edging aged lumber

[ohsoloco]

A few months ago I was ripping a bunch of (solar) kiln dried red maple to make children's building blocks.  I have a 10" table saw with a 1-1/2 hp. motor (220 volt).  The wood had a little tension in it, and was binding up, burning, etc.  I removed the 10" blade and put in a 7-1/4" blade, which had a much thinner kerf.  No problems ripping all that wood 

[tyb525]

It probably would do a fine job, I've edged a few very old boards with my mill and it works great.

The dry wood will dull the blade a bit faster, but like Dodgy said, 80 year old wood is no harder than 5 year old wood.

Maybe they are just afraid of nails being in the lumber, or that your lumber is full of dirt.

[WH_Conley]

One thing the band miller could be looking at is time, especially if not running a log deck. I use a dead deck or skids. Sit a bundle of lumber on the skids, my boy can grab one end and flip it against the backstops, I stand it up while he is getting another board. Once you have a system down it goes real quick. If picking up one board at a time and putting on the mill it would be a killer on time.

[5quarter]

Hi Randy,

   The reason a 7" blade tends to run better in some cases is probably the rim speed. A larger blade has a higher rim speed and can cut faster generally, but when you are pushing Thick stock through the saw, you either have to slow way down (not good) or risk tripping a breaker. The motor is just not large enough to power the saw in that application. A smaller, thinner blade has a lower rim speed, cuts a narrower kerf and requires less hp to run. it is slower, but but much easier on the motor and  blade.

   You've gotten some really great advise. I'm guessing alot of us would love to have the problem of all that lumber...hehe. You'd better sort through it carefully though. Rough sawn stock really doesn't show grain pattern very well. i'd be skip planing some of that stuff before deciding to nail it up in your barn. Good luck with the project.

Chet

[shinnlinger]

reiterate everything that has been said here about thick wire gauge, short length of cord, and see if you have the ability to go 220, but the smaller blade is the easiest.  If you can find a good carbide unit from a 6" trim saw all the better(just make sure you have the right arbor size).  A riving knife will also help.

[barbender]

The smallest blade that is big enough to get through what you are cutting- using a 7 1/4" blade in your 10" saw is like using a lower gear, plus a thin kerf  7 1/4" is way thinner than a 10". The problem is the depth of cut, you will likely only be able to cut through your 1" stock with this set up. Someone mentioned a ripping sled, a ripping sled would be a straight piece of stock that you can clamp your wavy edge board too, the straight edge registers against the fence so you can make a straight cut. I'm sure if you do a web search you can find something. You also need to check out your table saw set up, make sure you fence is square to the blade, etc. 2" thick hardwood is going to be a challenge on a direct drive low hp saw no matter what.

[redbeard]

 



These are some jigs that several of the members were talking about to get a good straight edge, Free handing a chalk line is not a safe method. one pic shows a clamping jig that i use for 1x6 - 1x10 anything wider i will use short heavy duty screws and screw a straight board on edge of board to be ripped just run the straight board up tight against your table saw fence and you will get your edges you are looking for.( Note: Drywall srews tend to snap the heads off on really hard dry lumber thats why i like to use heavy duty screws and you will have to deal with screw holes in your finished product using this method.

[Randy88]

Thanks for the explainations everyone and the help and as far nail holes by using a ripping sled that won't be any problem, nobody is going to see any of this anyway when we are done, it'll all be covered up with osb board and tin.   

My thoughts on using a band mill are not totally wrong then, it should really be no problem just some extra time and slower going is all.    Thats the comment dad made anyhow he and gradpa always used to set up the sawmill and when they needed larger stuff ripped narrower they just used that, thats part of the reason why we have never had a large table saw, it wasn't needed, but the mill is in major need of repair, it was getting in bad shape the last time grandpa used it we were working on it constatntly but since it was his baby we kept quiet and just did what we were told, now after all those years I understand why dad told me to keep my mouth shut and do as grandpa said, he told me at the time some day you'll understand and now I do.   

[isawlogs]

  I often use a jig like that pictured by redbeard, I use it with my skill saw as a guide, a board screwed to the centerof the unedged board used as a straight edge and you can saw both sides with a circular saw. I have made my straight edges out of 1/2" X 8' plywood. If you use a cicular saw , get some wedges and put them in the saw kerf as you are going down the board, this is only to keep the blade from bidding. A set of saw horses and a few straight edges will get you boards if you can't get anybody to come out with a sawmill.
 Buy a few thin kerf rip blades and a good cicular saw and go for it. My straight edge boards are for 6" 8" and 10" Sometimes the mill is not as close as you would like, sometimes its just too cold to justify starting the old girl up 

[Randy88]

Thanks Isawlogs, we were just sitting here reading and discussing just that, screw a board down as a straight edge and use a circular saw on the thicker stuff, thats got some cupping to it and curves to it, that might be easier to do than try to double cut the larger stuff on a table saw with a smaller blade.    It gives us some thngs to try out anyhow.    Thanks for the ideas guys.   

[Fla._Deadheader]

 Just as an example, I just finished ripping 2" X 6" of wood harder than anything you can find in your area. I used my Skil brand Skilsaw. I "fingered" the edge of the stock as I went, using my finger as a guide. It will be all used for trusses for my shop extension.

