Sawing Logs

Sawing massive 50 foot pine
SolidToothSawmill

I'm watching this and I'm thinking it's pretty cool: dogged little robots manhandling this chunk of wood and turning it into boards. But then I start looking at this setup and I'm thinking about the precision, the complexity and the durability. The cart carrying the log needs to spot on every time it makes a pass on that blade. I suspect the saw and the track are mounted to the same slab of concrete. And that blade! I thought round blades had been replaced by bandsaws. Evidently not all of them, and if it still works, and it's paid for, why not just keep on truckin? Surely it's paid for, old as it is.

Okay, that's point one and two. The grippers on the cart are another matter. They are complicated, precision devices in their own right. They have to be able to grip the log, preferably along the top and bottom edges of the side facing the gripper. They also have to be able to position themselves crosswise in order to get the exact thickness of cut. And all this needs to work day in, day out, for years. You might get a slow time of year when you give the machine a checkup and maybe squirt a little oil in the bearings.

I wonder how often he has to sharpen that saw. Daily? Weekly? Hourly? And how's that compare with a bandsaw with similar capacity? I suspect solid blades like this one make a slightly wider cut and generate more sawdust. You might get a little more wood out of a log, like one more board, but replacing the machine would probably a large chunk of change, so it's not going to pay off anytime soon.