Best sawmill blades for trakmet 800 ?

[jon red]

Hello

   New member but have visited through being nosey many times !

 Milling with a trakmet 800 standard - oversize douglas fir - struggle to find the right blades - 50-55mm wide

Best results so far - Ripper from Stephen cull which we convert to a 7/34 profile but still slow for a straight cut - been at it long enough to set up guides etc properly

wondered what some of you clever types were using ??

Cheers

Jon

[Big J]

DF is always tricky, especially on a long cut. Dry, abrasive timber. I used to have a Trakmet 800 wide (first one in the country, no longer sawmilling) and put just over 1000 hours on it. 

 

Ripper 37s will likely be the best you'll get. The lack of deflection on the set up doesn't lend itself well to tough cutting. I ended up putting combination roller/sandwich block guides on, with a 1/4 inch deflection and that helped. 

[jon red]

thanks for that - we also went to roller guides - cookes saw in the usa make good ones with a grease nipple in

- funny but as a bloke on the wrong side of 50 I laugh at being a junior member !

cheers

[Big J]

59 minutes ago, jon red said:

thanks for that - we also went to roller guides - cookes saw in the usa make good ones with a grease nipple in

- funny but as a bloke on the wrong side of 50 I laugh at being a junior member !

cheers

Haha! True enough.

 

I looked at the Cook Saws some years ago, but ended up importing a Logmaster LM2. That was my mill before the Trakmet. The Yanks know how to build a solid mill

[jon red]

Yea - solid

what blades did you use ?

And what’s retiring like ?

asking for a friend!

[Big J]

1 hour ago, jon red said:

Yea - solid

what blades did you use ?

And what’s retiring like ?

asking for a friend!

Mainly just the 50 odd blades that came with the mill. Had some Hakansson blades afterwards that were great for about 3 sharpens and then snapped. 

 

Far from retired. Back to forestry now and busier than ever!

[jon red]

Thanks 

I’m a lifetime member of the busy fools club myself!