 I used "Contractor Pack" 7¼" Dewalt Blades. They are now so dull, it is impossible to cut your finger on a tooth of those blades.

 My suggestion is, get a worm gear drive Skilsaw, or a 16" Makita Skilsaw, and put smaller blades on it. You need POWER and SHARP blades.

 I had to use a short extension cord, as these 2X's were 20' (yes FEET) long. My longer extension cord would have too much resistance and the blade would spin slower. Want photos ??

 It's MUCH easier shoving a saw down the boards than shoving boards into a binding situation on a table saw.  You can feel the binding and adjust your pressure direction to allow for it. Also, use something behind the cut for a spreader. Reduce the bind and you are golden.

 Set up some saw horses, load a few boards on it, and snap a line on the board as you go. 2 people will make it go plenty fast.

 That's how I do it, down here in the Jungle.

[carykong]

Going from a 10' blade to 7.5' blade will give you less tip speed but more torque. Kinda like sawing in a lower gear. Less load on the motor but slower cutting,blade tip speed is reduced.  You can,also, put a smaller diameter pulley on your motor for sawing in a "lower" gear.  If you really want to tackle lots of ripping on your table saw,I would consider the advise already tendered. Go to a 5hp,220,single phase,with a small pulley at the power side. You will have a plenty of low end power to cut that 2" stock.  Keep your blade waxed and well adjusted and square to the fence. Post back with your solution. You can,also, lower the gearing of your table saw by increasing the pulley diameter at the blade.

[carykong]

sorry,I missed some the posts that pretty much reiterate what I said. Also, failed to see that you have a direct drive table saw. So my advice on changing the pulleys is kinda useless. Good luck,whatever solution works for you. 

[Randy88]

Last night late the only bandsaw miller that didn't get back to me called and said he'd give it a try, he's new to sawing and he bought a new cooks bandsaw a couple of years ago and wanted to try something different and said in the next week or so to bring it up if I'd help him handle the lumber, sure no problem there, so we are going to try that route first, he made no promises but couldn't see any major probem why it wouldn't work, he charges by the hour which is fine by me, that way everyone gets treated fairly and I think he sounded excited to try something different, he admitted he'd never done aged wood before and wanted to see how slow or fast it went and what was invovled.   It basically shocked me he was willing to even try but I think curiosity was getting the best of him.   

So as they say thats plan A, plan B was to put a smaller blade in my big 10 inch circular saw and set up a straight edge on the plank and cut them that way, plan C was to use my worm drive circular saw, and if need be cut from both sides.    So at least we have some plans to go with or a combination of any or all of the above to try.   

Another question, what kind of wax and how often do you put it on the blade?   

I still haven't given up the idea of the larger table saw, maybe a 3hp 220 model, are the imports any good, say a jet or a grizzly or somthing like that for a part timer or a occasional user.   Or for a used saw whats a brand or model to look for thats descent?   

We are looking to put up a large shed in the near future, like 60x140 with a full lean on one side about18feet wide and it'll take a lot of lumber for sheeting boards or 2x's used as sheeting and maybe its time to invest in something bigger, we are still looking at what inventory we have around here to use up and what we need to buy but thats not for a couple of years yet

Thanks and I'll keep you posted as to what we ended up doing and how this undertaking goes.   Thanks for now.

[barbender]

I'm glad you found someone that will try it Randy, I'm anxious to see how it turns out. That method will be the least work by far. BTW, when I put a 7 1/4 Frued thin kerf blade on my old direct drive table saw, it cut way faster than if it had a 10" blade on it. You could hardly tell it was cutting. It's worth a try too, just remember, your depth of cut will probably only be about 1 1/4".

[isawlogs]

 Glad you have a plan for the lumber edging. If he( your new to you sawyer) don't know of this place .. give him a hint 

 I am sure all will go well and you will get a whack of it edged !!!

[Randy88]

You guys wanted an update as to how it went, so here goes, the sawyer has been busy so its not his fault but I have help right now and couldn't wait for him to do it for us,so we ended up doing some experimenting and heres what we found and did, the clamping the board down as a straight edge didn't work very good so we gave that up pretty quickly, it was beyond slow going and were having a lot of problems with the blade binding and we decided to look for another plan of action, the worm drive saw didn't fair much better, it too got hot and was really slow going.   

The final solution was this, one of dads table saws was belt drive and after some questioning out of my local electric motor shop we put on a larger hp motor that ran at only 1750rpm vs the 3400 with the older smaller motor and we got it rigged up and tried several different blades to find one that seemed to work really good for some reason, it wasn't the least amount of teeth but one more in the middle for teeth a 24 tooth ripping blade for some reason worked the best.   We did some experimenting with pulley sizes and found a combination that worked really good as well. we worked one entire day and got most of what I needed done and the motor never kicked out or blew any fuses as all, worked like a charm.   We spent three days to covert things over to the slower larger motor and some experimenting, the new motor is more of an industrial grade electric motor and has a lot more torque than the old one ever did, so all in all we did do pretty good.    Thanks for all the input and help.