65" Big Silver Maple!! Contract Sawing. The Mill Madison. Hitting Steel. Blade Recovery. Water Pop 

Howdy!! Good input. You’re spot on. I’m running .055 1-1/2. I hit SO MUCH steel. Some day I feel like that’s my actual job. Blades are +/- $60 a piece, my number one expense. 1-1/2 helps mitigate the issue, but it’s still definitely a thing. Eventually looking forward to trying 2”, though I haven’t priced them out yet, and frankly I’m a little scared to. 😅😅 would love all that extra beam!!

Beautiful slabs, love the setup, nice beefy mill, 3 phase is the way to go, very little maintenace compared to a diesel. Your dogging setup looks better than alot ive seen for big logs. I sharpen my own blades but i dont try to resharpen blades that have hit significant metal. It puts a huge amount of stress on the blade and micro fractures and the blade will break down the road which can damage various components of the sawmill especially if running at high tension. Looks like your running 1.5in steel, i would personally go to 0.55 2in steel next time your change your guides but thats just my preference. Best regards.