Variable Pitch and Depth Bandsaws

By: John Eisenhut

A bit of background on myself, I’ve been in the Saw doctoring industry for quite a few decades now and in those years I’ve experimented a little outside the box with many things over those years.

Several in particular:

• Hit and miss tipping 
• Variable kerf, something I have a huge passion for. 
• Variable pitch band saws off older cam Technology grinders.

Now most of us know and I would think agree that reducing vibration in a saw is beneficial.

A Variable Pitch or Variable Pitch and Depth saw will run quieter than a standard pitch profile. There is no doubt about this; it’s an actual fact and has been documented well over the years.

So a few points to consider

Firstly: from a health and safety point of view, quieter saws in the saw mill are an immediate benefit in itself, and for most in the industry reason enough to make the change to a Variable Pitch saw.

It is common to receive feed back from the operators that they can’t hear the saw and in the next breath say I don’t like it, I can’t here it how can I cut fast and smooth if I can’t hear it?

What he is actually saying is the saw has changed its cutting pitch.

This is nothing that a re-adjustment period and a bit of reassurance and coaching over a few days won’t fix and it is definitely not something that should dictate not changing to the Variable Pitch concept.

This is a free advantage, no outlay, no more expensive than a standard saw.

Old technology grinders or standard cam grinders can grind a three pitch scenario with not too much effort, so the gain is there for us all.

Another benefit from a VP saw is the ability of the saw to decrease or eliminate completely any wash board that may be occurring… This. again is achieved without any other investment or modification being required. It’s a free fix.

Some of the myths around using Variable Pitch saws are that they cannot be serviced on a cam driven grinder, this is absolutely not the case.

Yes care needs to be taken to not over grind the face of the tooth “and” the tooth shape may not be as “pretty” as a CNC machine, however the additional benefits are there to grab. Your choice

The assumption that a VP saw is harder to deal with is also misguided information, setting a Variable Pitch saw going on a cam grinder or a CNC grinder is a simple task.

Continued Benefits

Now the money maker advantages

Increased feed rates

A decrease in within board deviation or a combination of both and again these benefits are being harnessed without any other investment or upgrade, it’s effectively a free performance increase for your sawmill.

You have to buy saws for your saw mill; there is no difference in price between buying a standard profile saw or a Variable Pitch profile saw,

We at Thode can cut your saw to any profile you require

Water cut by Thode Knife and Saw / cold cut flat and true, with no punch deformation

Even if you only have a cam driven grinders we can cut a profile to suit what they produce,

Our CNC water cutter allows us to cold cut your profile to very close tolerances,

The cut is clean, accurate and without heat absolutely no deformation in the plate

This can save you hours of grinding time, and have your new saw up and running in no time at all.