Posted by DanielW on September 18, 2023 at 06:15:19 from (24.51.248.85):
In Reply to: Buzz saw sharpening posted by Farmerwright97 on September 18, 2023 at 04:35:04:
As mentioned, you can get a sharp edge by filing either the underside or the top. The proper way is to file the top until the gullet area is decreased too much, then you have to file, or 'gum' the gullet. Having enough gullet area is critical. I run a few old circular sawmills as well as a handful of trimmers, buzz-saws, and two shingle mills - all with circular blades, and can tell you with certainty that a sharp blade with too little gullet area will cut way worse than a dull blade with enough gullet area. For your buzz saw, however, it's probably something you won't have to worry about for a while. File into the set direction with a good, single-cut file.
Things to consider:
- Gullet Profile: Don't file any square corners into it - it needs to be a nice, consistent rounded profile. Square corners will build stress concentrations and can crack the blade. Once you've seen a large circular blade let go and send shrapnel in all direction, you learn to watch for and respect anything that might cause cracking. If you ever have the blade off the arbor, suspend it by a bar through the eye and give it a light tap with a hammer. It should 'ring'. If it gives a muffled, dead sound, there's a crack in it somewhere.
- Top Tooth Profile - Not quite flat, but definitely not a straight point. This is very often done incorrectly and leads to weak/broken teeth.
- Hook Angle: For a cross-cut buzz saw, probably very little. You often see way too much hook filed into old buzz, trim, and slasher saws.
- Outside Circumference - should be perfectly round. It will get out-of-round over time as it's filed inconsistently. The old-school method of 'jointing' to correct this is to mount the blade backwards, run it at a slower RPM, and slowly advance a find grinding stone into the back of the teeth by hand so they all true up. You're done when they're touching the stone consistently. Maybe not something you want to try if you're new to blade maintenance, however - pretty easy to lose a finger or send stone shrapnel flying into your face.
- Tooth Set - For a cross-cut buzz saw that's probably never going more than 12 to 16 in a cut, consistency is more important than excessive set distance. If a few teeth are set out wider than the rest, they'll be doing a lot more work, sucking a lot more power, and wearing a lot faster. I'm guessing that 0.020'' or so would be a good amount of set for you. Technically you shouldn't be setting with a wrench, because you're bending the tooth at the root in the gullet region and making it subject to cracking. For a simple buzz saw, however, lots of folks do it with a wrench, and unless you're running it full time you'll probably be fine. I have a few different styles of tooth setting tools, but if I was in your shoes and the only circular saw had to maintain was one buzz saw, I probably wouldn't bother to buy one.
- A lot of old buzz saws had the arbor/mandrel running in babbit. Check the state of the babbit and make sure you keep the oil to the boxes. It doesn't take long to melt the babbitt out of a box if they start running dry.
The link below is a book written by J. Miner, who wrote a pile of books on saw maintenance. He had a bit of a pompous 'Everyone is wrong but me' style of writing, but he knew his stuff and his books were acknowledged for years as the ultimate authority on saw maintenance. In particular, look at page 59 where it talk about tooth shape. The Hanchett 'Saw and Knife Fitting Manual' is actually a better book in my opinion, but harder to find an online copy of.
Ultimately I'm probably going too much into detail: For a simple buzz saw used a few hours each year, you could probably hit it with a file until it seems sharp, set the teeth by eye with a wrench, and it would do ok. Just be careful: They'll take your hand off in a blink. When you're into the saw and milling world as much as I am, you soon meet a lot of people with a few digits missing (especially true in the shingle mill world)
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