Blade lubricant

[timberfaller390]

Hey yall, what do yall use for sawmill band blade lube? I am using water but I have heard this is a bad idea but it's cheap and plentiful. My blade sharpener says he runs diesel in his but I wouldn't want that on the wood I was cutting and it costs to much. The main problem I can see will be this winter, it doesn't get real cold here but it will get cold enough to freeze my water barrel. Any suggestions on an additive to keep my water from freezing that won't stain the wood I am cutting?

[Dan_Shade]

i use 5 gallons of water, and about a cup of pinesol, a few ounces of vegetable oil, and a squirt of Dawn dish detergent.  During cold weather, I use a mixture of the -20 degree windshield washer fluid.

I don't like the idea of using deisel fuel, though many folks do use it.

[Kansas]

We have tried about everything, and in the end we always seem to go back to diesel. It just makes cutting white oak that much easier, and you never have to worry about it freezing. At one time, we did switch to bio-diesel, but ran into a gelling problem with that. It doesnt seem to hurt the wood any. There seems to be two downsides. The first is people having to handle the wood. The second is the cost compared to water. Still, I think increased production more than makes up for it.
If you want to stay with water, as Dan said, the windshield washer fluid does fine.

[Dan_Shade]

i'd also be afraid of increased fire risk with deisel fuel.

i have a lub-mizer on my mill, my bands come off the mill very clean, which makes sharpening and setting much easier.  A clean blade is a happy blade

[Chuck White]

The guy I bought my mill from used a blend of Gear Oil & Automatic Transmission Fluid in a windshield washer tank from a car, so it was pressurized, he'd press the switch and out would come a glob of oil.  I wouldn't want that stuff on my lumber.

I fill my water jug almost full, add 1 cup of used vegitable oil and about 3-4 table-spoons of Dawn dish soap.

Cold weather, I'd use 1 gallon of windshield washer solution or 1 gallon of RV antifreeze mixed with water to almost fill the jug.

[timberfaller390]

The way my outfit is set up is I have a "water tower" which is a 55 gal. drum on its side with a faucet right next to the mill so all I have to do istake 2 steps to fill my lube tank. I need to treat this also and it sounds like yall are mixing 50/50 or 60/40 anti-freeze/windshield washer fluid and water. are my calculations about right?

[Tom Sawyer]

Water with windshield washer fluid in the winter.  I have never had problems cutting white oak or anything else, and my blades come off the mill clean unless I don't change them soon enough and they get dull.

For you guys using veggie oil, is the dish soap to keep the oil suspended in the water?

Tom

[John Bartley]

Summer : water, with 3tbsp of PineSol per gallon
Winter : same as above only the water is mixed 50/50 with WW fluid before adding the PineSol. I quit cutting at -20c. I don't think it's good for the saw and it's hard on me too!

I think (although I haven't tried it) that diesel would work well and be very economical as long as it's applied sparingly. I don't think the fluid we apply to our bands is as much a lubricant as it is a solvent to remove pitch. Diesel applied in very minimal amounts should keep the blade lightly coated with an oil that should prevent pitch from adhering to the band in the first place. I think I'm going to try a spray bottle of kerosene on my next outing and see how it works. I wonder if mineral oil is cheaper than diesel and if it would work as well?

cheers

John

[woodmills1]

50/50 bar oil and diesel from a dish detergent bottle, applied when I get build up or the blade is noisy.

[bandmiller2]

The woodmizer where I'am a part time sawyer we don't use any lube.My own bandmill I made a wick arrangement that rides top and bottom of the band leaves a slight sheen with diesel and oil mix.You never see or feel any on the wood,keeps the band clean and rust free.Frank C.

[John Bartley]

..............My own bandmill I made a wick arrangement that rides top and bottom of the band leaves a slight sheen with diesel and oil mix.You never see or feel any on the wood,keeps the band clean and rust free.Frank C.

Frank,

Any chance of seeing a couple of pictures of your setup for holding and feeding the wicks? I have a couple of ideas, but it never hurts to see what others have come up with.

cheers

John

[VT]

I made a wick arrangement that rides top and bottom of the band leaves a slight sheen with diesel and oil mix.You never see or feel any on the wood,keeps the band clean and rust free.Frank C.

