RipSaw Help

[Al Weber]

Ran into a problem with my RipSaw today that has me puzzled. I'm sure someone can help me do some more trouble shooting.

After the long winter, in early June I finally milled a 18" diameter cherry log that was a casualty of the Dec 2008 ice storm with the RipSaw without any difficulty. Nice easy milling and no problems. Then the rains came to New England so I haven't had a chance to do any more milling until yesterday. Pulled out a spalted maple log about 14" in diameter and 7 feet long and proceeded to mill it with the RipSaw and a three times sharpened blade without any difficulty until the last cut and it was obvious the blade was dull. Changed it out for a new blade from the pack and made the last cut without difficulty.

Started to mill the second log (about 12" diameter and 7' long) from the spalted maple this afternoon using the fresh blade installed yesterday. The first leveling cut went fine without any waviness or problems. When I made the second cut to prepare the cant, that cut was a bit wavy but not terrible. Maybe 1/16" deflection in a couple of areas. Went back to my first face (because the spalt is along a live edge) to start milling and began to have problems almost immediately. The first thing I noticed is that the powerhead (an 036) was laboring more and there are sparks coming from the areas near the carbide guides on both the driven and idler wheels. The waviness was getting worse also. After completing this cut, I put the aluminum guide bar back in place to level things out but continued to have difficulty with wavy cuts and sparking from the area around the carbides.

I stopped milling, checked the tracking and it appeared that maybe the idler wheel tracking was a little off so I adjusted it. Added some tension to the blade and tried another cut with the same poor results. So I quit for the day, took off the plates and the blade and checked the bearings (they seem okay), lubricated the bearings, checked to see if the carbides had moved (they had not), and since I don't know where else to look, I'm asking for ideas.

Is this nothing more than a dull blade? I didn't get a chance to replace it after all my other checks. I've never seen the sparking in the area of the carbides before and I've run this mill for several years now.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[AndyR]

Hi Al,
I don't think I'll be able to answer your question but I've had the same experience. The last log I cut with the rispsaw was an Ailanthus and I had the same problems. I was thinking there was a lot of tension in the wood that I cut as it has since split badly and just generally moved a lot. Maybe the wood is cupping as you cut the board and it is pinching the blade? That's what seemed it seemed like to me but I'll be interested to hear if you find another answer. The logs I was cutting were not too valuable but if it had been a nice cherry or something...I'd have been more upset.

Good luck, hope to hear what you find out.
Andy

 

[Al Weber]

Andy,

Just a quick progress report after yesterdays milling. I sharpened both the older and newer bands, went through the mill to check that nothing was loose, etc. and reinstalled the older of the bands, now on its 4th sharpening. Set up 2 cherry logs about 12" diameter and began to mill. Bottom line-no problems at all. Cut both cants and then some 8/4 and then 4/4 lumber and only changed the band when it appeared to be slowing down. I didn't experience any further waviness or band binding at the carbide guides.

At this point I can only guess that the problems I reported in the first post were due to the hard maple, maybe a less than sharp blade, some hiccups which left some mis-cuts and waviness in the reference face, etc. I guess the lesson is that if there is any significant lack of flatness to the reference face, it needs to be cleaned up before proceeding.

I always seem to have difficulty cutting rock maple with the RipSaw. I don't cut a lot of it and I think I may be trying to force things too much. This probably results in rough cuts and the problems I have. Still a lot to learn.

 

[AndyR]

Hey Al,
Glad to hear you're back on track-and getting 4 sharpenings from a band! I haven't sharpened any of mine yet as I bought a pack of 12 and still have 5 left + I haven't used the ripsaw all that much yet.

When you seeing the sparking and binding at the guides did you have any problems with really wavy cuts? I actually had the guide finger, that normally rides along the guide beam rise up over the top of the beam in a couple of instances. Some of the waves in the Ailanthus I cut were about an inch deep!

Do you think it could possibly be bad setting of the teeth on the band? You did say it was a new blade, I think...

 

[Al Weber]

I don't think the problem I had was with the blade since I sharpened it (it was new when I had the problem) by just touching the tooth with a diamond stone in a grinder and it worked fine yesterday.

I'm now thinking it has to do with the tension of the band and the wood being cut. The biggest variability I had in my episode was about 1/4 inch. I probably had the tension set a little lower than usual because I was being careful with a new blade (Yeah-right). I am getting the feeling that the tension a blade needs is dictated by the wood being milled. I suspect that the rock maple needs a higher tension to counter the effects of blade wandering in the very hard wood (as compared to cherry which in my area is not all that hard). I'm going to try a significantly higher tension in the next maple I mill and see if that works better. I'll try and keep you posted.

 

[Mike Van]

Al, here's a tip that might help you out - I built my own bandmill some 18 years ago, lots of 'stuff' I had to figure out alone - Get a brand new blade, try a cut with it, and if it's perfect, take the blade right off, mark it 'reference' and put it away somewhere. When you start having problems again, try that reference blade, if the problem goes away, you'll know it was set or sharpenng. If it doesn't change, it's an alignment or tension thing. It is so nice to be making sawdust instead of banging your head against the mill!

 

[gemniii]

Al, here's a tip that might help you out - I built my own bandmill some 18 years ago, lots of 'stuff' I had to figure out alone - Get a brand new blade, try a cut with it, and if it's perfect, take the blade right off, mark it 'reference' and put it away somewhere. When you start having problems again, try that reference blade, if the problem goes away, you'll know it was set or sharpenng. If it doesn't change, it's an alignment or tension thing. It is so nice to be making sawdust instead of banging your head against the mill!

Great idea.
By the way about how many linear feet, say 1' wide can you get out of a Ripsaw blade in softwood before sharpening?

 

[Mike Van]

There's a lot of variables involved - nice clean logs, pine, I can sometimes get 400 bf { I don't use lineal] Hard old locust, maybe only a few hundred. It is best to pull the blade & sharpen it before it's gone to dull, as really dull just adds extra stress to the blade & the mill.

 

[gemniii]

There's a lot of variables involved - nice clean logs, pine, I can sometimes get 400 bf { I don't use lineal] Hard old locust, maybe only a few hundred. It is best to pull the blade & sharpen it before it's gone to dull, as really dull just adds extra stress to the blade & the mill.

Thanks,
I only used lineal because I figured if I cut 1 board 10' long and 12" wide and 1" thick it would tax the blade the same as 1 board 10'x12"x12".