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A rough time, sorted fast by Lucas

Started by sigidi, October 02, 2013, 10:12:41 PM

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sigidi

Well, its been a while, but I've been under a pile of sawdust cutting and cutting and cutting.

Had a call to supply some guys about 23 cube (about 10,000 bft) of 1" stock per month and had to do a test cut for them. Weisyboy and I went into the bush to 'get it done'...

His ute had some issues so I picked him up on the way - 0400 departure time for me, get Carl 66k (40m) away, then off to the bush to slice the logs a further 195k (120m) drive. Arrived a bit after 0720, These guys where supposed to have a truckfull (about 20 cubic metres - 9,000bft) of log ready a fortnight ago, well.... there is two logs waiting for us!!



We get a few more logs organised and get into the cutting.




While we are out there a chap and his son turn up to fix a bit of gear. The chap starts fixing the drott, the son (12 years old) starts skinning his first animal, a feral goat Dad had put down on their way out ;) The yound lad helped his dad all day on that machine and between them they pulled the engine out.



End of the first day we had a load of timber on the trailer and did the drive back to my place... (230km, 140m) arriving home at 2145



and had things ready for an early start the next morning...




Back in the morning to do it all again, but things milling had been a bit 'off' the day before, we thought the logs where playing around, made sure our skid system was secure.
Still having issues, then changed out the blade and I must have been on holiday time or something -  I didn't fully tighten the bolts up  :o 4 of the 5 bolts needed some more loving!!
So we thought that was the solution.
A few boards later and I'm still having trouble and we certainly aren't putting out the quality we are normally familiar with.
We even swapped sawmillers to make sure it wasn't just me doing things bad  ;)



Carl and I have a timeout and figure its no point to keep pushing out the kind of quality we where currently pushing out. Closer inspection of things and we find two of the 4 carriage rollers have thrown their circlips allowing the rollers to 'loll' about (in all the time I've had a Lucas, across 3 different mills and a decade of cutting - has never happened before)  This means the blade is no longer staying true to the previous cut. I had some spares with me, we replaced them and got stuck in again. Unfortunately the damage had been done and the bearings had worn out the inside of the rollers so much they just weren't keeping within the kind of tolerances we wanted anymore and we stopped all together.

We cut the day short, loaded up the mill and the seconds days timber and did the 230km drive back home, arriving at 2030. Then next day delivered the test batch of timber to the treatment works for the customer...






As I can't go out and cut the quality of timber I have become to expect from the mill, I got on the phone to Lucas, ordered a full set of replacement rollers and other parts for future services to save on freight postage. I rang Lucas at 1400 after stacking, strapping, loading the timber and all my parts where at my door this morning at 0920 from lucas HQ over 1,500k (930m) away.

I know I've said it a few times, but with customer service like that, it sure makes me happy I have a Lucas - in the event of any issues, they are sorted - done! nice to have that kind of confidence behind you when you go out to earn a living
Always willing to help - Allan

fishpharmer

Allan, good hearing from you and Carl.  Interesting pics too. 8)

Didn't even invite other Forum members to the goatroast ;).
Built my own band mill with the help of Forestry Forum. 
Lucas 618 with 50" slabber
WoodmizerLT-40 Super Hydraulic
Deere 5065E mfwd w/553 loader

The reason a lot of people do not recognize opportunity is because it usually goes around wearing overalls looking like hard work. --Tom A. Edison

sigidi

if'n it was my goat, I'da invited Y'all  ;)

got a few 'exploits' to post later too :D
Always willing to help - Allan

dgdrls

Allan,

Nice stack of lumber,  hats off to you and Weisy  well done  ;)

Add a few pics of the bearing job if you would. 

Best
DGD

Seaman

Good to hear from you guys, that looks like a good days work.
We tend to bring our lunch in a baggie, or foil, but very rarely in the hair!
Good to hear of such good support from Lucas, hope you two have a proffitable new venture.
Frank

ohh yea, whats a drott?
Lucas dedicated slabber
Woodmizer LT40HD
John Deere 5310 W/ FEL
Semper Fi

Nomad

     Nice post Alan, although I'm sorry to hear about the issues.  Hope your customer was satisfied with the quality of your output regardless.  Looks like a pretty place to be working too.
     When you're working that far from home, do you charge mileage or is it built into your rates? (I couldn't figure out how to spell "kilometerage")  :D
     I agree that Lucas is a great company to deal with.  Top of the line service.
Buying a hammer doesn't make you a carpenter
WoodMizer LT50HDD51-WR
Lucas DSM23-19

ET

Hi Allen. Great post about the rollers. How many hours would you think are on your mill?  I still have less than 100 on my 10/30. Ya, you can certainly tell when something is wrong when milling as they are very accurate when set up correctly.

Did you ever get a chance to get me a pic of your verticle scale?  With my original ones bent I would like a new set but Baileys is not helping me.

Thanks!
Ernie
Lucas 1030, Slabber attachment, Husky 550XP, Ford 555B hoe, Blaze King Ultra, Vermeer chipper, 70 acres with 40 acres Woods.

sigidi

Ernie, sorry mate - totally forgot....will go out and get a pic right now...brb
Always willing to help - Allan

sigidi

Quote from: dgdrls on October 03, 2013, 06:00:13 AM
Allan,

Add a few pics of the bearing job if you would. 

