow you down pretty much.

[wscott]

well i found the man that invented the edger and built the sawmills but has since gone out of business. i have talked to him and he hopes to sell the idea to someone he is talking to, but thinks it will be a while before all this happens. he said, he had sold a mill with this edger on it to someone in ohio, but did not give me the person's name or any infor on this person. would like to talk to anyone that has this western sawyer sawmill with edger built on the mill.
thanks to all
wscott