Are bolts falling from the sky?

[redneckman]

 Hmmmmmn.  The weather report did not say anything about bolts falling today.  I wonder where that came from?????

 

[scully]

Looks long for a cover bolt , check around the debarker area or blade guids 

[redneckman]

Oh, there is where it came from.



I guess all the hours on my mill (20 total) wore that bolt out.  Guys with new WM mills, check the bolts on your barker!  I put a new nut and washer on this one and re-installed it.  The other three were just over FINGER TIGHT.  It is like someone held the nut with one hand, and tightened the bolt with a wrench till they could not hold it any more.  Woodmizer, you have me worried.  This is the second thing that has happened to a very expensive piece of equipment.  I am going to saw for a customer tommorow, and this would have been really embarrasing.  Although, the bolt would have bounced off the frame going over there.  But if the others came out, and barker fell off, that would have been bad.  I guess it is good that it happen this way so I could catch it.

[Stuart Caruk]

Someplace on the moving carriage...

[Stuart Caruk]

It's always a good idea to check all the bolts after the first few hours of running. That's not woodmizers fault. They can tighten everything to specs, but the mill has to survive shipping many miles to your site. During the journey the machine wiggles, nuts come loose.

I've installed hundreds of CNC oxyfuel/plasma flame cutting machines. Each one takes hundreds of rawl bolts slammed into the concrete. My favorite thing to do with a new helper is give them a big 1/2" ratchet or breaker bar to set the bolts as tight as they can. Often they will really put their back into it with a cheater bar. When we're all done, I casually wander by and easily get a turn on a standard 1/2" ratchet. Most everyone thinks I'm insanely strong. What they don't know is that after thousands of bolts tightened, I'm well aware that they all creep to some extent, and everything needs to be snugged up again.

You di give you mill a good once over after the first 10 hours or so and snug everything up, right?...

[Kbeitz]

Looks like a tape measure screw...

[Larry]

I think it interesting that my TK has nyloc nuts on all bolts.

[scully]

For the record I was right . 

[Cedarman]

On new machines be sure to check oil in the gear boxes.  Even though the manufacturer of the sawmill says it is ready to go, check anyway.  The manufacturer of one of our machines had to replace 2 gear boxes because they did not contain oil and were ruined.

[petefrom bearswamp]

On another thread i posted about a  fuse bolt being loose causing a short which cost me a new H bridge to the tune of 600 plus bucks. this was at about 150 hrs.
This was the old style fuses, I then upgraded to new style.

[Jeff]

Mechanical connections come lose on new stuff. Its a fact. I lived through two brand new commercial sawmills that cost way more than a wood-mizer and had to deal with loosening parts for the first year on both of them.

[barbender]

What Jeff said.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I keep a box of cover bolts with the 7/16 head at the mill along with flat and lock washers.
Comes in handy. 

[starmac]

It is not just sawmills but everything else has the same problem when new at times, it depends on several things.

I have seen brand new vehicles not have motor mount bolts, put a starter back on a business class freightliner that didn't even make it home for the buyer before it fell off.

[thecfarm]

I bought a new mower,3pt hinge.I looked behind me and only one bolt was holding it to the 3pt.   Should of 3 more bolts. I guess whoever they had putting stuff together,did not use the locktight and did not know how to read a torx wrench.  :  They had issues with him and by that time he was working someplace else.

[Magicman]

Yes it does happen.  Components are hand assembled and then forgotten to be torqued.  Human error.

[redneckman]

Yeah, I know new stuff has it's quirks.  I have never bought a new car that something was not wrong with it.  I guess my expectations are a little high.  I have been told many times that I am a perfectionist.  It is a blessing, and a curse.

I went a sawed for a customer yesterday.  The mill sawed great.  Nothing fell off that I know about.  I did hear something a time or two that sounded like the blade was in a little bind, and then springed back into the guides.  Has any of you heard anything like that before?  I had not backed out of any cuts, so it should have not been misaligned. 

I did hit my first nails deep inside a big maple.    I told the customer that if I hit nails, there would be a blade charge.  Hit 2 in the same log...2 blades toast.  When you guys hit nails, do you fool with sending that blade back, or do you just scrap it?

I have not done the "go over" to check things out yet, but I will when the mill gets off this job.  

[Kbeitz]

Sometimes one nail doesn't do any thing that I can see to a blade. Not all nails are created equal. I sharpen my blades until they break. Some people don't like to spend the time trying.

[Magicman]

I use WM Resharp so the damaged blade goes into the box with a "hit nail" note tied to it.  If it is rejected, it is replaced with a new blade.  I send 10 and get 10 back.

[redneckman]

That is what I was needing to know.  On the blades that I hit nails, it severly damaged 4 or 5 teeth, but the rest are fine.  I will send it back with a note.  Thanks Magic Man.  DO you also put a note in the box tell WM what to replace the blades with, or do they keep that on file?

[Banjo picker]

Well I don't use any resharp service.  I sharpen my own with a Cat Claw system, but if I have a blade with 4 or 5 teeth messed up pretty bad, I may sharpen it, but only use it for my own use cutting framing lumber or such.  I would think they will reject it.  What about it @Magicman ?

[Magicman]

It's on file.  My 4° blades are replaced with 4°.  My 7° Turbos and any 10° blades are replaced with 7° Turbos.

The blade replacement program is something that you can choose to opt into or not.

Yes Tim, a badly damaged blade will be rejected and replaced.  I doubt that there is an option with Resharp to "sharpen it anyway", but I have never asked. 

[terrifictimbersllc]

Long time ago I used resharp and had blades rejected that looked ok to me.  BUT that was before I started sharpening myself, and knew what was involved in "fixing" damaged blades.  

Resharp charges about $7 a blade or so.  That doesnt accommodate their spending double or triple the normal re-sharp time, which is what it takes to inspect and do what is necessary to save a blade.  AND, I'm sure they don't want to be sending back to you any blades that don't perform like new, which is what can happen with some kinds of damage even if time is spent fixing it.  No more than I want to saw kerfy lumber for a customer with a compromised blade.

I now can "save" metal damaged blades, and often do, but respect the extra effort that this takes. It doesnt take me much times sometimes to see that a blade will take a bunch of filing, picking or bending and then several extra sharpenings, and is better off in the scrap pile.  

[tawilson]

Plus the damaged/repaired one's I plan on using for logs that may have metal in them.

[Magicman]

I agree and also for sawing boards or timbers that you want to have some "special character".   ;D