Sawmill chatter

[Page]

I was milling some wood lately. Some ash, mostly white oak. Everything was running great. I got my first paid job for the mill so I put the clients log on. (Ash) and made 4 nice cuts and in the fifth cut the blade started to chatter a bit and sounded like it was catching on something. Then it snapped. I put on a new one but it was doing the same thing. The blade was marking a jagged cut. In the path to fixing it I ended up replacing to belts, checking and adjusting guide rollers and blocks, leveling and anything else I could think off. It still did the same thing. I took the clients log off the mill and put on a small cedar. Milled it in a heartbeat and the cuts were great. I put on a chunk of white oak. Same thing, milled great. Put the clients log back on. It it milled mostly great. I’m glad it’s working but I wish I knew why. Plus it was 2 frustrating days messing with this thing. Anyone else have mysterious mill problems?

 

[Nutball]

Did you hit metal? The only other thing I can think of is maybe the sappy Ash dust stuck clumps on the blade. Ash dust is quite sticky, though you wouldn't expect it to be.

 

[Tree09]

Feed rate too fast?

 

[lxskllr]

Along with Nutball's comment, maybe more/better lube? Doing a lot of ash may have funked up the blade, you made a couple cleaning cuts in other wood, which then made the last ash cut better. So maybe faster flow on the lube, or something that cuts pitch better would help. Just guessing. I don't have a bandmill.

 

[Ed L]

How dead are your Ash trees? I milled a lot of them during EAB never had that issue.

Ed

 

[lumberjack]

Post some pictures of your blades inside/outside or top/bottom... that'll answer the question about sap/buildup.