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log wizard - blah

Started by Engineer, February 17, 2004, 07:40:42 AM

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Engineer

Well I bought one to debark my nasty frozen dirty pine logs I been sawing.  Put it on a Stihl 025, which spins it fine, but the blades got dull after like 5 minutes.  It appears to have carbide tipped blades, but they barely skim the top layers of bark off without some major effort on my part.  Maybe it's just the frozen and dirty nature of the wood, but the blades *feel* dull.

Anybody else had this experience?  I dunno what to do, if I have to change out blades on this critter I might as well not even debark 'cause new Woodmizer blades are CHEAPER!

I did find that a SHARP ice spud makes short work of big pieces of bark once the wood is exposed.  Still sucks on frozen logs though.

raycon

I just emailed Baker these questions. I have not bought one yet.
One of my questions for Baker was how much life out of the cutting edges should I expect?

How many logs can you debark in five minutes?
Lot of stuff..

Swede

 Thank you for telling about that debarker. I was up to buy one.
I´ve seen a disc for an agular grinder 5" /12000rpm. There was 12 to 16 peaces of metal on it, the same metal (in swedish: Coromant) you use to drill holes in stone. Do you think it can be good for debarking?

On pictures and on Bakers video I have seen you let logs on the ground at your side. We NEVER do that in Sweden and if a costomer in a future wants me to saw logs let in the mud I´ll tell him a lot  >:( about it!

Swede.
Had a mobile band sawmill, All hydraulics  for logs 30\"x19´, remote control. (sold it 2009-04-13)
Monkey Blades.Sold them too)
Jonsered 535/15\". Just cut firewood now.

Brian_Bailey

I use Makita HSS blades that I get from Home Depot.  When they get dull, I'll set them out a little farther on the drum until they're pretty much rounded over and definately need to be resharpened.

I get quite a bit of mileage out of them between sharpenings.

Even though I have the debarker on my Mizer, I still use the Wizard to get most of the crud out of the mill's blade path, both sides of the cut.

The Mizer's debarker has a habit of just cutting a groove in an imbedded stone and well, you know the results  >:(  :D.

I've been pleased with the wizard, it's not a cure all, but it sure beats cleaning logs by hand.
 
WMLT40HDG35, Nyle L-150 DH Kiln, now all I need is some logs and someone to do the work :)

Tom

I have a friend that uses the wizard to carve dough bowls.  It is a wood eatin' fool.  You can adjust the blades in and out to take more bite just as you would a planer or jointer blade.  Perhaps your blade is not set to take much of a bite.

Wes

Mine works preity good,I put it on an old homelite XL-12 its preity cool,whenever I set up at a show and the crowd dies down, I fire it up and everyone comes back to see what all the niose,smoke,and flying dirt and bark is all about!! 8)

your problem is probably an adjustment.

Engineer

Yeah it may be an adjustment.  Log Wizard tells you in the manual not to set the blades out more than 1/32" or it will catch stuff under the blades and clog up.  I kinda doubt that, but I'm gonna set mine out a sixteenth and see what happens.  That pine bark is pretty thick and can take several passes to get down to bare wood.  We just got a new Home Depot in town so I'm gonna go down and get myself an extra set of blades.

isawlogs

I've ben using a log wizzard since ' 93 when I bought my mill .I set my blades so that they just clear the inside of the drum they roll in , if you dont , in pine with the large and thick bark you won't get no where. To sharpen them I don't remove them from the wizzard , Put the break on the saw ... get a grinder and grind an edge on the blade , you will find that in no time you'll be able to grind them even and it wont take long .This is not a finishing planer and it dont need to be perfectly balanced...as long as you keep them fairly even it will work fine .
 BTW it will not work in cedar the bark will roll in the drum and jam it
  I had mine on a 026 and someone needed it and the saws more then me  :ogot me another one put it on a new 026  :)and same thing hapened ...  >:( now  I got me another and put it on a new 034 and keep it close  ;D I cut the bar and put the wizzard a little closer to the saw and it is easier to us.
 If (when ) the bearings go in the drum(only a mater of time) they are easy to replace and are standard bearing that you get from most bearing shop... ;)
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Frank_Pender

Gee, folks, I simply bought a 4,000 psi pressure washer and wash all my logs. 8)
Frank Pender

isawlogs

Need a lot more then 4000 psi fur the frozen muck on dem logs , it would come out as ice pellets at this time ,,, ice blasting  that would work ;D ;D ;D
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

Percy

I bought one of them gizzmos(log wizzerd) and put it on a 620 Jonsered back in 97 when I got my first mill. It really took a big chunck outta my steel toed boot. It works great cept the thick stringy WRC bark would get under/wrapped around/yaddayadda and take out bearings which they replaced free of charge. After wrecking several sets of bearings, they gave me a full refund.... a good company.
GOLDEN RULE : The guy with the gold, makes the rules.

