Edger

[Ohio_Bill]

I saw about 50000 bf of lumber a year these days and work mostly by myself. Have never owned an edger and was wondering if there would be any advantage to getting and using one in my operation. The mill is a LT40 super remote. I saw mostly Ties out of low grade and edge on the mill after the ties are sawn. Normally saw a load of ties and then edge.

Thanks
Bill

[Dave Shepard]

I have the LT40 Super and the ED26 edger. I would really hate to ever have to go back to edging on the mill. The only time I do is if it's too thick or wide for the edger. One of the biggest advantages I see of the edger is being able to give each flitch individual attention. You can line it up just right to get the max yield. On the mill, you tend to do a bunch at once, and you are going to sacrifice some footage, or a flitch with a lot of taper on it won't land on the mill just right so you end up tossing it in the slab pile anyway. I saw a bunch, then edge everything all at once, usually at the end of the day. I think you will save time and produce more and better side lumber.

[Brucer]

I bought one a few years ago when I had a really big job and wasn't sure I could finish it on time.

Working alone it is probably a little faster than edging on the mill. I have a set of bunks between the mill and the edger where I can store up to a week's worth of flitches. When I'm working alone this lets me concentrate on completing an order by a deadline. Once the order is complete I can go back and catch up on the edging.

Working with a helper, I can produce more than twice as much in an hour. Then it really starts to pay.

[customsawyer]

I have had one for years and don't like to saw without one. When you are sawing by yourself I don't know if it will up your production much as you have to man both ends of the edger but I feel like it is lots easier. When you are cutting hardwood it will increase your yield out of a log.

[47sawdust]

I bought a used WM twin blade edger for$5800.00 6 years ago.It was a great investment and has been trouble free and starts all the time.25hp Kohler.I stack my flitches on horses according to width and when I need a break from sawing I edge for a while.Just a great tool.
Mick

[wwsjr]

I have a Woodmizer edger with Cat diesel engine. I would not want to saw without using it. I thinks all the guys that went on the Goodwill trip to Texas will agree, an edger is the way to go. We set it up off the back end of MM's mill, stacked flitches on 4X4". I think we ran the run edger 3 or 4 times a day as stack grew. If cutting random width, there will be a definite gain in BF by edging individual boards.

[lyle niemi]

I have an edger and only used it a little bit so far but when I did it was a great thing!! Its way better then running the boards throug the mill again.

[Peter Drouin]

I have a one , A 2008 Wood Mizer with the 26 horse cat. I work alone and I don't use it all the time. Maybe ½ the time I find that you can have all kinds of stuff to cut logs, But if you don't have the men to run it all and try to do it all by your self It will lower your board foot by the end of the day. So I use mine for hard wood mostly to get all I can from the log.
This spring I'm setting things up differently. And maybe hire some help.

[Ohio_Bill]

Thank you, everyone for your responses. When edging on the mill I do notice a lot of waste. Looks like most of you have a Woodmizer edger those would be handy and compact compared to an older edger like a Frick. The older edger's I see on CL for 1000 to 3000 dollars and the cheapest WM I have seen has been 5000. I will begin a quest for an edger to buy and when something is found that looks good to me , will repost and ask some more questions.
Thanks

Bill

[backwoods sawyer]

 
I have used the Cooks edger behind the Cooks ac-36 mill with a surge table in between, made a great set up, but I found edging on the Cooks mill to be a real pain, so those two make a set and should not be split up.

But I find it much easier to edge on the LT-70 as the chain turner makes flipping a stack of 8-12 boards a simple task. If the logs are small I save back boards by flipping them back a couple logs and balance them on a log, then they can be flipped back to the loading arms when you get enough, from there they slide in as a stack the clamp and turner stands them up and flips them as needed. I edge my way down thru the stack by picking a cut line that cleans up one edge of at least one piece, use the tow boards as needed, I drop those pieces and flip them as I work my way down in 1"-2" increments and drop out boards at 12, 10, 8, and 6' for hardwood and multiples of 5 5/8 softwoods. All the wood goes in the same stacks rather than having a sawmill stack and an edge stack. Any hand flipping is done at a good working height and no real bending involved all done with very high recovery rates.

Being portable about the only time I take the edger is if we are milling a big job, all 1" and the customer has helpers. And I don't take the edger out until the second day, makes for an extra trip at the end of the job unless I take it home a day early.

