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New mill, my first - Woodland Mills HM130

Started by ChugiakTinkerer, August 22, 2016, 03:54:42 PM

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fishfighter

Quote from: btulloh on September 28, 2016, 07:05:45 AM
Congrats on getting your mill up and going.  You're hooked now.  You'll get a rhythm going after a few logs and everything will get easier. 

There's never enough stickers, especially dry ones.

Ibuprofen is your friend.

This and a couple Ibuprofen was a must this morning for me. ;D

Timster

One of the first things I did with my new HM130 was to make pallets and stickers. I made over 300 stickers and I think I have used about half of them already.


fishfighter

Yep, a couple thousand more and you are good for a little time. :D I saw some of mine from edging boards. I use my chainsaw to cut to length once I get a stack of them. One thing I really need to do is build a house just for them and also train my dog to fetch them up and put them in said house. :D

Ox

Congrats on your mill!
This might help you for your sticker problem:  When I find a punky(er) tree I'll cut the whole thing into stickers.  This tree wouldn't give me good boards for anything more than simple wall paneling.  I get lots of stickers in short order.  They also dry pretty quickly if they need drying at all.  This is usually due to the tree being a deadstand.  This is red pine so far and no problems.  Good luck and stay safe!
K.I.S.S. - Keep It Simple Stupid
Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without
1989 GMC 3500 4x4 diesel dump and plow truck, 1964 Oliver 1600 Industrial with Parsons loader and backhoe, 1986 Zetor 5211, Cat's Claw sharpener, single tooth setter, homemade Linn Lumber 1900 style mill, old tools

ChugiakTinkerer

Quote from: fishfighter on September 29, 2016, 06:20:41 AM
Yep, a couple thousand more and you are good for a little time. :D I saw some of mine from edging boards. I use my chainsaw to cut to length once I get a stack of them. One thing I really need to do is build a house just for them and also train my dog to fetch them up and put them in said house. :D

Good idea.  I'll work on training the dog, but right now I think he's a lot better at training us!   ::)

Thanks all for the comments and encouragement.  Looking forward to more milling time this weekend.
Woodland Mills HM130

ChugiakTinkerer

Had a little time this weekend to work on the mill.  I got the 6' extension put on, but it came missing a couple parts.  The extension came on a separate pallet from the mill and the cardboard box suffered some shipping damage.  Nothing critical that prevented me from installing it, as I was able to get some bolts at the hardware store.  But I am missing the threaded tee for the two backstops.

I put my biggest log on the mill yesterday.  Definitely did not have a good rhythm, as a couple times I caught myself at the end of a cut going to turn off the water valve but I hadn't turned it on.  Blade was running hot which added to the dulling.  The logdog I nicked last week didn't help.  Soon after I was getting a wavy cut, so I opted to replace the blade.  There wasn't too much blood spilled when I opened the box of Kasco blades.  It was a good thing going through the blade replacement because it helped me realize I had done a poor job on blade tracking and tension.  After re-reading the manual and doing it right this time, the Kasco blade was ripping through the cottonwood.

The blade was cutting so well I even tried to cut through a backstop.  Whoops!  Second blade replacement went much quicker, and I learned to wear gloves while changing blades.  Negative reinforcement can be very useful!  Got the sawing completed just as family was coming over for dinner.  My dad is impressed with how awesome a bandsaw mill is, and my mom thinks I'm crazy wanting to cut all the lumber needed to build my cabin.
Woodland Mills HM130

goose63

Tinkerer i got some extra t handles if ya need them pm me
goose
if you find your self in a deep hole stop digging
saw logs all day what do you get lots of lumber and a day older
thank you to all the vets

clintnelms

I've hit the backstop twice in the last year. You'd think I would have learned my lesson the first time, but after the second time I did figure out that the little L shaped bar hanging down is designed to stop that. You just have to make sure it's turned so that it hits the backstop first before the blade. I assume the HM130 has the same thing.

ozarkgem

sawing into the back stop is a given. I hit mine a while back, I was thinking hey I haven't hit my back stop in yrs, 2 min later I hit it. I was impressed how far the blade cut into it.
Mighty Mite Band Mill, Case Backhoe, 763 Bobcat, Ford 3400 w/FEL , 1962 Ford 4000, Int dump truck, Clark forklift, lots of trailers. Stihl 046 Magnum, 029 Stihl. complete machine shop to keep everything going.

