Bandsaw sharpener project

[Doug-Iowa]

I've mentioned here before that my son and I have a bandsaw sawmill, and coming up on 1 year experience with it. We've cut the material for the shed it sits in, a few trailer decks, some beams for a horse barn, and lots of misc small projects. The blades are reasonably priced, about $20 each, but can take a couple weeks or more to get. So I decided I needed a sharpener for the 20 or so dull blades we have. Commercial sharpeners are several hundred dollars and I'm always looking for a project so I researched building one using a chainsaw sharpener. Here's how it came out.

Each blade has about 160 teeth and it takes about 15 minutes to sharpen one. I had to make a new blade holder and support, and modify the index mechanism to account for the wider tooth spacing. To test the process, I set up the sawmill with an old chunk of elm and a known dull blade. Ran it thru that elm until is started smoking a little, so worse case. We always stop with a dull blade well before that. Teeth were pretty rounded and tips were blue. Set it up in the sharpener and took about .015 off the face of each tooth. Just touched the bottom of the gullet and did nothing to the back of the tooth. Didn't change the set. Put it back in the saw and it worked great. Caught some dust and looked at the chips, they were good sized and had a nice curl to them. Finished that elm log and still cutting good. I'll put a ash log on it tomorrow and see how long it lasts. Even if I only get half the life and 3 or 4 sharpenings out of each blade, that's still a huge win. Got less than $100 in it. Pretty happy with it.

 

[Janicholson]

Mighty fine adaptation. Well done. Jim

 

[jm.]

I usually sharpen about 30 ever winter and some are on their 3 go around. Eventually you will want to get some way to put a little set in them. I run a diesel lt40 Wood-mizer so with the right set I can cut those hard to cut ash you are talking about. Sharp blades are the life of your band sawmill.

 

[moresmoke]

It will work and get you a couple of sharpenings. You will find that the blades crack in the bottom of the gullets, then break.

The sharpeners that follow the tooth profile help prevent that by not creating a stress point in the gullet.

The next thing you need is a setting tool. Back when I ran a mill, I never found a brand of blade that the set was right out of the box. Usually quite a bit more on one side than the other. I would start a bunch of blades on softwood in the summer, then after 3-4 sharpenings, use them on hardwood or frozen softwood. Saved having to reset them after the teeth were ground down.

The set of a blade is just as important as the sharpness if you want it to cut straight and true.

 

[caterpillar guy]

Good you made a sharpener. Dad had someone in to do some sawing with a band mill slow as all get out. Would come after work and took all evening to saw a couple small logs. I would not bother with one again unless I was planning on a retirement job. The wood it saved was lost in the time and the California surfing look of the side of the planks cut. Wavy as all get out. Give me a round blade anytime. The amount they sawed on that band mill would have been a couple hours on the old carriage round blade mill. It took a week of evenings to do it.

 

[John in Md.]

Sounds like dull blade and operator inexperience. With time and a sharp blade you get better results. I'm using a Woodmizer LT40 wide and if you push a dull blade it can wreck the whole cant.

 

[moresmoke]

Dull blade would be the first culprit. Or too little set. Or too much set. Blade maintenance is important if you want a bandmill to work right.

Too little set and the blade body rubs on the wood, and becomes unstable. (The blade doesnt heat evenly and the front and back end up different lengths.)

Too much set especially in dry or hard woods, the fine sawdust spills out of the gullet and gets next to the blade body, again causing heat.

For those that are unaware, most commercial mills run bandsaws these days. 4 to 8 inch wide blades. Much easier to maintain than a circle saw for commercial use.

 

[Geo-TH,In]

How many feet can you cut on one blade??

 

[Doug-Iowa]

Maybe they had their saw set up wrong, or bad blades. Like others have said its all about the blades. The guy who recommended Woodland Mills saws to us also spent a day helping us set it up and teaching the tricks to run it efficiently. And we watched a lot of videos that showed mostly what not to do. I bet a cheap saw with good blades will out work an expensive saw with poor blades every time. I was surprised my home built sharpener works this good on first try, because the blades are so critical.
We cut a lot of light poles for trailer decks. Hundreds were broke off in the past two years due to storms so they are plentiful. In a good solid pole we can cut right at 120 per minute. Straight and true. Takes longer to get the pole set than to cut 10'. Before someone jumps on that, yes you need a letter allowing you to take utility poles and I have one. And yes you have to process them with extra care because of the treatment chemicals. Helps when you know the local power line superintendent, good advice and they just keep restocking the pile.

 

[Doug-Iowa]

120 inches per minute that is. It didn't show the inch mark for some reason.

 

[dr sportster]

Nice !