Little Jo much prefers edging on the mill to using the edger. Simply because you have to catch the board and edging together as it comes thru the edger, where on the mill the edgings are taken off by the hand full then the boards are handled. As well all the bending to send a piece back over the edger on the top rolls. With the live belt infeed once the board is pulled under the anti kick back arms there is no changing position, and an edger can butcher wood in a hurry if it is not being fed correctly.  : 

[Peter Drouin]

I have used the Cooks edger behind the Cooks ac-36 mill with a surge table in between, made a great set up, but I found edging on the Cooks mill to be a real pain, so those two make a set and should not be split up.

But I find it much easier to edge on the LT-70 as the chain turner makes flipping a stack of 8-12 boards a simple task. If the logs are small I save back boards by flipping them back a couple logs and balance them on a log, then they can be flipped back to the loading arms when you get enough, from there they slide in as a stack the clamp and turner stands them up and flips them as needed. I edge my way down thru the stack by picking a cut line that cleans up one edge of at least one piece, use the tow boards as needed, I drop those pieces and flip them as I work my way down in 1"-2" increments and drop out boards at 12, 10, 8, and 6' for hardwood and multiples of 5 5/8 softwoods. All the wood goes in the same stacks rather than having a sawmill stack and an edge stack. Any hand flipping is done at a good working height and no real bending involved all done with very high recovery rates.

Being portable about the only time I take the edger is if we are milling a big job, all 1" and the customer has helpers. And I don't take the edger out until the second day, makes for an extra trip at the end of the job unless I take it home a day early.

Little Jo much prefers edging on the mill to using the edger. Simply because you have to catch the board and edging together as it comes thru the edger, where on the mill the edgings are taken off by the hand full then the boards are handled. As well all the bending to send a piece back over the edger on the top rolls. With the live belt infeed once the board is pulled under the anti kick back arms there is no changing position, and an edger can butcher wood in a hurry if it is not being fed correctly.  : 

[GeneWengert-WoodDoc]

I did a study at one small mill that I thought was fairly typical and at that mill (all mills are not the same, I know) I documented that for the pieces that had to be edged, the mill lost about 15% in volume and 33%in value when edging on the headrig.  On the other hand, an edger can be poorly operated and lose the same amount, but I do believe that I can properly edge with an edger but not on the headrig.  Bottom line, an edger will in some operations increase volume and value by over 15%.  The bigger the logs, the greater the benefit, as there will be more pieces of higher grade that will lose large amounts of money with just a few fractions of difference in edging widths.

I did write an article on edging in Sawmill & Woodlot...I will try and look up what issue when I return to Wisconsin...I am in warm, sunny Los Angeles for a week.

[FarmingSawyer]

I dearly miss having an edger..... When I worked at a small mill I often ran the edger. Ideally, if there was someone to catch the offcut, then I could edge, but usually I was on the green chain and the edging had to wait. The edging pile on even a small circular mill can stack up fast. There were some days I added 4ft to a 6ft wide edging pile. The old fella I edge for was militant about getting the best width out of edgings. So we'd dice up long boards to make the widest pieces possible.

It's said that the person edging can make or break a mill...and I believe it. I hate edging on the bandsaw.... too much scale is lost when you bunch boards together and too much time is wasted if you try to only do one or two boards at a time. If it's a clear board or cherry or something, then I might make the effort, but otherwise, I let the edging stack up until I absolutely must do it....

I had the opportunity to get the old edger I used to run when the mill sold....I really wish I had. It was so simple. "Economy" brand edger. It ran with an old crank 4 cylinder motor which we started on gas, and then switched over to a gas/diesel/oil mix the boss scavenged from the marina....people renting boats don't always know what fuel their craft runs on, or quite often, which is the fresh water tank.....the old boy would settle out all the water, and add whatever fuels he could. He'd tinker with the carb until the engine ran and we were away.......

The edger has a separate electric feed motor and no anti-kickback, although that was never an issue...the feed rollers were heavy enough that once in, you couldn't drag a board back out, but you could swivel it and make a hooked piece if you weren't careful......

I've priced edgers and maybe someday I'll find a used one...they really up production, even if your only feeding the boards in and running around to catch them...The edgings went in the slabwood cradle to be cut up for firewood later on, or to make an endless slabwood/sawdust road into the woods where we stacked lumber....

[Peter Drouin]

I like mine. Works good.


 
With a 26 horse CAT.

