Blade heat?

[DextorDee]

I just got my mill so I don't know doodly, Its a Turner and I was told that the blade did not need a lubricate. Today I was talking to a blade mfg. and he inform that the blade should be cool to the touch after  sawing .( I stop the engine before touching it) :
Well my blade is not cool to the touch, I would say its HOT..
  .... Thought maybe yall could help me with this . I'm sawing pine. ..  ??? to lub or not to lub  ??? Adjustments  ???
Thanx for any help

[Tom]

Lub, Dextordee, Lub!!

I don't care who makes the saw,  the blade has the same need from one to the other.  If I were skidding along the pavement at 100 mph on my keester, I would hope that I had a bucket of oil in my pocket.

The blade lubricants purpose, mainly, is to keep the gum and sawdust from sticking to the blade.  It also can help to keep the fibers in a narrow kerf from rubbing on the blade and heating it up.  When the gum sticks to the blade, (pine can be a major offender) it causes the  blade to be thicker and, in effect, narrows the kerf which is almost the same thing as taking the set out of the blade because the blade starts to rub.  The more heat that is generated the worse the rubbing and.........  you can imagine the vicious circle I am describing.

The Lubricant keeps the wood products from sticking to the blade until the centrifugal force of the wheel can throw the stuff off.  Too much lubricant can cause the sawdust to act like mud and too little allows it to stick.  You have to find the in-between, correct amount that will keep the blade clean

Water makes a good lubricant.  Soaps in the water can make it better because it makes it wetter.  

Some folks use oils like Kerosene or diesel or mixtures of these and bar oil.  You will hear of all kinds of concoctions.  I prefer clear water with occassionally a little soap.  You have to make up your own mind what works best in your situation.

There are other things that will make a blade hot other than Lubricants.  You should also check these.  
The blade may be slipping on the band wheel.
The blade may not be adjusted level with the bed.  You should have no "lead".
The blade may be rubbing on a piece of the mill.
Your blade guides may not be proberly aligned.

Anything that will cause the blade to heat up will cause "gumming" and thet includes a dull or poorly set blade.

This is a subject that gets beat to death every time it is brought up because there are so many variables.  It is one place were the "art" of sawing shows up amongst all the rules of the "science'"..

I'll quit for now so someone else may write a novel, but understand that sawing is a perpetual circle of education and there is no one correct way

[Bro. Noble]

Welcome to the brotherhood of sawdust producers,

There are three things that come to mind that will make a saw blade hot:  the need for sharpening, not enough set, and pitch or sap buildup in the blade.

You can hear a lot of opinions on blade coolants or lubricants  mine is that you don't need either as such, but you need to run something to keep the blade clean.  Pine, ash, hickory, and persimmon are some of the worst offenders that I come across.  Sycamore will clean sap off of a blade.  

I watch the blade as I'm sawing and run a little water when buildup starts.  In the winter, I sometimes use a detergent 'squirt' bottle and give the blade a shot of water when needed.  You will learn to recognize buildup as you are sawing---the blade will become dull in appearence.

As for sharpness of blade,  don't wait for miscuts----when the blade begins to get dull, change it.  It will save you time and make your blades last longer, not to mention having a lot better manufactured lumber.

Noble

[ARKANSAWYER]

Dextordee,
  Welcome to the forum.
  You must be wide awake when you saw to notice that your blade is hot.  I have tried to get people to understand how hot the blade gets.  I run water and pine oil on mine and also murphy oil soap.  The blade runs alot cooler and are shinny as a new nickel when I get done sawing.  Also they last long enough to be worn out.  
   Blades will make or brake you and I take the best care of mine.  Some times it is hard to tell which ones are used and which are sharp.  If you buy a new blade at $20 and saw 1,000 bdft that is $0.02 bdft cost.  If you sharpen it several times and use it for 4,000 to 5,000 bdft you can get the cost lower.  But no matter what your cost per bdft if the lumber is crappy you can not sell or use it.
  I vote for Lube.
ARKANSAWYER

[woodmills1]

If the blade is dull the sawdust will also be hot,  after you check for rubbing and slippage, if you find non then go with the build up idea.  I spray a deisel and bar oil mix out of an old squirt can, but only when I get build up.  I get lotsa feet and lotsa sharpens, and don't give up ona blade till it breaks, gets trashed by metal, or is so short it wont sharpen.  By the way the new belts for my drive and idle wheels are still sitting in my dump truck 5 months after I bought them.

[RMay]

Arkansawayer is the pine oil & murphy oil soap in your water lube stopped up your screen at the tank on your mill how much are you using to 5 ga. of water.  I have stopped my screen up using it.  I was using 1 cup to 5ga.I have went back to using one bottle rubbing alcohol to 5 ga. of water .

