Strange hydraulic issue.

[Dave Shepard]

My two plane clamp started giving me trouble this summer without warning, and the symptoms defied any obvious explanation. Everything on the mill worked as designed except for when I was clamping against the backstops. The function was slow, and didn't have the clamping power it should have had. Moving the clamp out was faster than in, despite needing more oil volume to move it out.

I had a few minutes to look into it today, so I took the cover off the hydraulic box so I could watch the diagnostic gauge WM so thoughtfully installed from the factory. Everything checked out fine, all functions would hit the relief pressure when the stroke was bottomed out and the clamping speed was inexplicably back to normal. I put the cover back on, and the gremlins reappeared.  :-\ I sawed another log while cogitating on a solution, and decided the only thing the cover could have interfered with was the up stroke of the handle. I only had to rotate the handle about ten degrees to get full function back.  8) I love a simple fix.

[Chuck White]

Glad to hear you got it figured out, Dave!   8)

[WV Sawmiller]

   Sometimes simple things do work.

   When I was in USMC we had a problem with the machinegun (.50 cal if I remember correctly) on the LVT (AmTracs) jamming frequently. The tech reps cut a hole in the cover and put a camera on to watch the feed and it ran something like 50,000 rounds without jamming (Ran till a bad bullet stopped the action). Turns out all they needed was that little extra head space in the cover.

[Peter Drouin]