Sawfiler

A saw filer or saw doctor is a person who maintains and repairs saws in a saw mill. A saw filer's work area in the mill is called the filing room.

Saws used in timber mills are very large and expensive. They need careful maintenance for safe operation. Repair of damaged saws requires a high degree of skill. It takes many years of full-time saw filing to become proficient in the trade.

Bandsaws in timber mills range in size from about (4" x 22ga x 10') to (16" x 11ga x 62') and can use any of the three main different saw band types:

The saw filer inspects the saw for needed repairs then gums, fits and benches the saw as necessary.

Gumming involves grinding the gullets of the saw teeth to a particular shape. The saw filer uses a semi or fully automatic grinding machine for this. Saw bands operate under high stress and heat and in the presence of wood chips. Carbon migrates into the steel from the wood. Gumming prevents case hardening and fatigue cracking of the saw band gullets. Resaw Bandsaws (teeth on one side only) may be left or right-handed, depending on which way the teeth are pointing and which way the plank falls from the log when cutting. Double cut saws (teeth on both sides) are always gummed right hand teeth first.

A precise profile of the tooth (including gullet area, hook angle and top clearance angle) must be maintained for proper saw operation and wood chip removal. Ease of cutting greatly depends on this. The shape is determined by the type of wood and cutting conditions. A saw filer will maintain the gullet shape by manually shaping the grinding wheel with a dressing stone, and the set up of his grinding machine. Variations include face angle, face length, back angle, gullet width and depth, and a frost notch (if necessary). Typical bandsaw tooth dimensions are 1-3/4" tooth space x 3/4" gullet depth x 3/4" gullet width (grinding wheel width) x 30deg face angle x 16deg back angle.

Fitting means tooth dressing and involves swaging, shaping, gauging, and grinding. The tip of the saw tooth is swaged to a flare, then the sides are compressed in slightly with a shaper tool to an exact . Then a final grinding pass is made. The usual gauged tolerance is +/- .005" in kerf, and < .003" side to side variation. The same grinding machinery used for gumming is used for fitting.

The saw kerf is usually made this way from the base saw metal. Sometimes, however, the kerf is made with stellite or carbide tips, in which case swaging and shaping isn't needed, although gumming is still required. The kerf may also be 'set' with a punch and hammer, with the teeth bent left, right, left... Set teeth are rarely used.

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