Best
DGD


It'd be best seen in a video, I've got to make a new ramp to load Bob the cat today on my trailer - lost it somewhere driving the dirt tracks we went on for this job :-X :o but I've got to get these rollers swapped out - hopefully after welding up a new ramp, then can take a little vid for ya  ;)

Quote from: nomad on October 03, 2013, 07:56:28 AM
      Hope your customer was satisfied with the quality of your output regardless.  Looks like a pretty place to be working too.
     When you're working that far from home, do you charge mileage or is it built into your rates?
     I agree that Lucas is a great company to deal with.  Top of the line service.

We had plus/minus 2mm to work with, anything thinner we chucked  :'( anything thicker we dressed back to get it in and the timber quality was rather nice, so other than not making the initial 3-4 cubic metres wanted for the test and only showing 2.4 cube - I don't see much issue, will ring the chap later today to see the verdict.

Mileage (funny thing, even though we are using K's, people still refer to vehicle 'efficiency' as mileage ;D) nope nothing calculated for mileage in this. On a mobile job, I charge 40c per kilometre for travel so it would have been very expensive. Typically this will be a case of we pick up the logs from the bush and truck them back to the mill if the contract goes ahead. 2-3 days with a truck will give us the months logs back at the mill and as its a contract price to supply the timber we have to work that into our expenses. For the 'test run' basically we made a loss, especially with the loss of my ramp - $126 in steel to replace it.

I reckon the only way Lucas could get better is if they sent a guy with the parts to install and test them for 12 months for me  ;)
Always willing to help - Allan

sigidi

Quote from: Seaman on October 03, 2013, 06:14:39 AM
Good to hear from you guys, that looks like a good days work.
We tend to bring our lunch in a baggie, or foil, but very rarely in the hair!
Good to hear of such good support from Lucas, hope you two have a proffitable new venture.
Frank

ohh yea, whats a drott?

Thanks for the well wishes Frank - they are talking about orders for next year and between Carl and I it will keep both our mills running 2-3 days every week and so will still leave time for mobile work. should be nice to get paid every week.

Drott - down here its a tracked vehicle, with arms down the sides that work a blade or bucket out front and has a set of rippers out back. Maybe a bit like a dozer?

Quote from: ET on October 03, 2013, 08:50:52 AM
Hi Allen. Great post about the rollers. How many hours would you think are on your mill?  I still have less than 100 on my 10/30. Ya, you can certainly tell when something is wrong when milling as they are very accurate when set up correctly.

Did you ever get a chance to get me a pic of your verticle scale?  With my original ones bent I would like a new set but Baileys is not helping me.

Thanks!
Ernie

Ernie my 10/30 EFI has done 230.7 hours. With the EFI, there is a big service at 200 hours, so in future I'll replace them at this service. I used to repalce them every 12 months, but that doesn't account for how much work they may or may not have done, so for me it will be 200 hours from now on.

and finally here is the pic I promised Ernie...



The older style guages are on the right. With these you can see where a hole was drilled through the side to take a zip tie, this helped keep them tight on the uprights. The newer ones come with a much longer single collar and have a slot moulded in to take the zip tie if needed. I found for 6 months or so they where nice and firm on the uprights, but started to 'relax' it was an easy fix to pop them off the upright and give them give them a little squeeze, f/when they slipped, but this meant that at some time they may move when you don't want them to, so I fitted the zip tie to be sure
Always willing to help - Allan

ET

Allen, thats what i need. Mine bent terribly at that rivet toward the bottom. Do you think i could contact Lucas directly and by-pass Baileys?  I dont want to but they were not helpful when i inqured and after a month or better i have not heard if they have even tried to get me a set.  No return calls.
Lucas 1030, Slabber attachment, Husky 550XP, Ford 555B hoe, Blaze King Ultra, Vermeer chipper, 70 acres with 40 acres Woods.

sigidi

Always willing to help - Allan

KnotBB

Quote from: ET on October 03, 2013, 08:01:20 PM
Allen, thats what i need. Mine bent terribly at that rivet toward the bottom. Do you think i could contact Lucas directly and by-pass Baileys?  I dont want to but they were not helpful when i inqured and after a month or better i have not heard if they have even tried to get me a set.  No return calls.

e-mail to Sam for a response  samb@baileys-online.com

Never had a problem.  I basically bought my mill through him.  He's been moved to a different area but still responds to my questions.  Sam is the son of founder dad, not in charge but good on service.  He'll even forward stuff to Lucas if he can't answer.  Got my zip tie gauges on warranty.
To forget one's purpose is the commonest form of stupidity.

longtime lurker

Hi Allen,
I've done those circlips a couple of times now, to the point where I carry spares and circlip pliers in the grinder box. Each time it's occured in transit and now I tend to check them on arrival when I'm setting up: A lot of the time after bad corrugations I'll find one of them half popped out.
QLD roads strike again. :D
The quickest way to make a million dollars with a sawmill is to start with two million.

sigidi

I had a chat with Warren Lucas, and yeah he spoke about the carriage getting knocked around in the back of the tray. With this ute, I've had to tie down differently and its been adding pressure on the wheels - (took a video of the difference in the good and bad ones, will post soon) so will be modifying my head board to get the pressure off the rollers.

I was doing about 15 k each way on dirt roads outside of Pratten and yeah lost one of my bobcat loading ramps somewhere too, got a new one welded up and used it today, goes well  ;)
Always willing to help - Allan

drobertson

Good job there Allan, I like those mills too, meet up with Ian at the shoot out in Ohio, pleasant man, very generous with information as well,  take care,   david
only have a few chain saws I'm not suppose to use, but will at times, one dog Dolly, pretty good dog, just not sure what for yet,  working on getting the gardening back in order, and kinda thinking on maybe a small bbq bizz,  thinking about it,

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