[FarmingSawyer]

Peter,  how long is that infeed table? looks to be 6ft from the photo.....a bit too long for me. Can you see the blades spinning, or do you have to go by a gauge to line up the cut? The edger I'm used to had about a 3ft infeed & outfeed and a lever which swung horizontally side to side in an arc which moved the blade. It also had a fence which could be positioned anywhere in the first 16 inches off the right side, so you could use the edger as a mini-two-bladed gang saw so you could get 3 2x4's out of one flitch.

[Peter Drouin]

Peter,  how long is that infeed table? looks to be 6ft from the photo.....a bit too long for me. Can you see the blades spinning, or do you have to go by a gauge to line up the cut? The edger I'm used to had about a 3ft infeed & outfeed and a lever which swung horizontally side to side in an arc which moved the blade. It also had a fence which could be positioned anywhere in the first 16 inches off the right side, so you could use the edger as a mini-two-bladed gang saw so you could get 3 2x4's out of one flitch.

The long table is nice for 16' wood
Can't see the blades. It takes time to be good with it. But then you can go right along.

[WDH]

An edger made a significant difference in my productivity.  With a manual mill, edging on the mill is back breaking work. 

[rooster 58]

I have an ED28 with a Kohler 28hp gas engine. It sure beats edging on the mill

[Dave Shepard]

I only edge on the mill when the board is too wide, or too thick, or both, to fit through the edger. I have the same machine as Peter.  8)

[Peter Drouin]

I only edge on the mill when the board is too wide, or too thick, or both, to fit through the edger. I have the same machine as Peter.  8)

I put in new blades in the other day and the tracking pulls to the left a little when I use the fence. Without the fence it's fine.
Is there a fast way to check the tracking Dave

[Banjo picker]

Mine is run by a 10 horse electric motor.  I was all down in the dumps the other day when I thought the motor was shot...  Finally went and did a little investigating, and after I had took the motor loose and checked the wiring, I found the little reset button....  8)  back in business.  Banjo

[Dave Shepard]

I only edge on the mill when the board is too wide, or too thick, or both, to fit through the edger. I have the same machine as Peter.  8)

I put in new blades in the other day and the tracking pulls to the left a little when I use the fence. Without the fence it's fine.
Is there a fast way to check the tracking Dave

I have never checked the tracking. It is outlined in the manual. I think I either need to have my blades sharpened, or need to clean the feed rollers. Using both blades, it tracks true, but trying to use the fence and it will often walk away from the fence.

[Peter Drouin]

That's what mine does. Just a little. It was good before I worked on it  :D :D I think the feed rollers need to be squared up to the blades. There is a little adjustment in the rollers and the shaft of the blades.

[FarmingSawyer]

Has the saw shaft shifted somehow? Even an edger saw needs a bit of lead.....so it's either got to come from adjusting a bearing, or the rollers, or the fence to give it that bit of offset to make it pull into the fence, but still run true.... I would think if the rollers are out of parallel with the saws the boards would walk slightly when edging freehand without the fence.....

[backwoods sawyer]

When I picked up the Cooks edger it had a bent arbor, bad bearing and "had been adjust" the tracking was way off and it came without the manual.
After replacing both the arbor and bearing I ran a good sized batch thru the edger making minor adjustments as I went. The arbor dropped in nice and square first go around. But worn belts made setting the tracking a pain, track fine for several boards then wander off one side or the other.
Now it tracks and cuts true ;)

[Peter Drouin]

Has the saw shaft shifted somehow? Even an edger saw needs a bit of lead.....so it's either got to come from adjusting a bearing, or the rollers, or the fence to give it that bit of offset to make it pull into the fence, but still run true.... I would think if the rollers are out of parallel with the saws the boards would walk slightly when edging freehand without the fence.....

Cuts good without the fence. I'll get it fixed.

[beenthere]

Doesn't take much wear on a roller to create a problem running boards in a straight line.

i.e. when using an edger and feeding most of the boards through toward one side (often the case with a fixed blade) causes that side of the roller to wear. When that happens, the smaller circumference will not keep up with the larger (less-worn) circumference and the board will run a curved path.

[Peter Drouin]

Doesn't take much wear on a roller to create a problem running boards in a straight line.

i.e. when using an edger and feeding most of the boards through toward one side (often the case with a fixed blade) causes that side of the roller to wear. When that happens, the smaller circumference will not keep up with the larger (less-worn) circumference and the board will run a curved path.