I too would like to see your setup please. I haven't purchased a mill as of yet , But i have a chance to work with a LT40 Hyd/ gas woodmizer thats hard set as I am in training.
I have 2 logs and 6 4x4 , 6 1x6 so far under my belt, 2 hours time and i broke nothing 

Trying to get to the mill to work , time crunch (for me i call it play now) is hard , but i must set some my time to learn and follow the gent who's taking time to teach me.
 

[milling man]

i use about 1/2 cup of cheap dish detergent per  5 gallons of water in the warm months and then when it starts to get cold i use 1/2 gallon of rv antifreeze with the detergent and 4 1/2 gallons of water this has helped out. i have been wanting to try some pinesol to see if it will work better than the soap i still get some build up with the soap sometimes.

[Chuck White]

For you guys using veggie oil, is the dish soap to keep the oil suspended in the water?

Tom

Tom; The dish soap is added to make the oil emulsify (mix) with the water.  It works pretty good, but you'll need to use less oil or more soap if the oil starts to float on top of the water in the jug.  The back & forth movement of the mill usually keeps the water/oil/soap mixture stirred up pretty well.
I get my veggie oil from local people who do the deep fried turkey thing.  They only use the oil a couple times then they change it.
I don't know what the oil will be like in cold weather, but the jugs that I have in my cabinet are kind of cloudy right now.  I'll probably find out this coming weekend!

[kelLOGg]

I used to consistently use diesel for all species but now I use it only for pine. For hardwoods I use nothing because it is plentiful and cheap and for my cutting it works. I probably don't cut as much as most folks on the FF but when I do I find that hardwoods just don't gum up my blade like pine. My wheels are crowned steel so heat dissipation is good so the blade doesn't get hot - maybe that helps keep buildup down. Lately I've cut only dry hickory and chestnut but green hardwoods seem to behave similarly - no buildup.
Bob

[thecfarm]

The big debate again.     I use half diesel and half bar and chain oil.But I only saw for myself most of the time.Some claim it will stain the wood and won't take a finish where the lube comes in contact with the wood.I have a very slow drip when I saw and I mean SLOW.Maybe a drip every 3-4 seconds.I doubt any harm would come to that small amount.But I'm not sawing wood for a customer either.I can tell when I need more due to the noise of the blade so I go with less most of the time and adjust from there.Depends allot on what you are sawing too,I would think.I mostly only saw white pine and hemlock.

[musikwerke]

For those of you interested in a wick or blade wiping setup using diesel, see the photos in my gallery.  I installed the high performance blade guides on my Wood-Mizer LT30 and adapted them for diesel by removing the factory spray nozzles and making my own nozzle out of a brass pipe plug drilled with a #72 drill bit for the orifice.  I used heavy felt cut into strips and punched a hole in the end so that they hook over the protruding pipe plug and loop around the guide on the top and bottom of the blade.  An old lawn mower gas tank, a hand pump mounted atop the raise/lower gearbox and the tubing completes the system.  It works great for me.  I give the pump a jab whenever I hear the blade getting noisy and then wet it down good at the end of the day if I'm not going to saw again the next day.  I don't think I used a gallon of diesel all Summer.     

[backwoods sawyer]

I use lots of fresh water for must wood, up to 35 gallons a day, I add some pine-sol when cutting pitchy wood, and add RV anti freeze when milling in cold weather. I blow out the lube system at the end of the day. I had a problem with the lube system one and dribbled a 50/50 mix of diesel and bar oil on the saw every couple of cuts to quiet the saw. A quite saw is a happy saw.

[ladylake]

Summer I use water with a little dish soap.  In the winter diesel, just a drop every 3 or 4 seconds which is less than a gallon a day, cheaper than 5 galloins of windshield washer.  I might use diesel all year but don't like the smell.    Steve

[bandmiller2]

John and VT,sorry I've not figured out this picture thing[no real excuse] let me try to explain it.Picture a 6" piece of 2x2 square tube with boath ends blocked.One end is hinged so it can swing up and down the outher end has a 2" piece of 3/4 id pipe welded up and down.Two holes on the top one tapped for a pipe plug the outher for a piece of wick,that comes out the top and down through the short pipe to rest on the band.I use a mixture of diesel and oil that wicks through and leaves a light sheen on the band I've never seen a drip one quart of mix lasts forever.The wicks are from the old time road bombs to mark trenches.The wicks phisically rub and clean the band as they deposit lube.When your done milling you flip up the assy. wick up and it won't drip.Frank C.