The mills down again

[Bruno of NH]

On Monday I was sawing a customers cherry log 34" on the small end 8' long .
Making 8/4 
2nd cut in I hit something and it stalled the mill dead.
Stopped and cut it out , it was a 3/4" x 10" power mast lag with 1/2" wire rope to support the wire.
Sawed the rest of the day but noticed a little vibration. Tuesday morning I started sawing and herd a couple of weird sounds and then it got bad . Shut down and checked the drive wheel hub assembly. Sure enough something broke inside.
I just spent a bunch of cash on logs , $5,800.00 to get the Kubota fixed, Sheila's truck had a breakdown and now waiting on a couple of customers to send me some checks. When they come in I will call Woodmizer NY and get a new assembly and drive belt. I will buy a press and see if I can fix the damaged one and have a spare the NY guys say they just replace them . I'm beginning to think I really did something when I was younger and I'm getting pay back for it. On top of that we have an other 20" of heavy wet snow on the way tonight. 
I don't have time to wand every log we mill . It's a struggle just to get the help to wire brush mud off. The customer had 20 logs not one had the limbs trimed . All 5 to 6 inch stubs. I was sawing when my help checked them in.

[fluidpowerpro]

Sorry your having such bad luck. Hopefully things will improve soon.

[WV Sawmiller]

Bruno,

  Sorry to hear about this misfortune. I assume the customer pays for the band in cases like this but that does not help with your broken drive part.

  Hopefully everything will come off and go back together easily and you will be back to making sawdust soon.

[Southside]

Develop a policy that if logs have to be trimmed then you charge "X" per hour, and make it a steep number.  Post it so nobody has an excuse.  Mills either doc scale or reject outright logs like that so you should not be any different.  

[Peter Drouin]

Ya, $10.00 a nub to cut. They get the nubs back with the lumber.

[Nebraska]

Yep trimming nubs takes time away from better things.  Sorry about the mill crash.  

[jpassardi]

Sorry to hear Bruno, hang in there. When it rains it pours...

[moodnacreek]

You know sawing off the branches is easier if you stay away from the log and it is also cute. And it is exciting to to find out what is inside besides wood. I like cracked logs with pea gravel packed inside. Don't you use carbide? And then they never come back. I don't saw other peoples wood anymore.  Really sorry about your wreck. P.S. yesterday my generator started putting out too much voltage and my generator guy is on vacation. But we only got 1/2" of snow.

[Stephen1]

That's a fair bit of damage for hitting some steel. I hit hardware all the time. and never done that type of damage. I wonder if running the thicker blades which are stronger contribute to that, the mill broke instead of just shearing all the teeth of the band. 
Always something Bruno. 

[Bruno of NH]

It was a turbo 7  1.5 wide band 

[Bruno of NH]

It only had less than 1/4 of teeth left on it

[Stephen1]

Was it the .55th? 
I run the .45th 1.5'

[Bruno of NH]

.45  1.5  
It stalled the mill 
Never had that happen before 

[Stephen1]

Wow, I've hits lots and lots of hardware and never had it stall the mill. I've seen teeth sheared off for 2-3 feet .

[Magicman]

I have hit stuff and stalled the engine a couple of times.  I have had the blade completely stop and squall the drive belt and also had the blade knocked off of the bandwheels.  Whenever any of the above happens get ready to dig the blade out of whatever was hidden inside of the log.  Thankfully I have never had the sawmill to incur any damage.

Both of these knocked the blade off of the bandwheels.  LINK
and LINK
 

[terrifictimbersllc]

That's too bad Bruno sorry to hear. I would be interested in seeing what it was that broke.

[Bruno of NH]

Finally got the mill back sawing today.
I couldn't order the parts for the first 2 weeks as my customers payments (checks) got stolen at my po box. I can't do anything about it , the person who sends the checks has to file the charges. Can you believe that !
The part I needed got caught in paper work and was sent by Wood-mizer NC . After 10 days I called and then got 2 of them. While waiting I did lots of maintenance on the mill . It's like new again. Just need to tighten the brake band some more.
I became one with the firewood pile while waiting and cleaning old stock out off the mill yard.
On the bright side lots of that stuff is selling.
I cut and split lots of emerald kild ash . 

[Nebraska]

Sounds like you need a trail camera over your mail box. Glad you're back to going. 

[esteadle]

That's a fair bit of damage for hitting some steel. I hit hardware all the time. and never done that type of damage. I wonder if running the thicker blades which are stronger contribute to that, the mill broke instead of just shearing all the teeth of the band.
Always something Bruno.

Yep. Weakest link breaks. The slag inside the log being stronger than the bearings or the shaft, and the teeth being as good as they can be. Gah. That sucks.

[Peter Drouin]

Finally got the mill back sawing today.
I couldn't order the parts for the first 2 weeks as my customers payments (checks) got stolen at my po box. 

I don't understand, A po box is at the post office/ A mailbox is at the end of the driveway. Which is it?

[Bruno of NH]

Po box right at the post office 
Can you believe that
I'm *pithed 
Called every postal agency they all sent me in a circle .
Local police said its up to the postal inspector 
The checks came from a big company 

[doc henderson]

There were workers arrested near KC for taking the amazon return products.  they kept seeing hundreds of amazon boxes in the dumpster out behind the post office.  We know as a shipped package got delayed as 8 people were in jail and they were short staffed.

[Southside]

The Post Office sort facility that serves our area is officially the worst one in the nation      They strive to disappoint, loose your mail, damage your stuff and flat out steal it every chance they get. Seems it's in the news weekly about someone from there being arrested, yet nothing improves.  Our Senator and Congresswoman tried to open up some half baked investigation into things and wanted a tour of the facility - Post Office told them no, go pound sand - and they did, so yea that's what we deal with.  Personally if i was the Senator or Congressman and got that answer I would have had a bill submitted the next day reducing the Post Masters salary to $0.  We absolutely avoid using the PO for anything important now, I will pay for Fed-Ex when it comes to something i can't have lost and we don't get chicks in the mail anymore, bought a commercial incubator instead. They are a joke.  

[YellowHammer]

At least your post office didn't make the news for storing small mountains of cardboard boxes full of mail and packages outside in the side parking lot because they didn't have the employees to keep up with the deliveries and didn't have room inside the building.

  

[mudfarmer]

We regularly get other people's mail in our PO box. This is a REAL small post office. The people at the post office just blame each other but it never stops. How much of my mail has gone to other people's boxes? No way to know, but it is real uncomfortable to have to call someone and ask "did you mail that very large check or did the post office stick it in someone else's box?"

Is the company willing to cancel the checks and reissue? Sorry to hear you are getting jerked around