FRAME SAW FAQ
We are always happy to answer questions. If you have a comment or a question that is not answered below, click here to ask us about it.
Our Thin Cutting Frame Saw experts are always available to answer your questions
Why would I use a thin-cutting frame saw as opposed to conventional method of making veneer slats?
Answer: The thin-cutting frame saw is able to cut accurate veneer slats with less waste (up to 30%). For example, instead of getting 4 veneers out of a given block you may get 6 veneer slats, the number of slats produced will always depend on the size of the block being cut and the thickness of the slat being produced. This is especially important when cutting more expensive woods such as oak, mahogany, maple, cherry and other exotic species. The frame saw will produce a finish which is both accurate and ready for further processes such as face gluing for flooring, stiles & rails and other products. The traditional method of making veneer slats is with the use of a conventional band or re saw. Due to the inaccuracy and poor finish produced with a conventional band saw the parts produced required additional machining steps, in this case it would be sanding on both sides. This is of course time consuming and expensive due to the additionl labour and process costs. Because there are no further machining operations required when using our thin cutting frame saw, the customer will save on labor and material. These saving are significant enough to make the thin cutting frame saw a necessary piece of machinery even for the smaller manufacturing shops.
What kind of industries use thin cutting frame saws?
Answer: Thin cutting frame saws are used in any industry that requires veneer slats. Any company that is cutting a veneer slat and wants to produce a slat with minimum waste of material and a good finish can use the frame saw. Some of the more common industries in which a frame saw can be found include door companies who are making engineered stiles and rails, companies who are making radial half rounds for windows and doors, flooring companies who are making engineered wear layers for flooring, furniture companies, musical instruments companies (ie, Guitars) and variety of other industries.
Pictured Below: Example of engineered Door Stile/Rail
How is the Neva -Ogden frame saw user friendly to operate?
Answer: The Neva-Ogden frame saw machines open in the middle for safe and easy saw frame removal and saw frame loading. This system was developed to make it easier and safer for the operator to remove and mount the saw frame in and out of the machine. It only takes 3 to 5 minutes to change out a saw frame. On some other thin cutting frame saw systems, the operator must climb up on top of the machine in order to remove and mount the saw frame. This can be dangerous for the operator, unless a crane/hoist is installed above the machine or a walkway is built above the machine for your operators. It is recommended that you contact your local
Pictured Below: THIN CUTTING FRAME SAW SHOWS INSTALLATION AND REMOVAL METHOD ON OTHER BRANDS OF FRAME SAWS
Below a Video of the Ogden/Neva Frame saw with safe and easy side installation and removal of saw
frame and quick easy powered top feed rollers adjustment
How can I prevent tear out on the bottom of the slats?
Answer: A standard feature of all Neva-Ogden Frame Saws is the adjustable chip breaker. The chip breaker is made out of phenolic and supports the wood from the bottom during cutting process. The chip breaker can be adjusted so that the saw blades cut into the phenolic support block, hence preventing the wood slats from chipping out on the bottom as the saw blades exit the bottom of the wood. Many other frame saw systems do not have this adjustable chip breaker feature. Without the chip breaker, the slats will often have splinters on the bottom and on occasion these splinters will jam in between the saw blades and cause the blades to bend. Bent blades will cause the veneer slats to be cut too thin or too thick, either of which will result in down time to change the saw frame and a loss in production.
What makes the feed system on the Neva-Ogden Frame Saw superior?
Answer: On our frame saw, all of the bottom feed rollers are driven. Some of the feed rollers on the top are also driven. On most other frame saw machines, only the bottom rollers are driven. Because our frame saw has top driven rollers, it allows for the machine to feed more effectively and smoother, without the wood hanging up.
Pictured Below: DRIVEN FEED ROLLERS ON TOP AND
BOTTOM FROM NEVA - OGDEN
Pictured Below: IDLE NON DRIVEN TOP FEED ROLLERS
ON OTHER FRAME SAW MACHINES
How do I know what feed speed the machine is running?
Answer: Our Frame Saw comes standard with an electronic digital feed speed indicator. When the operator wants to go faster or slower, he simply turns a handle on the infeed of the machine and the feed speed is adjusted and is indicated on the digital display on the control panel. In order to adjust the feed speed on other systems, you have to turn a hand wheel which is located on the outfeed at the bottom of the machine near the floor. Because it is inconvenient to change the feed speed with other systems, operators using these frame saws are less likely to change the speed according to the wood height or wood species. This can result in less productivity.
Pictured Below: Digital feed speed indicator
How can I adjust the top feed roller height according to the width I am cutting?