Brian_Bailey

Hickory and Basswood will clog em up fast if'n your not careful.

Tried the hi-pressure water method and decided that I'd rather be dry  :D :D .
WMLT40HDG35, Nyle L-150 DH Kiln, now all I need is some logs and someone to do the work :)

Norwiscutter

have to be realistic with your expectations of the Log Wizard.  Definatly not the perfect solution for debarking, but better than any other one that I have tried or can afford.  Have noticed that with the bigger pines, the thicker bark takes awhile to get all the way through. I usually just run it alone the log to clean the surface junk off the bark, not necessary take all the bark off the log. Have used the wizard to peal pine and hemlock for log homes and it works faster than a spud or draw shave for sure. Only problem is that it leaves small planer marks on the finished logs that could an issue if you want a clean draw shaved look.
Si vis pacem, para bellum.

Brian_Rhoad

When I used my Log Wizard to clean logs, I adjusted the blade so the short edge of the bevel was flush with the drum. The sharp edge stuck out about 1/4" from the "bottom side" of the drum. I could clean alot of logs before I had to sharpen the blades. I used my Grizzly planer knife sharpener to sharpen the blades.  I sharpened the blades untill they were too short to use. I used a Pro Mac 710 to power the Log Wizard. It worked great but I like my mud saw/ log cleaner much better.

Stan

Do you think hammers like in a hammer mill would work any better. Seems to me a planer is just to fine an instrument for rough work. Or maybe a wheel like the ones on a grinder dresser.  ???
I may have been born on a turnip truck, but I didn't just fall off.

Gus

We used to feed conifers into a flail-chain debarker without putting a chainsaw to them, tree length. Took limbs, bark and all off. Don't know if they make a smaller version of these things or not but they are actually a very simple machine.


http://www.precisionhusky.com/timber/2300/t_2300.html
"How do I know what I think unless I have seen what I say?"

Frank_Pender

Gus, that would sure be a nice toy. but way tooooo big for this one man operation.     :-/
Frank Pender

Corley5

I've never had any experience with one of these Log Wizards but was always skeptical that they'd be much good for debarking muddy abrasive logs.  From my experience it only takes a grain of sand to knick a blade in finish planer so how could a a Log Wizard stay sharp for any length of time to clean logs?  Sounds like they do OK for the most part but I doubt I'll buy one right away ;)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

Engineer

I'm going to move the blades out to 1/16" or more (L.W. recommends 1/32"), sharpen them up and try again over the weekend.  I have found that when the pine has *thawed* slightly, the debarker is completely unnecessary - a sharp spud (no, not a 'tater) takes the bark off right down to bare wood with one long swipe.  So far, we've been using axes, spuds, chisels, shovels, a stiff brush and a dull Log Wizard to remove as much crap as we can.  It's working so far - only one blade change in the last 14 logs.

Dennis

I used my log wizard every weekend for almost a whole summer building a cedar rail fence and it worked great!  the fence took 2 months and 200 cases of beer...lol..it was about 250' square...
Just Log It.

Swede

As our saw mill blades the wizard tool is made for wood. Why use it in dirty logs if we don´t want to hit our blades to them?

Some old birch here has a lot of black, cracked and hard bark doing bad at a blade. Is  Wizard the right tool for that or how do you take birch bark away?

Swede.
Had a mobile band sawmill, All hydraulics  for logs 30\"x19´, remote control. (sold it 2009-04-13)
Monkey Blades.Sold them too)
Jonsered 535/15\". Just cut firewood now.

Engineer

Fixed the wizard.  I took the blades out, gave them a *really rough* sharpening on my grinder (it's not a precision tool anyway) and reinstalled them so the top of the bevel was flush with the drum.  That left about 1/16" of blade exposed.  

I fired it up today to clean up one really nasty log, full of ice, frozen dirt and sand, and one pass at full throttle was all it took to bring that log right down to bare wood.  I had to move the wizard *fast* to keep it from diggin' in.  I got another 8000 board feet of pine showing up Friday so I'm happy I got the thing working OK.  Not so -blah- after all.   ;D

Russ

Debarking 'bout 5,000 ft cherry. Should I be saving this bark for something special ? It probably no good for livestock . Anyone Know ?

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