water & Pine-Sol as lube

[beerguy]

Please don't laugh. If a guy was to put too much soap in his water mix (lube), could that cause his blade to slide off the wheels, even at full tension?
And on an unrelated note, how many teeth can be missing from a blade before it is considered scrap? (like a blade sliding off the bandwheel) Can a guy just grind a tooth off even with the bottom of the gullet and call it a skip tooth?  

[Gilman]

Beer Guy,
I've talked to a few of the forum members and they've said between two to three teeth in a row can be lost and they'll still run it.  I lost 5 in a row and have my own grinder, ground it down till there were 2 missing tips. It worked just fine.  Not many sharpenings left in it but I have the benifit of working in a shop where I can let the grinder go with minimal attention to the band.

I'm saving those blades with extra missing teeth for the iron rich logs. Or for my own logs, or for burly logs that the debarker doesn't do you much good.

Lubes?  Better get someone's else's advice.  I'm going to try the costco degreaser once my "free" case of lubemizer runs out.  I have noticed a difference between pure H2O and H2O and lumizer lube though.

Oh!, one final note, you MUST have your lube system turned on for it to work.  I found that out today  

[UrbanLogger]

Shoot beerguy, sounds like the time I decided to spray my blades with silicone  

I've intentionally made skip tooths out of nail bitten blades to saw real wide wood--doesn't overload the gullets as much.

[Kirk_Allen]

Beer Guy: I  use pine sole regularly and have found it works great.  No I dont think you could make your bands come off the wheel with to much but lets just say it has not ever happen to me.

When I cut Fresh Green Hickory I use a whole bottle of pine sol in my water. No problems yet!  I know its overkill but it sure makes a difference on that sticky stuff.  

Kirk

[beerguy]

I checked my wheel alignment and found that my drive side wheel was off about a 16th of an inch. I have lined them up again, and hope that the situation is back to normal. Perhaps it is a combination of the two? Thanks for the posts. It is good to have a support group.  I am in the process of sawing hemlock for a few sheds, and I only have 10 days left before I go back to school, and a new baby arrives at the house. I do not have time for sawmill malfunction!

[Swede]

I used a blade that missed 9 teeth in a row on my own logs, a sharped "log pole blade".   It worked but I had to feed a little slower and you could see on the surfaces on most boards the blade wasn´t OK.

Swede.

[Tom]

It's not just the surface of the board that is the concern.

If you use a blade with missing teeth, take note of the vibration caused to the sawmill and the "hammering" that takes place on the guides.  Too many teeth missing will tear up  guide bearings. and may even do damage to bearings on the bandwheels.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  I run about a shot glass of pine oil and a squirt of Dawn in my water jug.  Keeps the blade clean and jug and lines.  When I run just pure pine oil my tank gets a white film in it and after awhile it looked like cottage cheese in there.  Dawn keeps it clean.  Murphy oil soap works well.  In the winter I add a gallon of windshield washer fluid to keep it flowing.
ARKANSAWYER