Indexing blocks for manual Norwood MX 34 or 36 mills

[Jjoness4]

Have any of you Norwood 34 or 36 users ever used stacked indexing blocks to dimension the thickness of your lumber.  I saw this somewhere and cannot find it now.  Was wondering if there were practitioners out there.  I believe the procedure is to cut a series of U-shaped pieces of wood of 4/4, 8/4 dimensions etc  and stack them up on one of the posts under the mill head. Cut a board, remove the block, lower the saw head down to the next block, cut another board etc etc.   This is in effect a "poor man's Acu SET).  Just wondering if any of you had tried this before I spend time cutting up a bunch of dimensional "horse shoes".  It has the potential to improve dimensional control because I sometimes produce thick and thin stuff by being careless with the hand crank.  Also for those about to say that the Norwood comes with a lumber scale doesn't it ?  Yes but my old eyes sometimes play tricks.  Still learning   

[Percy]

Im lucky. I got the "rich mans" accuset on my mill   ;D .....but I did see a home built mill with a system similar to what you are describing. This mill had what looked to me like pieces of fairly stout band saw pieces with different tooth spacing(pitch). They were all on a shaft at the bottom and he would lean the desired band saw chunk forward and it would regulate the drop to next cut via tooth spacing...it was slick.

[Magicman]

There is a fairly recent video on here showing using indexing blocks.

[Jjoness4]

Lynn
I can,t seem to find the video you mentioned.
Any suggestions on search criteria.
Thanks

[jacksaws]

Hi Jjoness4       I think what you are looking for is sawoods sawmill scale. I don't know how to post the link but I found it on page 225 of this forum. I made a set of these blocks for my norwood 2000 and they are very handy and accurate. Hope this helps a little, if not I will try to do better. jacksaws

[pineywoods]

All you guys messing with index blocks, fractions in your head, cheat sheets etc, need to look at the index on a mizer lt40/50/70.
find somebody who knows how to use it. Cheap, simple, easy to build your own, next best thing to setworks.

[drobertson]

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,85132.msg1302491.html#msg1302491
found this one, it was the one that came to mind,

[sawwood]

Jjoness4 We use those type of blocks. Go to my gallery and there are some photos showing
them. Sure makes it faster to just cut and drop the head the right amount. We have blocks
for 4/4, 4/5 and 8/4. We made them out of pine and allowed for the saw kerf .

Sawwood

[Magicman]

There is a video somewhere, but I do not have time right now to look for it.  I was hoping that the OP would show up.   ;D

[sawwood]

Thought i would tell how we use the Gage Blocks. First we lower the blade on top of the log. Then
we add the blocks till they are at the bottom of the saw head tube. Some times there is a gape at
the top of the last block and the head. That is where we take one block out and lower the head to
the stack of blocks. This is our starting cutting and we take two or three cuts before we  turn the
log. After we turn the log we see if we need to add a block to the stack to take a slab cut. Some
times we don't need to and some time we do. As before we take a cut or two then turn the log, we
only turn a quarter at a time and some times we turn 180 degs, Just what the log looks like.

We most of the time cut the log till we git a square cant and then start cutting slabs by taking out
one block at a time. This way we don't have to trim the edges by putting the slab back on the saw.
  So one day if and when the weather is better i am going make a video of how we use those blocks.
Hope this helps those that don't have a scale or hard time reading it.

Sawwood

[drobertson]

All you guys messing with index blocks, fractions in your head, cheat sheets etc, need to look at the index on a mizer lt40/50/70.
find somebody who knows how to use it. Cheap, simple, easy to build your own, next best thing to setworks.

I have to say, I agree with this quote, it seems there has to be a ratio that can be worked out using a multi plate system.  I've never seen the wmz manuals up close, but just believe there has to be a better way then swapping blocks out, not saying they don't work, just seems this is a pain too, 

[Jjoness4]

Thanks to all who commented on this.  That is what I love about this forum, people willing to take the time to respond to those with questions. I hope when I have a little more experience
I can "pay it forward" to those coming behind us.

Sawood, thanks for the detailed procedure on how you use the blocks on a Norwood saw. I visited your gallery and  saw the setup.  drobertson, thanks for the link  to btulloh's solution as well.  These are simple methods that will work.  I believe it is Norm Abram (New Yankee Workshop) that advocates never measuring anything with a ruler-mark it on a board or gauge stick or gauge block.  I guess this is the principal with these dimension blocks.  K.I.S.S.