Setters and pointers

[bandmiller2]

I'am an opinionated old phart but usually don't stray too far from the truth. If your a perfectionist setting your own bands you will soon be howling at the moon. Its kinda like your shotgun close is good enough. Band steel is not far from spring steel. If you want .020 thou. per side you can't push the tooth over .020 and call it done, it will spring right back. If every band was exactly the same temper that would help, but they taint. Its pretty much a cut and try, if I get within two to three thou. per side I call that fine. I made a two tooth setter that clamps and sets. I also made a dial indicator tool to check set. When I bring home a band to sharpen I check the set if its close the band goes on the cats claw, if not to the setter. I will check two or three sets of teeth from the setter if they are within two or three of what I want I run the band with no further checks in complete bliss. Frank C.

[Stevem]

Sounds like, "Close enough for government work" kind of thing.

[bandmiller2]

Don't mean to sound sloppy but minor differences in set have little affect on the cut. Time spent agonizing over perfect set is better spent on other matters. As always your mileage may vary. Frank C.

[mountainlake]

 
 I'm even worse over here, I don't measure the set if it looks good it cuts good.   And yes no 2 bands set the same, some bend easy , some don't . Steve

[bandmiller2]

If you don't have a tool to measure set, get a close look at the band, tooth should be offset half the thickness of the band. Frank C.

[mountainlake]

 Frank
 Good to see you over here on this forum , hardly any of this mill is the best bs..  I just eyeball the blades when in the setter, so far it's been working good. .  Steve

[jake]

wish I read this a year ago.  don't have nearly the experience of you guys, and don't claim to be an expert in much of anything related to sawmilling, but it took me the course of the last year to learn basics of setting and sharpening, and to realize the one's I fussed over more didn't cut any better than the ones that went right to the sharpener.  hopefully the next guy will learn quicker

[bandmiller2]

Not to worry Jake. It seems sawmilling is one of those things that doesn't respond to over engineering, its more intuition and gut feeling than text book. There are so many old wives tales attached to milling that just complicate things and muddy the waters. I have always owned my own mills, never had paid help standing around, and if I wanted to try something I did. Frank C.

[lauztuvass]

Good to see people who like DIY. I like too.
So some questions about sharpener.
Then i made a sawmill, after that i made a sharpener with automated feed. With oil cooling system.

I was used this sharpener disc.

It is good because disc form was like tooth form. All sharpener system wasn't made to end but worked. Not bad.
But one problem is that this is disc very expensive. About 800 dollars in my country. And it don't work so long, like I Think before. So , I am thinking about remade my sharpener instrument. I want to use somethink like this:

It is not expensive, and not so bad. But i want to sharp all profile of tooth.
May some  one can advise for me how to do? Or maybe it is not necessary to sharp all tooth?
Thanks.

[Kirk Allen]

lauztuvass:

You definitely want to grind the whole profile of the tooth.  If you dont, the tiny cracks that from in the tooth profile will lead to breaking.  If you grind is stationary, then you need a grinding wheel the shape of the tooth profile.  CBN wheels are perfect for that.   A moving grind works but is much harder to set up on a DYI system unless you have a great understanding of geometry.  You need cams to lift the grinding wheel as the blade moves through the grinding profile. 

I suggest CBN grinding wheel as the best fix for stationary tooth sharpening.

[lauztuvass]

I understand . I think, You are right.

[4x4American]

lauztuvass- go check out http://www.rixsaws.com/ for a cbn wheel.  $800 sounds real steep.  Also..what are you running for oil?  Mineral oil I'm told by a saw filer works well and can be had at your local feed store, if you have a local feed store that is..