Trashed bandmill blades

[pineywoods]

I think I must have set some kind of record today. Trashed 4 bands in one day, none of them on yard trees.  The culprits---dry-wall screws. My logs, came from trees killed by a fire. Hunting camp, burning garbage, killed half a dozen trees. In each case, 2 screws about 6 inches apart. After destroying 1 blade, I got out the metal detector, but it didn't find 2 inch screws buried couple inches deep. Even if you find them, they are just about impossible to pull out, and they are heat treated, very hard steel. My first thought was, must have been paper targets for practice shooting, but no bullets found...Dang expensive 2X6 's 

[brdmkr]

I feel your pain!  I have hit trash metal in the strangest and most unlikely places.  The last time was to hit steel shot that was embedded about 40' up in a pine.  What are the chances of having steel shot in a pine tree and what are the chances of actually hitting the shot with the blade?  Still, I trashed a blade.

[WDH]

I hit a bullet from a second log in a tree 2 weeks ago.  I was wondering about the story behind it.

[Kelvin]

squirrel hunting or tree climbing deer.
KP

[Bothy_Loon]

Think one of the worst things I ever hit was when I was milling a big old Beech. Some body had stuck a beer bottle in the base of it & over the years the tree had grown found it. When the saw hit it tried to get round the bottle & went into the steel work of the saw carriage.Then flew off the band wheels just for good measure. 6inch wide band fit for scrap after that.

[Chuck White]

I have to agree with pineywoods!

The worst thing to hit with a bandsaw is a sheetrock screw.
They have a high carbon content and a bandsaw just will not cut them.
In a heartbeat the blade is ruined.
Luckily, I've only ever hit one! knock on wood

[Rancher]

Not very much metal in our woods, thank goodness. Even so, last year I cut a 16" ponderosa that I thought would make a saw log. Since I had more firewood orders than lumber at that time, I blocked it up. When I was splitting it, three blocks had tunnels and lead slugs three-forths of the way through from black powder practice. Just luck.

[mike_van]

That is a BAD day pineywoods - Hope they wern't all new blades - 

[Cedarman]

Yeah, but think how may times you have missed that steel shot and didn't even know it.

[Robert Long]

Try hitting a ceramic hydro line insulator buried deep in the log!
That really hurts!  As to why the metal is in a forrest tree, perhaps it's deer hunters who build platforms for hunting.

Robert

[woodhick]

I agree the ceramic insulators bring things to a halt quick!   Last year I was doing a show for a local  woodworking club.  Guy has a small  10"x 4'  hickory log wants to know if I would cut him out a 2 1/2"  thick piece to make a handle for his cant hook.   Same old story I ask him if the log came from a yard?   yes but I know there is not metal in it.    He was about 70 years old so I figure he ought to know if it came out of his yard.  I told him I would cut it but if I hit any metal it's $20 per band.  He agrees.  Crowd of about 20 onlookers watching.   Anyway first cut, drywall screw, trashed band.     I tell him thats $20 bucks he said ok put another band on and drop down 2" and cut again.  I put on another band ( I did put an old one on and not a new or resharp one).  Drop down 2" cut into 2 more screws in a different spot.  Trashed another band.  I tell him your up to $40 now.   He asked me to put on another band and turn the "log" over and cut it.   I said no I'm not trashing anymore bands.  You've already got more in this  "log" than you could have bought a new handle.  He agreed and paid me the $40 he owed me.    He went home with an expensive piece of firewood that day.

[backwoods sawyer]

A file is right up there with an insulator and a bottle.
 
I had a customer that wanted a large Black Oak milled up. It had stain coming out it all the way around. Before I started he agreed to buy up to a box of new saws, but that would be the stopping point. It was a slow and tedious task to remove as much metal as we could and mill that log. We went thru eight saws and had a coffee can full of nails, wire and a file.  However, he was happy to us the tree to build new cupboards, which had stood in front of his house that he had lived in for 50 years.

I have also had a set of double cut twins turn to shrap metal when they hit a flat file. Took every tooth off both saws then the saw bodies shredded until they snapped. When you are 10’ away from the saws, a cement pillar can become your buddy.

[sparky]

The worst experience I ever heard of was a circular mill hitting a shotgun that was imbedded in a large cherry log. The owner of the log wanted a mantle for a fireplace. They hit the gun on the second cut. They pulled to log off the carriage and the owner used wedges to split it. The bluing from the metal parts had died the wood. When the sawyer was convinced there was no additional metal in the log, he made a facing cut. The owner had a fireplace mantle with a perfect relief of a shotgun. This happened somewhere in Illinois.

Sparky

[markct]

yup went to saw one quick ash plank today and didnt notice the 1 inch pipe backrest the log sits against was up about a half inch above my cut, went thru the pipe like nothing but was just barely able to finish the cut feeding slowly