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Accidently milling beltless

Started by pnyberg, March 23, 2012, 11:24:10 PM

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pnyberg

No, my pants didn't fall down.

I was milling a bunch of oak logs that had been sitting for a few years, and as a result had bark that was slipping.  Not my favorite situation for a lot of reasons, but it's better than milling hickory.

During an early cut on one log, there was a loud bang which I assumed was a piece of bark getting pulled off the out-feed side of the log and thrown toward the band drive wheel.  Everything still seemed to be working OK, so I completed the cut.

Shortly into the next cut, I noticed the blade was not tracking properly.  I took a quick glance at the tension gauge, and it looked OK.  But the cut was not OK, so I looked again.  I had read the gauge backwards.  The 'tail' of the needle was in the good zone, but the head of the needle was down around zero.  How could that happen?

Dunno.  But I know how to fix it.  A few cranks and the tension was back where it should be, and we were back to making sawdust.  The blade was tracking OK, but I noticed that the sawdust was not coming out of the exhaust tube the way it should, like there was some blockage.  After pulling the head back, I pulled up the tube and stuck my hand in behind the fingers expecting to find a piece of bark blocking the flow, but there was nothing there.  So I ducked my head down to take a look and see a section of belt that's not on the wheel.  Not good.

I opened the drive side cover expecting to find a sliced belt, but the belt is just fine.  It's just taking a rest.  I also find that the blade has been riding directly on the wheel - metal on metal, and it seems just fine too.  I think I made two passes down the log with this unintentional configuration. 

But, even though it's apparently possible to mill without using belts, I think I'll keep using them anyway.

--Peter   
No longer milling

Magicman

Thanks for sharing that Peter.  Don't we all wish that we had a slow speed camera to show us exactly what happened.  Probably something that could never be duplicated.
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petefrom bearswamp

Had that happen once.
WM sold me some .055 bands a couple of years ago and suggested that i run them at very high tension.
on about the third blade i heard the bang described by Peter and discovered the belt gone out the sawdust chute.
Relaxed the tension after that and had no further trouble.
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