Answer: Adjustment of the top feed rollers on our saw is done automatically. To make an adjustment of the top feed rollers from one height to another the operator simply presses a button on the control panel and the top rollers move up or down electrically. This system is the same system that was used for many years on molding machines. The automatic height adjustment takes only a few seconds and is very user friendly. On some other systems, each set of top idle rollers has to be adjusted manually via a wrench by the operator reaching to the top of the machine. This manual adjustment is extremely cumbersome, and can take as long as 15 minutes depending on the size difference needed.
Pictured Below: Neva Ogden control panel with easy and fast raise lower adjustment of top feed rollers via electrical motors
Manual height adjustment on other frame saw brands which require manual adjustment of top feed rollers via ratchet
How much HP/kW will I need?
Answer: The main up/down motor on our machine is 20 HP motor . This allows the machine to cut more veneer slats without overloading the motor. We are able to cut up to 40 slats in one pass one our frame saw. Most other frame saw systems only have 15 HP motors.
What kind of feed drive system is used?
Answer: The feed rollers on the top and bottom of the machine are driven via sprockets and chains. These parts are all encased in a sealed gear box which runs in oil. The gear boxes are virtually wear-free because they are not exposed to dust. On many other frame saws, the sprockets and chains are not enclosed and are completely exposed to dust and other contaminants. With this type of this exposure, the chains and sprockets dry up and need to be changed frequently.
How should the Thin Cutting Frame Saw be configured for feeding?
Answer: The Frame Saw comes standard with a center guide and side guide system. The center guide feeding system allows two blocks of wood to be fed through the machine at one time. A fence is mounted in the center of the feed rollers and wood is fed on either side of the fence, blocks of wood up to 2 1/2" thick can be fed on either side of the fence. With the side guide system the fence is placed on one side of the machine, one block of wood up to 6" wide can be run through the machine. There is also an optionally channel feeding system available where the feed system is partitioned with multiple guides, these guides are built according to the size of wood which is to be processed through the frame saw. For example if you was running 1" thick blocks of wood the channel system would be partitioned so that you could run 5 blocks of 1" thick material at one time. The channel system fits into the machine like a cassette, the entire channel can be installed and removed as one cassette. On average most Thin Cutting Frame Saws are fitted with the center guide system; mostly because it allows for the most flexibility of this system. Various wood block thicknesses can be ran on either side of the fence and the only change the operator must make is with the hold over roller from the side which presses the wood onto the fence in the middle. Adjustment of the hold over rollers takes only a matter of a few minutes.
Pictured Below: Center guide and Channel System
Who can grind my saw blades?
Answer: Ogden provides a saw sharpening service out of the Matthews, N.C. facility. We offer a two day turn-around on the sharpening of all blades. In emergencies, we will provide same day sharpening. The grinding is done on a state of the art CNC grinding machine that provides consistent and accurate grinds on all saw blades. In addition to re-sharpening the saw blades, each saw blade is tested for tension. If additional tension is required, this will also be done at no additional cost.
Pictured Below: CNC Grinding machine for consistent re-sharpening of saw blades
(Click play, then click on lower right corner to select language)
How many hours can I expect from a saw blade?
Answer: The life of a saw blade depends on a few variables such as the type of wood being cut, softwood or hardwood and the type of saw blade being used, ie. Stellite or Carbide. The amount of clearance on a saw blade will also effect how long the blade will last. For example a blade which is older and has been ground many times will have less side clearance. These older blades will wear faster than a new saw blade with more side clearance. Normally Stellite saw blades are used, cutting soft woods you can expect from 20 to 40 hrs of run time, cutting hardwoods the run time can be from 6 to 15 hrs. Generally speaking you can expect approximately 18 re-sharpens from a saw blade and after that the blade needs to be replaced with a new one. When cutting reclaimed timber all bets are off as the blade may only last a matter of minutes due to foreign particles in the wood such as stones nails etc. Not only does Ogden sell saw blades for our frame saws but we also offer and stock saw blades for all makes and models of frame saws, contact our sales department for pricing.
Can I cut wet wood - Green Lumber?
Answer: Wet woods are difficult to cut as they do not produce wood chips. The type of chip that is produced when cutting wet woods is like a soft past, this past has a tendency to pack in between the saw blades causing them to deform. We do offer a wet wood cutting option which alleviates the problems associated with wet wood. It comprises of an oil misting system which sprays a fine mist of Raap seed oil (sun flower oil) onto the saw blades. In addition to the oil misting system the thin cutting frame saw also comes with a high pressure air blast system which periodically blasts air in between the saw blades. The combination of oil misting and high pressure air blasting will remove most particles which become trapped within the saw blades.
Can I cut woods with a high resinous content?