[C_Miller]

Pine oil = pinesol? or is that south of Mason-Dixon for something else?

C

[woodmills1]

here's one.  lestoil is great for soaking pitch off of things like circular blades and planer knives.  I mean it just washes it away after soaking, so back a few years ago I added some to the cooling fluid in my blade sharpener.  whoops >:( about 10 blades later the bearings in the grinder moter seized right up.  My guess is that the lestoil washed the lube right out of them, back to plain water for me. check out this for tips on blades.     http://www.suffolkmachinery.com/

[ARKANSAWYER]

  It takes very little pine oil, like 1/4 cup per 5 gallons of water and even less murphy oil soap.  I lost my screen many, many months ago.  The murhpy oil soap just about stops the blue stain of the blade on oak.  The pine oil works good on keeping pine pitch off the blade when sawing pine.  I tried some Simple Green and it was not much better then just water.  I use a gallon of washer fluid mixed in in the winter.  Any thing is better then nothing.
ARKANSAWYER

[D._Frederick]

Cooling System,
Is anybody putting water or what ever on both the top and bottom of blade? I noticed that WM has spraying nozzles on both sides of blade on there bigger mills.

[BRP]

Ditto on the other replies and welcome to the forum.I used water and Pine-sol for the longest time then started using deisel fuel and wow what a difference in hardwood,no stain or smell.Two gallons a week instead of five plus gallons a day.When the weather warms I'll go back to water.......maybe..... :-/
Hey ARKY is that Murphy's soap really that good?
Think I'll pick up a bottle and see.
BRP

[Lenny]

Welcome Dextordee
I use watter and dish soap.1/2 cup-5 gal.Below freezing  1/2 watter-winshield washer fluid
I use just enough to quiet the blade guide rollers.Occasionally a bit more in pine to keep the pitch from sticking.Listen to u`re blade guides you will hear the diffrence.About 3-4 quarts A day does it for me on 1000-1300 BF
                              Good Luck

[ARKANSAWYER]

Yep the murphy oil soap really  cut down the blue stain from the blade and water on oak.  The stain does not hurt the lumber and the green buyer does not worry about it but other people get up set when they see it.  A little goes along way and if you get to much in it you will get little globs of oil floating in the tank.  
  Only in really pitchy heart pine and hickory would I need lub on both sides of the blade.  I just start a cut and stop the feed and just run in one spot for a few seconds with the water flowing full tilt and it cleans both sides then I cut on through.  I often do this at the end of a cut if I am fixing to change blades.  
ARKANSAWYER

[Robdog]

Howdy friend!!!
    most anytime you operate you saw its a good idea to cool your blade with water. But with pine it is especially nessesary due to the pitch build up on the blade.(pitch is tree rosin and sawdust which along with the heat generated bonds to your blade) add just a simple simple bucket of water with a hose and valve to cool your blade.If temp is below freezing try adding a little windshield washer fluid. Just a couple of bucks will save you a lot of headaches. hope i've helped....  :P
     Robby

[woodmills1]

cut nice fresh pine today with a blade that had already done enough.  had to squirt every other cut till i changed it but no freeze no mess.  try the deisel/bar, oil way less fuss.  put on a new blade and squirt at beginning and once after 200 ft. 390 ft in under 3 hours, with abunch of shorts and skinnys.

[Jeff]

I am pretty sure I would not buy lumber that had deisel or bar oil on it for my projects unless it was simply for posts or trailor deck or something like that.. Do you ever have a problem with that?

[ohsoloco]

Speaking of the diesel/bar oil mix, Norwood said that they will not replace bearings under warranty if you use this mix because it corrodes the bearings (or something like that).  I think water (which they recommend) would be more harmful to bearings than the diesel/oil mix.  Go figure.  A sawyer that sharpens my blades says he uses straight diesel fuel for his lube (I think maybe a gallon or two per week).  

This lube question sounds almost as loaded as which brand of mill is the best  :D

[Brian_Bailey]

When I had my Sanborn Min Max mill, it ran a 5"wide band with sliver teeth. The mill had a reservoir that you poured kerosene into, a felt pad that rubbed against the blade wicked the kero to it. It worked real good, but I was not comfortable using it with all the combustables present.

[BRP]

Jeff,
I started using the deisel fuel a month ago and so far no stain or smell,it only takes one drop every five seconds.I think someone here gave me this idea....hmm....
If you think about it the largest mill here in Arkansas uses water and bar oil with nonfoam additives for blade lube.This is on the boards,sawdust,everything.They don't go through alot about 200 gallons a week.