Sharpening band saw lumber mill blades.

dirtman · #1 09/05/13, 07:33 AM

I have an Alaskan MkIII chain saw mill which is OK for cutting beams but pretty much a pain for dimension lumber. I am thinking about building a band saw mill however I am one of those pessimists who doesn't think that I'll be able to buy new blades in the future. I don't want to go to the trouble of building the mill if I can't sharpen the blades myself. The amount of time it takes is not an issue. I have never even seen one of the blades in person so I am asking if anyone here has even sharpened on by hand.

ace admirer · #2 09/05/13, 08:24 AM

not just sharpening, setting kerf, and maybe swagging the tip of the tooth(on large blades) also have to be considered. yes it can all be done by hand (with the proper skill set). but try to find am old belsaw sharpener or whatever is its replacement.

did you grind the chain for a rip cut?

farminghandyman · #3 09/05/13, 10:10 AM

one company was selling a modified chain saw sharpener with a stand for sharpening band saw blades,

worked much like a chain saw sharpener, but with a base that could handle the band blade instead of the chain saw blade,

and they sold a kerf setter, I bought the kerf setter but have never used it, but was some what like a large hand saw set,

Travis in Louisiana · #4 09/05/13, 10:51 AM

There are several YouTube videos on bandmills and forums of people sharpening their own blades. Several shape a stone to the angle of the blade that needs sharpening and use a hand grinder to sharpen the bandsaw blades. I don't have a bandsaw mill yet, but I will in the future.

TnAndy · #5 09/05/13, 05:00 PM

When I bought my Woodmizer in 1991, they didn't offer a re-sharp service ( they do now, but with buck/blade shipping each way, plus the service, which I think is around 7 bucks, you have the cost of a blade in two rounds ), and sold you a sharpening package. The grinder was 'ok'.....it's 12v based, ( but comes with a 120vAC converter ), automatic ( you put the blade one, stick a fridge magnet on the blade which cuts it off after it goes one time around ), and not too bad to use. The ADVANTAGE of an auto sharpener ( and why I think hand sharpening wouldn't cut it ) is the each tooth is reduced EXACTLY the same, since it's based off a cam, and each tooth is exactly the same in pattern. I'm pretty dang good at sharpening chainsaw chains by hand....keeping the teeth the same angle, and length.....I simply don't believe you could do it with a bandsaw band...you'd get it so far off, they simply wouldn't work in just one or two attempts.

The Woodmizer setter was a manual deal where you set each tooth one at a time by sticking it in this gizmo, bending the tooth with a handle, moving the blade forward 3 teeth ( raker pattern....one right, one left, one straight ), then doing it again. THEN you have to inverter the blade inside out to do the other offset tooth, then re-invert it to have it correct and ready to use. Best I could ever do was about 20 minutes per blade, and after a few blades, I was bug-egged crazy. I HAVE A THAT WOODMIZER SETTER FOR SALE IF ANYONE IS INTERESTED.....aahaahhahahahaaa...

SO, I sprung a 1,000 bucks for a Suffolk machinery hand setter that does both left and right tooth at the same time....does them EXACTLY right (once you get it set up), and fast....2 minutes per blade ! Worth every penny of the cost if you do a bunch of blades.

Setting the teeth is every bit as important as sharpening...you simply HAVE to have a decent set or they won't cut worth a flip, no matter how good a sharpening job you do. I've called around to some saw shops that 'sharpen' bandsaw blades. Some of them don't even know what setting IS......so keep that in mind if you call....and if they do, they charge couple bucks extra to do it.

Sawmill Jim · #6 09/05/13, 07:19 PM

I modified a chainsaw sharpener do do bands . I figured i would sharpen them three or four times and toss them they still had enough set left that they cut good . We as in me and some buddies built a big high production Re saw . Have a 20 hp 3ph motor on it with hydrolic verabile speed feed on it . You need lots of blades too.

We built it to cut longer wood ,we were cutting semi loads of 4x8 six and sometimes seven days a week .This saw could be made into a regular ban saw pretty easy .
As TnAndy said it is for sell

I have totally quit the sawmill I hope

dirtman · #7 09/06/13, 08:28 AM

Thanks for the input. Well, that just about settles it. Now I need to know who has the best blades for the best price in your opinion. I sharpen my chain saw blades with a Northern Industrial sharpener from Northern tool. Works as well as the Oregon sharpener at half the price. I never tried ripping chains with my chainsaw mill. I should have but I keep about a dozen loops sharp all the time and change them when I start spitting small chips instead of nice long ones. Also I mostly cut cedar which isn't like ripping through oak or ash.

TnAndy · #8 09/06/13, 12:13 PM

I've tried several different blades, for price, but went back to Woodmizer blades. They REALLY understand the technology behind WIDE cut log sawing, whereas many manufacturers are making blades for the pallet industry....where the average cut is only 6" wide or less.

AND manufacturers like Simmons and Lennox sell their blades to saw shops in rolls...then the saw shops will cut and weld the blade to your length. Well, some of them do a good job with the weld and annealing process after the weld.....and some of them flat do not.