Answer: Our thin cutting frame saws can be fitted with an optional oil misting system, this oil misting system is located directly behind the saw blades and spray coats the saw blades with a fine mist of oil. The type of oil used is normally Raap seed oil (sun flower oil), this type of oil will not effect the wood surface in terms of further processing such as face gluing. It prevents the resin from sticking and building up on the saw blades thus allowing for resinous woods to be cut such as Heart Pine etc.
What is the advantage of the Orbit Frame Saw?
Answer: The biggest advantage of the orbit is the patented movement of the saw frame. When cutting wide material, the Orbit utilizes a completely new up/down method of movement for cutting veneer slats. Unlike conventional frame saws which move up and down in a lineal motion, the Orbit utilizes a patented swing out motion at the bottom of the saw stroke. During the downstroke of the saw frame, the cutting motion is perfectly lineal. At the bottom of the stroke, the saw frame swings out of the cut in the same direction that the wood is moving. Once the saw frame has retracted out of the cut, the frame travels back to the top, remaining out of contact with the wood during the entire upward motion. The saw frame then once again begins its lineal downward cutting motion. This unique movement has several distinct advantages over the frame movements on the older, conventional frame saws. With other frame saws, a great deal of heat is generated by sawdust that is captured/packed into and around the saw blade teeth. This occurs because the sawdust and wood chips are unable to clear out from the blade during the upstroke. This fact is especially true when cutting high, as some of the teeth in the center of the saw blades never clear out of the cut. Because the Orbit saw frame moves out of the cut during the upstroke, wood chips and sawdust fall clear from the saw blades and from between the saw teeth gullets. The result is less heat build up on the saw blade, up to 50% longer saw blade life, dust free slats, a more accurate slat tolerance (since the saw blades do not expand because of heat build up), and the ability to use a thinner kerf saw blade. On other systems, where the frame goes straight up and down, an air jet (blast) system is used for blowing the dust off the slats. This system is not as effective as the orbit motion because the air jet is unable to blow out the chips that are captured between all of the teeth, as some of the teeth in the middle of the saw blade never exit either the top or the bottom of the wood. This results in heat build up which subsequently expands the saw blades causing them to lose tension and affecting tolerances. As well, the air jet system has a tendency to blow dust throughout the machine and onto the operator.
What kind of service can I expect, and must I depend on parts from overseas?
Answer: Ogden Group has a staff of over 30 employees based in North Carolina. We have 6 service technicians, 4 design engineers and 2 state of the art manufacturing facilities where machines and machine parts are manufactured. Along with manufacturing frame saws and resaws, we also are the largest manufacturer of radio frequency presses in the US. As well, we build radius forming machines for the door and window industry. Our expertise and reputation within the industry offers our customers superior support and service. Virtually all spare parts are manufactured at our North Carolina facilities, including the most critical parts such as the saw frames. When parts are ordered, 99% of the time they will ship the same day that the order is placed. Because of the strength of our technical support and the availability of spare parts, Ogden has established an excellent reputation within the industry when it comes to customer service. Most of our competitors are unable to provide the same spare parts and service support because their parts are made overseas, resulting in delays when parts are required. Should a customer require something which is unique, Ogden has the ability to design and manufacture the parts or components within a short period of time.
Pictured Below: CNC Vertical Milling Machines with 24 Automatic Tool Changers and a Sampling of Spare parts for our frame saws
How can I trouble shoot my Thin Cutting Frame Saw if there is an electrical problem?
Answer: In the case of an electrical problem or some other type of problem with the frame saw there is a PLC located in the electrical cabinet. This PLC has a screen which will indicate where and what type of problem is occurring with the machine. For example, things such as no air pressure, emergency switch, doors not closed over load relays, low lubricating oil and many more items will be displayed on the PLC screen. This is helpful for the operator as he can easily troubleshoot the error. Our service technicians are always available to help should the customer require additional assistance.
Pictured Below: PLC SCREEN FOR ERROR DIAGNOSIS
Where can I get new spacers if I change the size of the slat which I want to produce?
Answer: If the body of the saw blade is changed, then this will affect the size of the veneer slat being produced. In this case, you must change the size of the spacers between the saw blades. Ogden can manufacture new spacers within 2 days for your different size slat requirements, there is no waiting for parts from overseas with Ogden because we able to manufacture our own parts. We offer this fast turn around service for all frame saw makes and models. In fact we go the extra mile and engrave the size of each and every saw spacer to make it easier for the operator to identify and load the spacers into the correct position of the saw frame.
Pictured Below: Below Fully Automatic CNC Grinding Machine
Pictured Below: Below Spacer with size engraved in the spacer for easy size identification
