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Jeff and Chet visit Menominee Saw

Started by Jeff, April 01, 2005, 08:16:14 AM

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Jeff



PART 1 :)

Earlier this week while I was visiting in Da U.P., Chet and I were tinkering with the cable drive Barker Rimsaw that Noble had sent to me via Roy May, who delivered it half way across the country to me at the Paul Bunyan show in Ohio. Anyhow, we had the blade off and was discussing the manufacturer of that very blade, Menominee Saw, one of our Forestry Forum sponsors. Since they were only a couple of hours drive from Chet's we decided to take off the next morning and go visit this company that has been building, repairing and sharpening all kinds of saws for over 100 years.

We arrived unannounced about 11 o'clock that next morning (toting that rimsaw blade), entered the office and stepped up to the counter and asked if Ben Mroz might be there. The gal that greeted us said, yes, but he was leaving for an appointment in just a couple of moments. We said we just wanted to say hey, so she steped back around the corner and said "there was a couple of fellows here wanting to say hello before you leave". Ben stepped around the corner and we introduced our selves. Ben and I had talked several times on the phone but had never met in person.

Let me tell you folks, if you get treated as customers even a quarter as well as we did as unannounced visitors, you will be returning to Menomiee saw time after time after time for thier service.

We showed Ben the Saw blade and asked if he thought they might be able to fix it up. Pretty dumb question on my part since they built the thing probably 40 years prior to that. Of course they could fix it, and after the tour Ben set us up on, if I wanted I now know they could build me a brand new one.

If it's a saw, they can fix it. If its beyond fixing, they can build it. If its dull they can make it sharper than it has ever been.

Ben did have an appointment and had to leave, but hooked us up with another gentlemen named John, who took us through a set of doors on our first part of our tour. To visit with Peach. :)



Peach is the Saw Filer for Menominee Saw. Quite a fellow. Hopefully you will all get to know him as he has become a member of the forum since we met. Peach has been working on the big saws for many years at Menominee Saw. He has reparied or tensioned now over 22,000 head saws. TWENTY TWO THOUSAND!  Figure that out. :D  No wonder he has arms like Popeye. thats a bunch of steel to be flipping around.  Its very clear after spending just a little time with Peach that THIS MAN KNOWS HIS CRAFT!

Of course, as we walked in, the Rimsaw blade was noticed. I showed it to Peach and we talked of its origins. I told him that they had made that blade many years before. Peach is very proud of his company's history and we had a great conversation revolving around one of the things near and dear to me. OLD STUFF! :)

Here is a photo of Peach taking a good look at the Rim Saw blade.




Although I have been a circle saw head sawyer for over 25 years, I  have never had the opportunity to see a "Saw Doctor" at work. I mentioned this to Peach, and that was all it took to get to see him do his thing on the next blade he was working on. A Circle saw blade sent to him clear from Colorado. Peach works on blades from all around the country, not just Michigan.

More to come. Next up? Photos taken as Peach gets that old saw from Colorado ready to run again for an old Belsaw Mill....

Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

MULE_MAN

OK !!!  I'm ready for  Part two . Where's it at  ???  Your going to have
to pick up the pace a little Jeff.   ;)  ;D
Wood-Mizer LT40HDG25 with Simple Setworks, debatker, 580 CASE backhoe

Jason_WI

If you were at Menominee you were only 18 miles from my place........across the bay that is ;D ;D

Where's part 2?

Jason
Norwood LM2000, 20HP Honda, 3 bed extentions. Norwood Edgemate edger. Gehl 4835SXT

sprucebunny

This is great ;D
I always wanted to know how they tuned up a circle blade.
That part about it being a left or a right....you gonna tell us that ???
MS193, MS192 and an 026  Weeding and Thinning. Gilbert Champion sawmill

Tom

This is starting out to be a good story.  I  like stories. :)

tnlogger

 8) 8) lessons in how to rebuild a saw  :)
gene

Doc

But when do we get the next lesson? I wanna SEE!

So far it is really cool. I wanna see some more.

Doc

Jeff

 :D I'll add some more some time today.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Tom_Averwater

He who dies with the most toys wins .

chet

I weren't too sure about ole Peach and da saw Doc thing at first.  ???  When he was gonna give us a little demonstration on da saw dat he was trueing, he turned out da lights.   :-\ 
But once he started explainin' things, while he worked and checked da head saw it all made sense.  :)  Even if we were in da dark.  :D
I am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

Jeff

Part 2

The saw Peach was working on, as I said had come from Colorado, it had probably been sitting for years and was quite corroded, especially one side where Peach figured it had been sitting in sawdust. It is destined to go back and bring an old belsaw sawmill back to life. Peach had the saw cleaned up when we arrived, he had spent over an hour on it just getting the rust and scale off. My biggest surprise from Peach as Chet says, was when he snapped off the lights and said he works in the dark. I thought he was kidding. He wasn't. It was pretty dark with just a sliver of light coming in from one wall toward where peach was working. All of the photos I have in this area were taken in those conditions with flash. They came out better then I thought they might.

Hopefully if I get a few facts askew here, Peach will jump in and correct me.  ;D

Peach began by checking the gauge of the saw. He was also checking for thinning of the plate.


I soon learned, that the darkness and the light were both tools of the saw filer. What you don't see in the picture below is the sliver of light underneath the gauge Peach holds against the saw.


