Good to see you back. Thought we might have ran you off, or something similar
With sawhead "shaking", does it do it more often than not ?? Could it be something dragging in a track wheel, like a piece of stringy bark or a bearing binding up ??
The only shaking I have ever had, from blades, was when sawing a terribly hard piece of Tropical wood. The saw would "Chatter" from the teeth grabbing into that hard wood. I would check bearings and try spinning each one by hand, to see if there is any binding going on. Might look down the track for something mashed against the rail the wheels ride on. My big Corley production sawmill would get pieces of bark or a lump of sawdust mashed onto the track, and make the carriage bump bump bump, as it traveled over that stuff.
I try to keep the area around the mill itself as clean as possible, every day or half day, if needed. makes life so much simpler.
You mention needing to change out the blade roller guides ?? We are still on the original rollers, and have probably 250,000 bd/ft of sawn lumber run through the mill. We have changed out the bearings a couple of times, though. We pop off the seal on one side, and add a little more grease to the new bearings, but, NOT filling the space. We also use a hose and wash off the mill after each use. We try to keep things well greased, to help keep out water from bearings and such.
Exactly what part of those rollers wear out ?? How much down pressure is on the blade ?? We try to maintain 1/8" to 3/16 of down pressure. Do you run the blade so it does NOT touch the back flange or bearing, if it has one, while the blade is running but NOT sawing ?? The back of the blade should not touch the flange or backer bearing while not sawing. Also, the blade should ride flat on the roller, not putting excess pressure on the front edge or the back edge of the rollers. You may be "Steering" the blade flat instead of HELPING it stay flat in the cut.
On the gauge needle sticking, put a little mineral spirits on the shaft of the gauge, where it goes up inside the tube to the gauge. They get sticky and will not travel smoothly. Might take a couple 3 times to do this. Keep pushing the travel part in and let it pop back out, until it runs smoothly. I would not oil it at all, after cleaning it. Gauges hardly ever go bad, but, they will act up from sticky grease and dirt on that shaft.
Setting, IF the blades get too narrow, the teeth will ride on the rollers and take out the set. I'm not familiar with the mill y'all have, so, I'm going rule of thumb here. Do you have metal wheels and metal where the blade rides on the wheels ?? Do you have "V" belt tires on pulleys that the blade rides on?? Do you have rubber tires, like trailer tires that the blade rides on ??
Metal wheels have a crown, or higher center than the edges of the wheel. That makes the blade always try to stay on top of that ridge. It MIGHT be the teeth are riding on the metal and mashing the set.
IF you have "V" belts that the blade rides on, it MIGHT be that the blade is touching the teeth to the edge of the pulley, because the belts are worn down or "SEATED" deeply into the pulley groove. This is common and needs new belts installed.
Trailer tires should cause NO problem. That's what we built our mill with.
Over set teeth (032) can be reset back to .022, if you make a tool for banding the tooth. Take a small piece of flat metal, say 1/8" thick, and cut a groove in it to fit the thickness of the tooth. Make it just long enough to bend where the tooth is bent. It should be bent 1.3 of the way from the tip to the bottom of the TOOTH, NOT the gullet. You don't want 2 different settings on a blade. Also, sounds like you get a BURR on the blade, and, that's what scores the log in the first cut. Wears off after that and cuts smooth. Might want to take a VERY fine kiss of the wheel on the last go round of the blades, to take off that burr.
Also, nails usually are softer than blade teeth. Take that curl of metal off the teeth, and, you can probably keep sawing, IF there are no broken teeth. Some guys save broken teeth blades solely for cutting "Yard" trees. A few teeth missing will still saw good lumber, IF it's sharp and set correctly.
If you were a production mill, sawing separate types of wood, Pine for several days, oak for several days, etc. it MIGHT be OK to have different blade set ?? We never changed the set sawing from Cypress to Live Oak, and, tropical short pieces of wood, for a Fish carver. We didn't have time OR the ambition to keep blades separated for this. .022 or 22 thousands was all we ever did, except for Heart Pine. That Turpentine smelling, sticky, heavy Pine. Then, we set to .24 or more and used a squirt of Pam every other pass, to keep sap off the blades. Never did live sawing that Heart Pine, for any length of time.
Did you ever try to sort out the grinding of the cam, to drop deeper into the gullet ??
Do y'all have much Red Cedar in your area ??