True, But it only has 350 HR on it. Just a small adjustment, I think :D :D

[UpInATree]

My 2 cents....I ordered my LT70 before I ever saw a Wood-Mizer run live before.  And I was so excited waiting for it, that when a twin blade ED26 came up for sale used near me I bought it because everything I had read told me it was so much more efficient than edging on the mill.  Then my day job lost a major contract and my financial life took a digger.  It took me nearly 4 years to recover.  My mill is now 4 years old and has only 122 hours on it.  I have over 400 logs in my lot to saw which all came from tree work that I have done.  The edger was rarely used in the past 4 years, but now that I am back to sawing and making a go of all this, I remember that one reason no one else mentioned yet for  using an edger is that you are not wasting time/hours on the mill or wasting cycles on that blade.  If you have helpers it is an amazing time saver.  It is far easier ( when aligned correctly first) for beginners or general helpers to lay the board on the in feed table and see which width should work best for the board.  A quick turn of the blade-width adjustment handle and push it in. Voila strips of trimmed wood for the "kindling for sale bundles" and a nicely squared board spit out the other side of the box.  Setting up an ED26 by yourself without a tractor is a bit of a pain, but I learned this week when I only had about 20 boards to edge that I could pull it out of the garage with my tractor and jackknife it enough to feed the boards in, run around the back side and receive them...without ever installing the outfeed roller table!  It was quick.  It worked great.  It was awesome!  Unless the board is too big for the edger, I agree with everyone else who has posted good things about their own edgers.  I plan to use mine a whole lot more now.

As for alignment....tie a pice of string to the end of the machine and pass it through the box.  (of course the machine is NOT running)  The string will clearly show if your blades are aligned with your infeed fence.  Adjust as neccessary.

[Peter Drouin]

I did the string thing :D

[Dave Shepard]

It would take a lot of hours to wear these feed rollers. I think my problem is too much pitch on the roller. :D I do notice that one edge of the board is sometimes a little shaggy. I can't see any obvious dulling on the blades, so I am just guessing that they need sharpening.

[customsawyer]

Look close at the teeth of your blades if one blade has wider teeth then the board will pull that way. ;)

[Dave Shepard]

My blades are the factory installed carbide units. Maybe 200 hours of run time, but not 200 hours of steady edging. I used to run the edger at the same time as the mill when we first got it, but got away from that a long time ago. I don't see any wear on the blades. I'm thinking it is the pitch buildup on the feed rollers.

[beenthere]

I'm thinking it is the pitch buildup on the feed rollers.

That will change the diameter of the rolls and cause the board to move in a curve, similar to irregular wear on the roller. Might be the culprit.

[backwoods sawyer]

Squirt some diesle on the wheels and after it has had a chance to soak in scrape it off.

Your edger is not running a belt infeed is it? Worn belts on the Cooks streached and took a bit to get to track consistant, have to run them fairly taught. 

[never finished]

 I'm a little off track here. My question about an edger is about how true one will actually saw. Can you use one for a slr after your lumber has dried and done what moving it's going to do? Maybe with a full length fence?   

[tmarch]

I'm a little off track here. My question about an edger is about how true one will actually saw. Can you use one for a slr after your lumber has dried and done what moving it's going to do? Maybe with a full length fence?   

I'd be edging on my mill to achieve what you want, most wood will move some when first sawn somewhat so to have true lumber I've found that if I wait I need to edge one side and then parallel that cut to the dimension I want.  Often I will just slab the logs leaving the live edges on them and cut to width after they dry.  Keep in mind that I'm new and someone with more experience will do things differently.

[Dave Shepard]

What is the purpose of the straight line ripping? If it needs to be accurate enough to run through a molder, then I wouldn't use an edger. IF you just want to clean up air dried lumber for siding or something like that, then it would be fine. If you plan on doing much re-edging, then I would SDR the lumber, which is Saw, Dry, Rip. I've started doing that with my wide pine boards. Usually I'm cutting timbers when I get the really wide stuff, like 18" and up, and I don't want to mess with edging it right then, and I can't edge over 15" in the edger anyway, so I just sticker it. When it's dry, I'll run it through the edger and get my final dimension that way.

[never finished]

 I need to get it straight enough a moulder. Logosol PH 260

[redprospector]

When you need it straight, there's no replacement for a Straight Line Rip Saw.  8)