The guage is a 560 RPM gauge. He places the guage on the saw at a certain position between the eye of the saw and the rim and flexes the saw. The saw, if tensioned correctly, follows the form of the guage. If it doesn't, you can easily see where it does not by the light passing between the saw plate and the guage. Now you don't do this in just one place. You have to check in several places around the circumference of the saw. After some checking Peach told us that the saw was actually in pretty fair shape but he thought that the rim needed to be tightened a little bit to close up the gap he saw under his guage. He did this by easily moving the saw over (Popeye) to the machine below for "rolling" the rim. I cant remember the name of the machine or the number of tons it takes to roll that rim even, but it did it in short order.



After rolling the rim, Peach put the guage back on the saw both as it layed down, and after standing it up. The rolling had brought the saw into the guage and showed that it needed no further work. I was sorta disappointed not to get to see him pounding a saw, but I can guarantee you, I am going back up there again if he'll let me, and spend some more time and find out how he goes about that too!

Peach and Chet got to visiting and turned out they know quite a few of the same folks.

Talk turned back for a few moments on my rimsaw blade. I told Peach it was no hurry, but it was obvious the way he was looking at it he was plotting in his mind the way he was going to attack it. :)

Peach, I want to thank you for the visit, the demonstrations and your time. and also, Welcome to the Forum! :)

More to come...
Next up: More Saws!
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Jason_WI

Chet,

He was just keeping you in the dark. He didn't want to give away his blade hammering secrets.

Jason
Norwood LM2000, 20HP Honda, 3 bed extentions. Norwood Edgemate edger. Gehl 4835SXT

asy

Quote from: MULE_MAN on April 01, 2005, 09:07:47 AM
OK !!!  I'm ready for  Part two . Where's it at  ???  Your going to have
to pick up the pace a little Jeff.   ;)  ;D

Hey!

Go easy on the man...

He's still recovering from the CARDIAC ARREST that DanG CKTate gave him this morning.

Now, I'm not silly enough to post in THAT thread...  So I'll Say what I gotta say here...  ;)

CK! You were VERY NAUGHTY! If'n you were closer I'd put you over my knee for that one!!!

Just remember, it's already APRIL 2nd here! And I wasn't expecting an April fools joke on April 2nd!

I was figuring maybe all those Paulownia had seeded and yer wife had maybe banned ya from the forum!

We're all waiting for the apologies, as are several ambulance services around the globe.

asy :D   oh wait, thats:  >:(
Never interrupt your opponent while he's making a mistake.
There cannot be a crisis next week. ~My schedule is already full..

sigidi

Always willing to help - Allan

Roxie

Watching a master of their trade do their work is always interesting and fun.  I gotta wonder how a fella that looks like Peach, got the nickname Peach.   :)
Say when

SwampDonkey

Although I don't own a saw for milling I'm quite interested in how folks use them and keep them running. This is quite an interesting thread and well worth taking it all in. It's quite an exorcise in itself just posting and typing the story behind them, and just as important trying to remember what peach told ya's while he was working away. :)

Good stuff Jeff et al
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

submarinesailor

Jeff,

Outstanding story line!   8) 8) 8) 8) Waiting for more.  I maybe a band runner (WM LT15), but I love this stuff.

subsailor

chet

Quote from: submarinesailor on April 02, 2005, 03:30:48 PM
Jeff,

Outstanding story line! 8) 8) 8) 8) Waiting for more. I maybe a band runner (WM LT15), but I love this stuff.

subsailor


They do bands too..........big bands.......little bands ........and in between bands........dat part of da story is still to come.  :)
I am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

Captain

Thanks for the intruduction Peach,and welcome. ;D

Out of curiousity, do you see many of the smaller diameter circle saws coming in, say 18" to 26" in diameter??  How does tensioning them differ from your lower RPM headsaws??

Thanks and Welcome again,

Captain

SwampDonkey

Your providing a 'GREAT' service to the sawmill community their peach. Glad to have ya on board. This is a great opertunity for us folks to learn, or at least see, how things are done to keep them blades run'n in circles. ;D :)
"No amount of belief makes something a fact." James Randi

1 Thessalonians 5:21

2020 Polaris Ranger 570 to forward firewood, Husqvarna 555 XT Pro, Stihl FS560 clearing saw and continuously thinning my ground, on the side. Grow them trees. (((o)))

chet

Peach,
I'm gonna give er a try today and see if I can get my ride down my driveway.
I'm hopin' to take a cruise ta Iron Mountain. Da real trick will be gittin' er back in da yard.   :-\
I am a true TREE HUGGER, if I didnt I would fall out!  chet the RETIRED arborist

Doc

And I thought I was hard core riding int he rain and cold down here! Geez! I don't care to kick mine over at 24 degrees......

Doc

sjh

Peach
Do you guys cut blades down? I have a 56" f that I would like to make into a 52" b pattern.
Thanks
Scott

Jeff

Part 3

As much as Chet and I were enjoying our visit with Peach and watching him work on the saws that I know best, we knew it was time to move on to see more. Menominee Saw as I mentioned, deals in all kinds of saws. The next area we visited was for smaller circle saws, such as gang saws and edgers, or swing mills or anything that utilizes circle saw technology. They do anything you want there from getting you new blades to reconditioning what you already have, including insert tooth, solid tooth, or re-tipping of Carbide or Stellite tips. Below is just a glimpse of some of the machines in this part of Menominee saw.



Other machines in this general area are busy grinding chipper knives and veneer knives, working on cut-off saws, you name it, the list gos on and on!

I know, this part was short, but

Lots more to come!

Next up, Menominee saw is big! Across town to another complex! Bandsaws!
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

Captain

Thanks Peach, having a professional blade guy on the Forum is Awesome

8)

Captain

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