I have recently attended a few forestry sector tradeshows, the same ones the sawmill industry usually attends. I have spoken with many people in the industry who have questions about sawguides, which of course I am always very happy to answer. There is one question I would like to address today; this question really got the wheels spinning in my head.
“Could you make me a steel sawguide that would hit a 0.687” target size?”
It could have been extremely easy at this point to just say yes! Most manufacturers do, but I thought about it and decided I really needed more information before I could give an answer I really felt confident about. So I proceeded to ask the following questions:
- What is the kerf of your saw?
- What is the plate size of your saw?
- What is the thickness of your babbit pad before and after milling?
I was about to ask even more questions, but the gentleman cut me off. “Why do you need all this information?” he asked. I explained to him that this information was necessary so we could see if it was even possible to make a sawguide this thin. His next statement made my jaw drop! He stated that I was the first person to ask him for this information…
Those who know me would say that it’s not possible for me to stay silent! But there I was, looking at him in stunned silence as if someone had robbed me of my voice. I was at a loss for words. I could not comprehend how on Earth other people would be answering his original question without having all the information!
After a long pause, I finally found the courage to explain that his answers to my questions determined if making a sawguide this thin would be a successful project for his mill. If I did not have all the information, I could not give him a proper answer. I then sat down with him and worked through all the calculations. When I showed him on paper how this all worked he was amazed! He was now just as stunned as I was that nobody else had requested this information.
In the end, given the information I received, the scope of work would require a sawguide design change and most likely a modified babitt mold, as the pads were very thick and the babbitt pocket too shallow.
My grave concern lies in the fact that the right questions aren’t being asked, and people are making decisions without the required information. This shows that more education needs to happen in the sawmill industry. Without this education there will be some less than ideal, even disastrous, decisions being made. These decisions can cause the sawmill industry a lot of problems in the future. Even worse, I am sure that these snap decisions are not just happening at the sawguide level.
Author: Udo Jahn
Do you want the next article delivered to your Inbox? Subscribe here for ideas and tips on getting the most out of your mill.
