Reply by elkhunter

As a sawyer myself I agree that all these are good ideas. The learning curve is long with a saw mill. I would start by power washing, as any dirt or gravel will will dull your bands as guick as any thing. Then I would peal the bark, (if you have a debarker ajust it) I would set the band tenstion at the high end as the hard dry log will heat the band and cause it to expand. I also lube my band with about 10 to 12 oz. of dish soap, about the same amount of rubbing ahcohol, in about 3.5 to 4.5 gallons of water. I run this mixture at a steady flow just enough to keep the band cool an not enough to soak the cant. The next thing is feed speed. The feed rate must be fast enough that the heat that builds in the wood isn’t transfered into the band. Also not so fast the the pressure causes the band to heat up. I can tell on my mill by the load on the engine, but that is my expereance, you will have experement to see what works for you. Hope this helps, and I wish I could find some of those logs for my mill.

-- John of Idaho