Have you ever driven behind a car that’s going fast and their brake lights keep flashing? I have and I always wonder what the heck is going on. It is scary! I didn’t know what they were doing. I eventually figured out that these drivers are actually driving with one foot on the brake pedal and the other on the gas. This makes me wonder how their fuel economy is because of the constant braking, and how long it would be until their brakes prematurely wore out. Is this type of situation happening in many sawmills with inaccurate saw guides?
I had the pleasure of being at the Saw Filers Convention in Redding California. It’s a very nice place but it was extremely hot! I had the luxury of speaking with a number of Saw Filers on the subject of ‘accurate saw guides’. I spoke with them about controlling the gap between the Babbitt pad and the saw guides. Controlling this gap is critical to have an edger producing good quality lumber. One of the Filers in the group said in his mill, many times, the edger could not even start up because the gap between the saw guide pad and the saw was too tight in many areas of the edger. This indicated to me that he had a lot of variation in his saw guides, which caused many of Babbitt pads to act like the brakes on your car. On one hand you have the edger motor(s) running and on the other you have the Babbitt pads braking. This braking effect causes the edger to consume more energy than necessary. This is just like my scenario of the person driving down the road with one foot pushing on the brake and the other pushing on the gas.
We know that accurate saw guides give you more control over the gap. The more accurate the Saw guide the more consistent and controllable the gap between the Saw guide and the Babbitt pad will be. If this gap becomes too large then the within board deviation of the lumber goes up, and if it becomes too tight, then the Babbitt pads act like brake pads.
If the saw guide acts like a brake pad then:
- Saws can heat up faster and potentially fold over due to the loss of tension which cause downtime
- Babbitt pads will wear out sooner and cause more saw guide change-overs which causes increased downtime
- The edger will use more energy than necessary to run the saws and increase operating costs
What this means is very often inaccurate guides lead to the gap between the saw blade and the Babbitt pad being too tight. If the gap is too tight, it leads to higher downtime due to premature saw failure and Babbitt pad wear out. Inaccurate saw guides therefore cause lower output and higher costs. Inaccurate saw guides increase the cost of running a sawmill and limit its output potential. Can your sawmill afford that?
Tell me your thoughts?
Author: Udo Jahn
Want my opinion direct to your Inbox? Subscribe here.
