Useful sawmill mods

[Larry]

Little piece of 2" structural pipe, couple of bearings, and some cold rolled.




Help from the die grinder and bearings are a press fit for a roller.




Few more pieces of scrap.




Stuck it all together with my "senior dopper" welding technique and presto...a roller toeboard.




I could only get 4-1/2" of up and keep it inside the bunk for a little protection.  That will be plenty for the stuff I saw.

Guess by now you guys have figured out my bunks are removable from the mill...how ya like that fancy new stainless steel?




The bell crank end.  I made it where I can power it with a hydraulic cylinder, or a winch.  I think there might be enough mechanical advantage that I can use a lever...that should be the fastest.  Gonna go with a hand winch just to see how it works.

Gonna dress up the welds with the right angle grinder tomorrow and splash a little flat black paint on it...just to show I'm professional...well sorta. ;D

[woodbowl]

Larry, that is just too good.  8)   I bought a few light duty rollers at Hooties the other day but I still need to build some HD's. Did you turn the inside of your pipe and provide a backstop before pressing the bearing or was it necessary?

[Larry]

Well ya caught me...backwoods machine shop.  I tapered the pipe bore with a die grinder.  Little JB weld just in case.  It was a tight press fit and I kept the collar's to bout zero clearance if the bearings ever do come loose.  Course were talking bout something that doesn't turn much at all.

[woodbowl]

Well ya caught me...backwoods machine shop.  I tapered the pipe bore with a die grinder.  Little JB weld just in case. 

Well, ....... it's a good trick anyhow.  Hope you don't mind if I borrow it sometime.   ;D

[Grappletractor]

Well ya caught me...backwoods machine shop.  I tapered the pipe bore with a die grinder.  Little JB weld just in case.  It was a tight press fit and I kept the collar's to bout zero clearance if the bearings ever do come loose.  Course were talking bout something that doesn't turn much at all.

What is  a die grinder and JB weld ?

[Radar67]

What is  a die grinder and JB weld ?

Hello Grappletractor,
     A die grinder is a hand held air tool similar to Dremel tool, just on a larger scale. A straight shaft grinder if you will. JB Weld is an epoxy based compound that hardens up as strong as steel, you can even drill and tap it. When it first came on the market, farmers used it to repair cracks in the blocks of their tractors, this stuff is tough.

Stew

[Grappletractor]

Hello Grappletractor,
     A die grinder is a hand held air tool similar to Dremel tool, just on a larger scale. A straight shaft grinder if you will. JB Weld is an epoxy based compound that hardens up as strong as steel, you can even drill and tap it. When it first came on the market, farmers used it to repair cracks in the blocks of their tractors, this stuff is tough.

Stew

Thank you for answering my questions .

I found the die grinder,,,
http://www.faybutler.com/diegrinders.htm

[woodbowl]

What is  a die grinder and JB weld ?

:D :D :D ..... Your pulling our leg ...  :D :D  ................ aren't you?   :-\

[Radar67]

WB, I don't think he is.

Grapple, here is the site for JB Weld http://jbweld.net/index.php

Stew

[woodbowl]

If it wasn't for JB Weld, I would be out of buisness.   :

[Radar67]

I know what you mean WB. I've used it to patch gas tanks and radiators before.

Stew

[Radar67]

Larry,
     Great mod. What size bearings and cold roll did you use for the axle?

Stew

[Larry]

Bearings were 2" while the cold roll was 1".

[Dale Hatfield]

(I'm getting pretty old so I don't go the trouble of fixing anything to last a long time.) 

  :D  ;D 

The same  old  feller that lived here had that same train of thought , awe shucks that aught outlast me. 
Most of it did.  But my what a cobbled mess he left for the next person. Said part was he was top notch when it came his job working and welding for others, but not on his own.

Dale

[gmmills]

  For those of us that know how frustrating it can be to operate the Accuset setworks with gloves on. Here's something I have come up that really works well . 


                         
                           

   Used clear raised center rubber buttons .  These buttons are used as cushions on my kitchen cabinet doors. They are 3/8" in diameter and are 3/16" in height.  Used clear RTV silicone sealer to glue them to the panel.  Very easy now to push the keypad on the setworks with gloves on your hands.  8) 8) 8) 8) 8)



                           

[jpgreen]

Great Idea GM,

I'm thinking of putting accuset on my mill next year or so.  They want $2300 for the kit.

[Chris Burchfield]

GM, now that's sweet. Had not noticed during the summer or fall. I was out sawing last weekend. It was cold so I kept my gloves on for warmth.  The guy I was sawing for was doing the tail work. I realized some difficulty pushing the buttons for the Accuset. I'll be off to the Hardware Store today. Thanks for sharing. Chris.

[jkj]

Those little hemispheres are also used as rubber feet for electronics and other things to protect furniture.   I bought a few sheets of them once - there are at least 50 per sheet.  Radio Shack also carries (or at least carried) black rubber feet for the same purpose but I like the clear better.

BTW, they are also good for other cases where buttons are hard to press.   I equipped the electric wheelchair controls and garage door opener with these for a handicapped friend some years ago.  He has extremely limited use of his hands and no finger control, but he can press the buttons with his knuckles now.  These are self adhesive and should stick OK if the buttons are cleaned well with alcohol.

JKJ

[sparks]

That is a good idea. I don't want to put a fly in the ointment but there is one issue to remember. The rubber pieces will need to be able to be removed easily. If there is a panel failure we require the old panel to be returned. They are reprogrammed and reused. If the rubber buttons are on the panel we cannot do this and credit for the panel will not be issued to your account. So make sure they can be taken off with no glue left on the panel. Thanks

[Larry]

I've tried out my toe board for a while now.  Biggest log so far has been 20"...might have to use a snatch block when a 30 incher shows up, or take some of the excess cable off the winch to give it more power.

The winch is the $20 Harbor Freight model.

It was well work the effort to make it...lot better than the hydraulic jack thing I had before.

[Bibbyman]

Just an update on my project of removing the contact strip on our LT40 Super.

It's been working quite well -  except I started catching a glimpse of a flash under the sawhead.  I figured it out.  Now that I had the power to operate the hydraulics anywhere,  I was running stuff like the toe boards and clamp as the head was returning.  This wasn't letting the ground contact make to make a good connection.  Not good.



So as I had enough cable left over, I ran a cable from the ground stud in the hydraulic box back through the cable tray to the where the battery cable connected to the contact button.

While I was at it,  I re-ran all the cables through a 2" PVC conduit where they return down the side of the cable tray.

Much better...  ;)

[iain]

Excuse me being lazy on the searching front
but has any one added an extra (filler) arm to their WM loader

i was thinking of just in front of the road wheel to help with short logs and the stupid shaped stuff (that absolutely must have stunning grain)

i think there is enough room, as for the stupid stuff it gets loaded onto a piece of 3/4 ply and hoicked over to the clamp



Iain

[Bibbyman]

Kirk Allen did a pretty good job of fixing the hole in the loader arms - but he went the other way.

Here is a link to his post..

Loader arm mod... by Kirk Allen

[iain]

Thanks bibster i think i will make a template of one of the ends and whack it on with some of that sticky mig wire stuff



iain

[chet]

Squaring arms I've added ta da Norwood. A great addition to the flip up ones.