I bought a box of blades once, again, on price, from a shop, and every single one of them broke at the weld. Didn't sharpen a single one because they didn't last that long. This is kinda standard for the pallet industry....they don't sharpen....they run 'em until they break and slap another one on. They even have a special "blade chopper" that mounts over an open topped 55gal drum to chop the blades into short pieces so they don't have to deal with a mess of long blades flopping around.

joebill · #9 09/06/13, 07:39 PM

I used to build bandsaw mills and mill a lot of lumber. I started with 1 1/4" wide skip blades and sharpened and set them until they were around 1" wide, by hand, or rather without a factory sharpener.

My blades were 16 feet long, and I draped them over a pair of nails driven into a rafter in the shop, then I had a bench grinder with all but the top of the guard removed and a 1/4" wide by 7" diameter surface grinding wheel on it. 46 grit, K hardness.

The wheel was dressed to the roundness of the bottom of the gullets, and the blade was "kissed" on the face of each tooth, then the wheel moved over the top of the next tooth, then a kiss on the face of THAT tooth. Keep in mind, there is usually only a very small flat spot on top of the tooth when it is dull, so you don't need to remove much to make it cut very well. You get into a rythum that will let you do a 16' blade in around 5 minutes. Keep the wheel dresse smooth so it does not jump and ruin your sharpening job.

Since surface finish on my lumber was not a factor, i reset my blades with, of all things, an adjustable wrench, bending the tips only as near as I could get to one another. Setting should preceed sharpening.

I'm sure I have done no less than 500 sharpenings and 300 settings on mill blades, and it could eassily be twice that number, so yeah, it's doable. You'll prebably break quite a few blades if you don't make your saw with large enough wheels, so learning to silver solder them will be profitable for you as well.......Good luck.........Joe

dirtman · #10 09/07/13, 08:16 AM

I have an old junk honda motorcycle I am planning to use for the wheels and engine. Not sure if I would be better off using the chain and sprockets or converting to V belts and pulleys though. Am currently rebuilding the engine. When I get that done I'll start fabricating. I have an old mobile home frame that I plan to use for the track. I need to be able to cut 16 ft lengths but I doubt I'll cut many longs more that 18" in diameter as most of them are swamp cedar. I do have some sugar maple I'd like to cut also.

A question for Tnandy.

How long are the woodmizer blades if there were cut and layed out flat?

TnAndy · #11 09/07/13, 08:04 PM

13' 2".......158".

Most of the older saws use 1 1/4" wide.....some newer ones use 1 1/2"

I use the .042 thickness, with .015 set for hardwood and .021 for softwoods.

Before you put a lot of time into reinventing the wheel, you might look at some websites like

Sawmill Exchange http://sawmillexchange.com/view_products/2/

or

Talledaga Machinery http://www.tms-sales.com/

If you'll watch them a few months, you can find very good prices on used bandmills of various brands and abilities in the 5 to 8k range.

Most 10-15 year old Woodmizers like I have ( 1991 LT40.....cuts 34" x 20'.... power feed + up/down, but no hydraulics ) will go for about 1/2 of new.....in the $7,000 range. Nice thing about a Woodmizer, that is about BOTTOM end for them.....meaning you can buy one, use it for years, and sell it for about the same thing ! Of course, if you have any timber to speak of on your place, you'll be like me and it will sell at the estate sale

They are simply a money saver like you can't believe.

Somebody over in MN has a home built one ( if nothing else you might get some ideas ) for only $2,750 that says it will cut 28" x 16'

sawmillexchange.com/view_product/12707/http://sawmillexchange.com/view_product/15243/

or this one:

Custom built band sawmill, automatic feed, hydraulic log turner, hydraulic log clamps, hydraulic toe boards, winch up/down, 35 HP Wisconsin VH4D gas engine, 20" band wheels. Set up stationary. Handles logs 24" diameter x 24' length. Only 30 hours. Price: $10,000

Location: Wisconsin

http://sawmillexchange.com/view_product/15243/

dirtman · #12 09/08/13, 07:50 AM

TnAndy. Thanks for all the information. The truth is that I just about live for building things like this. I would rather build it that use it, but I do have a lot of projects planned that I'll need a good quantity of lumber for and my wife is always bugging me to do something about my crap piles. I mean scrap piles.

TnAndy · #13 09/09/13, 06:22 AM

I understand. Some things are about the journey rather than the destination.

kycrawler · #14 10/03/13, 10:28 PM

i have a woodmizer lt28 and an lt40 i tried sharpening my own bands but for the 7 bucks woodmizer charges i ll find something better to do with my time they come back like a new blade everytime i am only 45 minutes from the indy headquarters and resharp so there is no shipping . they set them sharpen then set them again . when i first got my mill i used a chainsaw grinder to touch up some blades for resawing telephone poles and sawing a pile of coffebean logs that came out of a fence row doesnt sound nearly as bad when you hit a nail or wire with a worn out blade as it does with a new $20 band