ChugiakTinkerer

Quote from: clintnelms on October 03, 2016, 04:45:28 PM
I've hit the backstop twice in the last year. You'd think I would have learned my lesson the first time, but after the second time I did figure out that the little L shaped bar hanging down is designed to stop that. You just have to make sure it's turned so that it hits the backstop first before the blade. I assume the HM130 has the same thing.

Yep, it does.  It works best when you turn it back down after changing the blade.
smiley_furious3
Woodland Mills HM130

ChugiakTinkerer

Quote from: goose63 on October 03, 2016, 04:38:13 PM
Tinkerer i got some extra t handles if ya need them pm me

Thanks Goose, I may take you up on that if Woodland Mills doesn't deliver, but I'm optimistic they will fix it.
Woodland Mills HM130

DannyLand

I hit my backstop once by just 1/8" from the top, frustrated that the bar designed to prevent this wasnt long enough to actually reach the bottom of the blade height.  Maybe mine was a screwup but it was 1/4" shy of the blade so if the stop was up 1/2 an inch above the blade height, it worked fine, any lower and I wasnt so lucky.   I made my own out of 3/8 steel rod but made it longer, worked great, until I clipped the top of the log clamp and killed a brand new blade.  Ive learned to not trust having it and just use my eyes or wooden stops when Im not pushing against it hard.
    One other thing I didnt like about my WM saw is the thin wall tube used for the log stops to socket into.   One heavy log rolling into the stops is all it took to bend them out of square to the deck.  After that, I had to shim them to 90 degrees for accurate square cuts.   Since then I have welded up new tracks using heavier wall tube and dont have to worry about it anymore.  Im going to weld additional sockets on the clamp side to help prevent the log from rolling off the mill when Im loading it with the skid steer or trying to flip it when squaring up.  Its happened more than once and pinned a leg when the peavey slipped while I was adjusting the clamp.   Thankfully that was just a 14" log 8' long.   
Woodland Mills HM126, Hudson debarker, Jonsered 2171, New Holland skid steer, 1955 International Harvester Dump 132

fishfighter

OP, so you meet your metal. :D Just another battle scare. :D

tareece

Quote from: DannyLand on October 03, 2016, 07:29:57 PM
    One other thing I didnt like about my WM saw is the thin wall tube used for the log stops to socket into.   One heavy log rolling into the stops is all it took to bend them out of square to the deck.  After that, I had to shim them to 90 degrees for accurate square cuts.   Since then I have welded up new tracks using heavier wall tube and dont have to worry about it anymore.
Pictures mahhhn
Todd Reece
Lover of many things. Experienced in most... expert in few

ChugiakTinkerer

Quote from: tareece on October 07, 2016, 05:35:27 PM
Quote from: DannyLand on October 03, 2016, 07:29:57 PM
    One other thing I didnt like about my WM saw is the thin wall tube used for the log stops to socket into.   One heavy log rolling into the stops is all it took to bend them out of square to the deck.  After that, I had to shim them to 90 degrees for accurate square cuts.   Since then I have welded up new tracks using heavier wall tube and dont have to worry about it anymore.
Pictures mahhhn

Maybe put details in the sawmill mods thread?

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,7789.0.html
Woodland Mills HM130

Mcgeezer

I'm really interested in this mill.  The Trekker xl is what I have my heart set on.

I'd love to hear feedback since the last posts or others with experience on this mill. I find the comments about value, performance, customer service very positive about WM

PC-Urban-Sawyer

Quote from: Mcgeezer on November 26, 2017, 02:41:35 PM
I'm really interested in this mill.  The Trekker xl is what I have my heart set on.

I'd love to hear feedback since the last posts or others with experience on this mill. I find the comments about value, performance, customer service very positive about WM

Gets kind of confusing when you refer to a mill as a WM, since Wood Mizer has been making, selling and supporting their mills for several decades and most people think of Wood Mizer when they see WM...

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