Vallee Sawmills

[Will M]

Has anyone else bought a sawmill from this firm out of Quebec also known as Pascal Metals. ?  Bought a model called Green Monster Wide and received it in late August of last summer. Have had nothing but trouble with the arbour shafts since purchase. The arbour assemblies are a 4200 lb trailer axle assemblies made in China with the mandrel or arbour being manufactured to Pascals specs. They are crap and the company states that they must have received a bad batch. Well in my humble opinion they have had ample opportunity to remedy this problem but have failed to do so. Have gone through 4 arbours now and am very perturbed with this firm. The most I have got out of an arbour is 50 hours. It is not only the down time but other damage is now happening when the shaft starts to screw up.  To the companies credit they have sent me replacement parts but if the parts are not up to the duty required they might as well send nothing. I check religiously for play in the assembly each and every time I change blades. Looking for ideas or alternative suppliers gentlemen as I am at wits end with this firm. Would appreciate any input.  Thanks in advance. 

[fluidpowerpro]

I just recently viewed a post that had pictures and recognized that the guys mill was a Vallee. 
Went back and found it.
The post was from Kombucha20.

[Southside]

Can't offer any assistance outside of a machine shop making you a custom arbor.  Had some stuff come in a couple of weeks ago, noticed the country of origin was China - sent it right back.  They seem to have zero quality these days.  

[Nebraska]

So the band wheels  ride on trailer axle stubs and not shafts/ bushings with  bearings and pillow blocks?? Hmmm..

[Hilltop366]

What goes wrong with the shaft?

I had used a trailer stub/hub for a CSM I had made, the issue I had was with bearings. I found that the bearing and hub got warm and would bind up so I had to leave a little more slack in the nut, after I did that I had no more issues. It just needed a little bit of expansion room when things warm up.

[Crusarius]

Pictures would definitely help here. I do wonder if they are spindles like trailers are you making the nuts to tight?

[Will M]

Thanks gentlemen got the loading and nut specs right from the manufacturer, so following specs and using torque wrench to do settings. Have had 2 different problems- first time castellated nut let go on drive side bandwheel I believe flat washer between out board bearing and castellated nut deformed first and by time I got mill stopped the nut had sheared the cotterpin and had a couple of threads left holding on, that was less than fifty hours on new mill. Next three occurrences the shaft deteriorated under the inboard bearing on the driven bandwheel. All 3 about 20 hours run time. To me the shafts have not been hardened sufficiently after machining and or the bearings are too small for the loading. I have been cutting standing dead Ash ( 16% MC ) and some are in the 36” range sawing live edge slabs. Have tried to load pictures but won’t allow me or I am doing something wrong.Have tried using a higher torque than specified but could feel temperature of housing was higher within minutes just spinning blade and not sawing so went back to specs. When installing bearings made sure they were seated properly. Last shaft went to town and ordered good SKF bearings instead of using the Chinese crap Vallee supplies. After disassembling checked inner races of bearings and they were still original measurements measured with calipers, showed no signs of blueing ( high heat) , using top quality synthetic grease. I have worked as millwright in large commercial mills years ago so this stuff is not new too me, know my way around circle mills, bandmills, resaws, chippers ,etc. It is very apparent that there is no pride of workmanship and companies are making stuff as cheap as possible. Very unfortunate for us the consumer.