My arm is outta whack!

[Deese]

I haven't had much time lately for sawing. Busy season at the job is almost over. I think I've got her dialed in pretty close. I'll be attempting to saw an oak log this evening and I will know more afterwards. Saved most of my vacation time thus far this year. Taking some time off next month to cut down roughly 300 30 year old planted pines and square them into 20' lengths as stock for future sawing. September is going to be busy. Also just got about 3 acres secured for the future home of my sawing operation. Lord willing, the first barn will go up this winter.

[4x4American]

I'm gonna give ya $.02 worth of my thoughts on that project with the 20'ers...I wouldn't go cutting all them trees down at once...I would spend a day or two logging, and then a day or two sawing, so that you can get
an idea of how much work you're signing yourself up for.  Because if you go and cut all them trees down at once, then you gotta saw em before the bugs get to em and 20'ers are kinda slow going idk if you've sawed any before but if you have any amount to cut an extension would be worth it cause on the stock mizers you gotta get them logs just right on the sawmill so that your blade can enter and exit the cut.  And your dragback won't work you have to pick up the head and pull the board/slab back a little bit for the dragback arm to be able to catch it before you can drag it back.  Plus you can't have em much longer than 20'6", so thats less that you can trim due to end checking after they been sitting for awhile.  30 year old plantation pine is gonna be full of stress and theyre prolly gonna move all over the place whilst drying (read more waste, one top of having to cut them down to whatever length your customer wants.  Personally I would leave them standing and cut them as you need them, if you have that option available.  Keep them the freshest.   Unless you can move em quickly.  And you're gonna need a good level covered area to stack them under if you want them to stay halfway decent.  If you leave them out in the weather you're gonna have alot of loss.  I dont quite know the deal but thats my thoughts, add salt/pepper to taste.

[Deese]

4x4 you are correct. But this country boy has a plan. Waste is fine. Skid steer on tracks with grapple to set logs on bed. Square it, grab it, set on gooseneck. 10 miles home. Unload with forks, sticker/stack, cover with tin. Big barns and barn trusses are on my mind. Excited.

[Deese]

Oh, and right across the road from the Honkey Tonk.

[4x4American]

Getter done!

[Deese]

4x4 man you are 100% right on with your comment. I totally agree with ya. My plan is to somewhat saw as I go...kinda. I'm gonna make a good whack of 20-30 sticks, then square, haul and stack, then repeat. There's no deadline. This guy just wants enough removed to build a barn and said I can have them all if I want them. So it will be interesting how it plays out. Good for him, good for me. All trees alive and well. Aint gonna leave them on the ground long before sawing.

[4x4American]

Well Deese, I was thinkin of ya today.  I had a lot going on today and was sawing with a full brain (not recommended), and I broke a rule of sawing which is don't saw faster than you can think.  Short story long I was edging a 16' 2" flitch on the mill gonna get 2- 2x6x16' out of it.  I usually never edge on the mill but the butt flare on the flitch was gonna make it difficult to get through the edger plus insead of having to handle it through the edger twice figured it'd be easier on the mill for such a big piece.  Well I needed a block to get the clamp to hold that piece in tight enough and I musta forgot it was there and the guide arm hit that block of wood with the head going at full tilt I mean as fast as that thing will possibly go.  The crunch noise it made is gonna give me a nightmare lol.  That guide arm came right unglued and it bent the cam bolts, the sprocket that turns the cams, the motor mount, and probably something else.  After alot of beating/bending stuff back to fit and getting it put back together and aligned we was sawing again and it did need an alignment cause it's sawing better now than it has been in awhile.  So that was good.  It was about 5 hours of fixing and then we sawed a little over 1mbf after of 16' pine 8x12 + 8x8 beams and 2x10's so the day turned out not too bad after all especially for a holiday. 

[Magicman]

Didja still get those two 2X6's??   ???

[4x4American]

Didja still get those two 2X6's??   ???

Yup I took it off and ran it through the edger

[WDH]

I did not see anything to smile about  :D. 

[Deese]

Dang 4x4, that made me cringe. I was sawing 7/8" thick 1x's yesterday for my grandfather. I mean, I was getting after it. I had 1 man offbearing and he couldn't keep up. Well, I "lightly bumped" the clamp with the guide arm on the bottom cut. I almost fainted. I thought I had clearance. I thought wrong. But thankfully, there's just a "teeny weeny" wiggle room front to back. I mean, just a tad. Up/Down is still rock solid. So, I'm good as far as that goes.

HOWEVER...
The mill is down once again, and it's nobody's fault but mine. I made another mistake that I will NEVER EVER make again...
I was getting the mill ready to haul, and pulled the pin that allows the control station to be swung over to the left, so that I would have room to back up my truck and set the tongue on the ball. Well, for some reason I moved the saw head towards me a little after I had swung the control station over. The energy chain rolled forward, catching and pulling the cable that's connected to the station downward. Not much, but just enough that it's pulling the plug down a little bit. I obviously moved the saw back and pulled the plug from the receptacle. (Remember, I've already replaced this receptacle once from another mistake.) I checked the prongs in receptacle and all looks fine. So, i screw the plug back in and the screen says ERROR: Check Breaker/Cable. I messed around with it for about an hour and still nothing. So, I called WM today and ordered another receptacle AND cable. UGH!!!!

[terrifictimbersllc]

I like that message.  I can check breaker and cable all I want and usually it doesn't matter. Starts working again anyway.   :  Really I DO NOT LIKE that message.  >:(

[4x4American]

I did not see anything to smile about  :D .

Trust me, I wasn't smiling when it happened!!!  lol

[YellowHammer]

I did not see anything to smile about  :D .

Trust me, I wasn't smiling when it happened!!!  lol

Most likely ducking flying shrapnel.  I bet it made an ugly sound. 

[Magicman]

For whatever reason, I have hit/touched the wrong control lever/button many times while sawing or otherwise.  It's at least embarrassing when the belt starts squealing or some other weird thing happens.  I just explain to the watching crowd that a "senior moment" is not when I forget....but rather when I remember.   :

[WDH]

I was referencing the smiley face on the end of the blade guide arm  ;D. 

Should have been  :-[.

[Deese]

I was talking to Magicman a while back about making mistakes with the sawmill, and I will never forget what he said...
"You know what the problem is with these sawmills and why we keep breaking things? Because they do exactly what we tell them to do."  :D :D :D :D :D

[drobertson]

Deese,  I've never ran a manual mill, so I have nothing to compare your current mill to in regards to experience, but will say I've seen some run at the shoot outs,  and for me it's like describing the difference between a draft horse in the timber to a skidder?  Point being, I think you have done well, with limited damage, you went from horse you lead to a full blown barrel racing quarter horse,,You've held on pretty good,, IMO, and yes they to what you tell them 99% of the time.

[Deese]

Thanks drobertson, and you are correct about the vast difference between my manual mill and the LT-40 Super51HP. They both can saw flat lumber, but that's about the only similarity.

The new Accuset 2 harness assembly and cable was delivered yesterday. Installing tomorrow morning. Not sure which is the issue, so replacing cable first, checking, then will replace wiring if necessary. It has to be one or the other.