Learning material for Woodworking machines

[EighthBen]

I work as a mechanical sawmill machinery engineer. I would like to get some recommendations for university textbooks or any other type of learning material, where I could find instructions on the following topics:
1. Calculating the power of motor which is needed to turn the circular/linear saw for cutting the wood
2. Calculating the power of motor which is needed to push the wood through the saw
3. Instructions how different types of saw teeth influence the cutting properties
4. Technological articles about woodworking processes
5. Some information about wood milling processes, like blade shapes, angles etc. would also be very useful.

I tried to search amazon, I couldn't find any. Unfortunately, I only read English.

Thank you for your recommendations!

 

[JohnRBaker]

Below is the link to the bookstore of my alma mater and while I was not a Forestry major, Michigan Tech has one of the highest rated school of Forestry & Wood Management in the country. Perhaps if you contacted the bookstore staff they might be able to help you with what you're looking for:

http://www.bookstore.mtu.edu/michtech/

John R. Baker, P.E. (ret)
EX-Product 'Evangelist'
Irvine, CA
Siemens PLM:
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The secret of life is not finding someone to live with
It's finding someone you can't live without

 

[tygerdawg]

That's a very interesting query, so I looked into it also. Amazon: nothing much as you say. I did some quick Google searches for "woodworking machinery engineering" and "woodworking engineering" and similar. There were a few interesting links but nothing substantive. Also searched for "furniture engineering", nothing much there.

I know courses in Manufacturing Processes address those calculations for metal cutting processes like lathes, mills, saws. Textbooks by Groover & Kalpakjian covering "Manufacturing Processes" and "Manufacturing Technology" can be obtained. Those equations don't change, so previous (less expensive) versions would be suitable I suppose. Perhaps they can be adapted for wood. So maybe further searches using the search strings of "manufacturing processes" and "furniture" or "woodworking" would turn up something.

Another avenue that I've used successfully over the years is to look at vendor catalogs. Don't know about woodworking machinery, but other types will have Engineering Guides in the catalogs sometimes. There might be something in any of the Grizzly equipment catalogs, or perhaps saw blades & other cutters will have data sheets with useful information.

I saw some interesting books on woodworking processes from publisher Goodheart+Willcox but cannot determine if those have the technical information you seek.

And the old-school last resort: there's always the library.

TygerDawg
Blue Technik LLC
Virtuoso Robotics Engineering

http://www.bluetechnik.com

 

[dhengr]

EighthBen:
I’d suggest some good text books on Engineering Mechanics, Strength of Materials and Machine Design. These are indispensable subjects to have well mastered if you are going to be doing this kind of engineering design. Those parts of the engineering problem are pretty much universal and absolutely essential for any good solution, and independent of the exact material being worked, except as the material’s mechanical properties come into play in the final process.

I doubt that you’ll find many texts specifically about lumber sawing and machining. Those specifics you might find from some associations of the lumber sawing industry or from other experienced designers within that industry. Does ASME have an engineering sub-group specifically related to wood harvesting and manufacturing, they do for many other sub-groups of mech. engr’g. Then, I would talk with several different saw blade suppliers, either circular or band saw type blades. They will know the capabilities and limitations of their equipment and of their various blades, as relates to the various woods being sawn. Talk with their engineering dept., not their sales people who might tell you anything to try to sell some blades. The engineering dept. people will know how their various blades and tooth shapes perform in soft vs. hardwoods, vs. more abrasive woods, etc. Tooth shape, tooth set, number of teeth per inch, all come into play, and of course, are a function of whether you are ripping or cross-cutting. They will have info. on optimum blade speed and feed rates, etc. for various woods. Listen for the commonalities of what they have to say, and let these be part of your main guidance, because they’ll each have some special/fancy b.s. about what makes their product far superior to others. They should have test data on a lot of this, for each different blade or tooth type, and it should likely include best rpm and feed rate and power consumption, after all, this is what they are really selling, along with blade life. I would guess that a lot of this info. is kinda proprietary and based on a lot of industry specific experience, and you’ll gain that with time and practice. Then you work backwards from there, through your own machine design to determine the motor size, etc. Take advantage of every chance you get to really study various sawmill machines in use, what are their pros and cons, what’s good about each machine, and what could be improved, etc?

 

[dvd]

I remembered running into some USDA publications on Forestry that were good recently.

try this search string

usda forestry machinery balanced saw performance horsepower

The first two hits on my search produced interesting literature on the topic with a reasonable bibliography

 

[Sparweb]

EighthBen,

I have referred to the Forest Products Laboratories publications for various reasons over the years. They may also be helpful to you.
They have been publishing data about wood, wood products, and fabrication methods since WW2 (maybe earlier...). They may also have studied best practices at the mill.

http://www.fpl.fs.fed.us/

STF

 

[Nescius]

If any school could help, Michigan Tech would be it. (Go Huskies!)

I have a wild suggestion. Google Books has an incredible number of free ebooks about lots of subjects. So what, right? Well, there are lots of old books, with lots of old knowledge. On some subjects, old knowledge is pure gold.

I am a big fan of the old machine shop books, say from 1890-1920...very clever techniques and thinking, lots of it lost in manufacturing today. I'd bet you'd be able to find something similar that addresses sawmill practice.

For a primer on saw sharpening parameters, the US Forest Service has a document about manual crosscut saws. It won't be directly applicable to power equipment, but you'll know what "fleam" is by the end of your study.

Beyond that, who makes the blade that you use...ask them. If the wood cutting tooling business is anything like the machining cutter business, the tooling maker will have applications engineers to make suggestions for your situation.

Finally, write your own engineering guide!

Edited to add: Do you have your blades etc. reground? Are they reground to your parameters or does the regrinder steer the details? Anyway, it just popped into my head that an outfit that regrinds industrial wood cutting tools may have some insight.

 

[BUGGAR]

Senility is setting in. I thought y'all were recommending textbooks as substitute for actual pieces of wood in designing and testing of saws. I was thinking laminated paper should make a good substitute for wood as it is consistent in density and easily varied in thickness. As everyone noted, it is available everywhere and can be had cheap. And you can start with my college calculus book.

How 'bout saw or saw blade manufacturers? But this is no doubt secret stuff.

 

[Nescius]

I was eating my lunch, cruising Google Books for archaic sawmill information, as I often do, and came across this:

https://books.google.com/books?id=k...PAhUB6IMKHVMEBbgQ6AEIJzAC#v=onepage&q&f=false

"Saw Filing and the Management of Saws", from 1912. I did notice that page 92 has a section entitled "Horse Power Required to Run Circular Saws". Check it out. Is it directly applicable to modern methods and machines? Maybe yes, maybe no. For sure, though, it's a start.

 

[Ron]

hokie66 and the other Hokies hereabout would probably disagree and say that Virginia Tech is the place to study wood. I looked at their course offerings and they have one that delves into sawmill operations, log sawing and production of wood.

Here's a description of one of their related courses:
3534: LUMBER MANUFACTURING AND DRYING
The processing of logs into dry lumber. Principles of log and lumber grading. Design and operation of log sawing and lumber drying systems. Techniques for measuring lumber manufacturing and lumber drying efficiency. The relationship between log quality, sawing, and drying and the quality of the product produced. Pre: 3114. (2H,3L,3C)


Here's a link.....Wood Science at VT