Woa is me!!

[maple flats]

Hit my first nails today. In the past if my detector said 8"+ I could believe it. Today detector lied. Said 8"+ and I set for an 8" cut, guess what?  They (actually 5 nails, most likely 16 penny) were at 5"-6.25" down. My back up metal detector found exactly where they were, results= 5 chipped carbide teeth (out of 6), 3 on 1 edge, 2 on the opposite edge. I resharpened the teeth and it still cuts but not as smooth, may have bent the blade some too. I guess now is the time to find out how good Peach at Menominee Saw really is. I plan to finish the one remaining log on this job with this blade and send it out for repair. I'll update you when it comes back on how it cuts then. I must have run out of good luck this time, should have figured it was lasting too long to last. Somebody  said in a previous post (I think it might have been TOM or FDH or some other much wiser person than I) that they will never use 1 nail when 5 will do, guess he was right! Now, why did I wait so long before ordering a spare blade? I knew I would eventually need one! I think poor planning invites that Murphy lawyer fella.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Can't believe nails will damage a blade. I doubt if you got that blade really perfectly sharpened. I would grind it some more and see if it gets better.

[maple flats]

I'll try grinding it some more but some of the chips are really deep along one side, not really much left to grind on 2 in those spots. Grinding enough will leave very little carbide thickness,  ( FDH) do you have a min. thickness that must be left on the blade to give it enough strength? The width would still be good but front to back would be VERY thin. I will also see if I can check for straightness from one tooth to the next, (are they all still hitting in the same plane as the blade revolves?). I was going to send one blade in to Menominee Saw soon any ways to get them to make some replacements, the ones from Peterson are good but the DELIVERED price is out of this world. If Meneminee"s replacements are equal or even better they offer a very attractive price delivered compared to new from NZ.

[Ron Wenrich]

I've hit tons of nails and they normally don't do any damage to the saw.  They certainly won't bend the saw.  Railroad spikes, horseshoes, hammerheads and other heavy metals are another matter.   :D

What generally happens is that your tooth is no longer the same on both sides.  The saw will lead towards the long side.  If you have only one or two teeth, this will cause the saw to jump a little in the cut.  But, that's with a big circle saw.  You are looking at damage to 83% of your teeth.

I can file a tooth that isn't damaged too bad.  I also can swage a tooth, and get it back to cutting.  In the worst case, I'll take a tooth out and put in a new one.

But, since you are running carbide, you don't have that luxury.  You can't swage the tooth.  Swaging is moving the metal around, usually from the center to the outside of the tooth.  So, you are at the mercy of what you tooth looks like.   Too much lost on one side will cause the saw to lead in the opposite direction.

I'd send it out to be retipped.  It will be like a new saw.

[Fla._Deadheader]

Ron is correct. I sentcha a PM.

[Timburr]

WOA is the operative word here ;D

A T.C.T. tooth is fairly resilient when it comes to cutting through hard material.....iron. Because of it's hardness, it doesn't like high impact.
If location of metal is known, drastically reduce feed speed to say ½" per second and the risk of tooth damage is greatly reduced.....although DanG ceramics are put into logs to test us all >:(
It's a case of striking a balance between time, board value and blade repair cost.

I'm not advocating to seek out and mill any metal you can find : just saying it can be done in an emergency.

I have 4 blades and in the worst case scenario, 2 are being serviced, 1 milling and 1 spare

[Mike_Barcaskey]

maple, why do you think the detector missed the nails?

[Don P]

I think you might well have knocked one or more teeth out of line. A slight bend at the shoulder will have it cutting out of the plane of the rest of them. Your blade is more like one of my skilsaw blades than a big circular insert tooth. I knock teeth off them and warp blades pretty frequently on skilsaws when striking metal. If you hold a pencil with the point perpendicular to the blade just behind the carbide and spin by hand you should be able to see if everything is running true. The sawshop can fix any of the damage you've done. Timburr is right, its the impact, if the steel can vibrate it busts the carbide also. I did run a 1" thick adjustable molder bed plate into a carbide crown cutterhead one time. It was snug but not tightened down and so just slid into the carbide head. It cut the prettiest crown molding you could ask for into the bottom of the cast iron table and didn't hurt the carbide. After a change of shorts we were back in action again  ;D.

[maple flats]

Mike_B, I think the battery may be getting weak, I'll Change it. The detector gave me a false depth by at least 2.75". I can't right off think of another reason but then again, I am new to this GAME. Might also be the metal I removed 1 layer above the hit with staining in the wood. Not sure if this threw off the reading. This job is about 4000BF of Oak and ash. Most logs in the size of 18-30" at thew small end. Found metal in the first log and the one I started this thread about which was next to the last log of the job.

[Tom]

I don't think I would trust that gismo that tells you how deep the metal is and whether it is a quarter, gold nugget or railroad spike.

When I find metal with my detector, I get out the ax, chisel, hammer, pliars and crowsfoot.

Even if your detector says that there is metal at 5", it doesn't tell you how deep it goes.  It just says that you will find metal at 5".  It could be a 2 foot piece of wire or a BB.

The detector can only report on the "configuration" it sees.  The rest is assumption.

I've found that the best approach is to let the detector tell me something is there. Finding what it is, is my job. :D

[Part_Timer]

Peach does fine work.  I got one to hot (new operator error).  They retensioned it no problem.



Tom

[maple flats]

Thanks. So far I have not heard even one negative about Menemee Saw.