Accuset 2 and breaking down a log

[caveman]

Good Afternoon,
We recently went from a mill with manual setworks to one with Accuset 2.  The Accuset is incredibly impressive.  I have read the manual and have been sawing accurate lumber but I would really appreciate a detailed, step by step explanation of how you go about using the various functions of the setworks while breaking down a log- from opening cut using manual mode, to the second face, whether 90° or 180°, on down to the last or dog board.

Some of the questions I have:
1.  At the end of the cut, do you gig up and leave a 1" board on the cant and drag back several at once?  If so, while in auto down or pattern mode does the blade always hit the desired mark?
2.  Not an Accuset question but for those of you with the drag back arm.  Say you are sawing 3/4" boards, do you keep tension on the drag back with the cable or do you let it down all the way and move the head up to prevent grabbing the cant and just the top board?
3. The past couple of times we have used the mill, when the key is turned to the run position the Accuset screen does not come on.  Each time it has been nearly 100% humidity.  After a couple of on/off cycles it will come on.  Any suggestions?

One of my main lag points is after I open the log and remove all of the flitches I am going to from the first face to the second face.

The more I run it the more comfortable I get with it (Accuset 2), but I would appreciate some tips to help me get more proficient.  I have watched 4x4's videos and listened to his very good explanations but there seems to be a slight language barrier ;D (I do not comprehend as fast as he speaks).

Thanks,
Kyle

[Southside]

One trick I have found in pattern mode that will often get you a bonus board instead of a thicker flitch is to set your opening height on the opening face in manual mode, don't change the height, make the cut and enter pattern mode, raise the head and remove the slab.  Roll the log 180° and hit your down set.  This will be the "dog board" cut that pattern mode calculates needs to come of to give you a final desired thickness board on the last cut, so it's a waste cut, may as well make it on an opening slab.  Then make a second cut on that same face, which is now a full thickness cut.  It may be narrow but I will take a 1x4 oak board and a whip of a slab over a thick slab any day - that 1x4 has value.  From there it depends on the log and what I need to do so I may take a second full flitch off of that face, or elect to roll the log back 180° and take what will now be a full thick flitch off what was the first face.  With a claw I may not do it this way, but since you have a chain turner it works very well.  

[Brucer]

2.  Not an Accuset question but for those of you with the drag back arm.  Say you are sawing 3/4" boards, do you keep tension on the drag back with the cable or do you let it down all the way and move the head up to prevent grabbing the cant and just the top board?

I let the dragback down all the way. When you start pushing a board with the dragback arm, the forces try to pull the arm down toward the log, which puts a lot more stress on the small cable (I've had to replace mine twice, with normal sawing).

I don't have Accuset and I will often drag my (stopped) blade back across the face of the cut, without raising the head. So, to be sure my dragback arm doesn't catch the cant, I set it so the pusher is about 1/8" above the cut (which is not what WM recommends).

[YellowHammer]

First cut in manual mode make opening face.  If happy, select auto down, typically 1 1/8" for 4/4 as soon as the head exits the log.  Gig up, pull back the slab, hit down and the head drops and start second cut.  Pull back flitch, take second flitch, and then rotate 180, hit manaul mode and drop to about where you want to be for the first cuts that side, set pattern mode 1 1/8" and hit the down lever to have Accuset set the head at the calculated position.  Take the slab, pull back, discard, hit the down lever, take the flitch, pull back, hit the down lever again, take second flitch.

Go to manual mode, rotate 90 and reaper the entire process.  At that point you'll have a cant with all four sides set to the correct thickness so all cuts are then in pattern mode no matter how the cant is rotated during the sawing process.  

Move the head up a quarter of an inch with a quick up tap in the lever, to get the band off the surface of the cant but still catch the freshlybsawn board for the return drag, you'll get the timing pretty quick.  No tension at all on the cable.  My LT40 didn't even use a cable.  

[caveman]

Thanks, this is the stuff I was looking for.  

[Percy]

Yellows method is what I use.....the system is brilliant. One feature that I love is the 4 separate programmable "go to"s as I call them. When production cutting large amounts of the same dimentioned product, these become so useful. And when in manual mode, if you push the down button, the head goes to the nearest inch. Handy stuff.