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Woodland Mills Bunk

Started by Michaeljz, June 21, 2021, 09:45:54 AM

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Michaeljz

Hi guys, 

     I just purchased a Woodland Mills 130Max sawmill. I am very much a beginner in all Sawmill related operations. My question is in regards to the bunks of the sawmill not sitting flat on the bed. The rails are level in the length and the width as well as flat. While attaching my bunks to the rails i notice that they do not secure flat (there is a tilt). Knowing that I could clearly be doing something wrong as I am very new to this, I placed the bunks on my level and flat concrete garage floor and they still sit with a little tilt (the top of the bunk is not level when I place a level perpendicular to the length of the bunk). I am not sure if this is how they are supposed to be and if I am doing anything wrong ? I was wondering if anyone had this problem and or any input on how to fix it. Thank you.

btulloh

Hmmmm..  doesn't sound right at all. First thing is to confirm that they're twisted. I would not consider a concrete floor to be a good reference though. You can use winding sticks, an angle gauge or several other methods, but just be sure before proceeding. Sounds like they may have been cut from a piece of twisted tubing and they're never going to be right.

Woodland Mills has good support and they'll take care of it, within their ability these days. Everyone has labor and supply chain issues, but they will want to replace the bunks if there's a twist in them. Just confirm the issue and notify them.

Sorry to hear you're having an issue right out of the gate, but things do happen and they'll take care of it.

The bed takes a little care and fiddling to get it set up accurately. If the bunks are twisted they'll never be right though and you'll never get it to align properly.  The rails and bunks are the key to sawing good lumber so a defect like twisted bunks will cause trouble forever.
HM126

backwoodsdave

A quick check with a framing square should tell you if the actual tubing is out of square or not, I'd start there first, after you throw a few thousand pounds of logs on there things will start to settle in.

Jeff

"Throwing" a few thousand lbs of logs on anything is not helpful. Those mills are not built to take that.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

backwoodsdave

Quote from: Jeff on June 21, 2021, 12:20:06 PM
"Throwing" a few thousand lbs of logs on anything is not helpful. Those mills are not built to take that.
What exactly do you think a 30" pine or hardwood log weighs, I have the same mill, I don't have balsa wood logs in my area, real logs are heavy, things settle after a bit, I stand by my original suggestion of checking everything with a square and then go from there, and when I say throw I don't mean it literally, even if you have the equipment to do it, do you actually throw another log at your fireplace, or throw hamburgers at your grill, it's called a figure of speech.

Jeff

Thousands of people use the forestry forum. Many are very new sawmill owners with no previous experience with handling logs around equipment. Throw can be equated as something more than a controlled roll. Anything more than a controlled roll can and will tear stuff up. So for those people, that may not recognize something as figure of speech, my post clarifies. So in this case for some, throw means throw.
Just call me the midget doctor.
Forestry Forum Founder and Chief Cook and Bottle Washer.

Commercial circle sawmill sawyer in a past life for 25yrs.
Ezekiel 22:30

btulloh

@Michaeljz - Any updates?  Did you get this resolved?
HM126

rojen

The steel tube they use for bunks isn't perfect and their paint is slopped on really poorly.  It's a great machine mostly, and a wonderful company, but those issues will affect you if you're cutting for grade like I am. 

I'd wager if you called Woodland up they'd send you new bunks free of charge, but the issue will persist.  You're gonna need to shim them to the same plane or perhaps grind any high spots down on the bottom of the bunk where it meets the rail. 

You can also figure out which of your 2 bunks are the worst ones and put them on the ends of your track where they won't be supporting logs. 
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Michaeljz

Hi Guys, 
       I really appreciate all of the feedback thank you. I am in the process of figuring things out with Woodland Mills. They requested some pictures and I am awaiting feedback from that. It does seem that the bunks are twisted, I attempted to resolve the issue in many ways as instructed by Woodland Mills but the bunks still seemed twisted. Again I am a complete beginner when it comes to assembling a Sawmill and Woodland Mills has been great in answering any questions I had, but I do think the bunks may be twisted. I checked them with a square (a large framing square as well as small 12" square) and the top of the bunks were off, but the bunks seemed to be tapered a little bit from the bottom to the top so I am not confident that using a square proves that they were twisted. Anyways once it gets resolved I will give an update, thank you again. 

btulloh

Winding sticks

Winding sticks are a simple way to show twist. A picture across the winding sticks would remove all doubt. 
HM126

Michaeljz

Oh okay great, I will try that. Thank you. 

btulloh

Comprehensive info on checking square tube. 

https://steeltubeinstitute.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/STI_22840_Tolerance-Brochure_10820.pdf

Page 11 shows another method. Requires a flat reference surface. Table saw top is a good surface if it's a machined surface. I don't know what's in your shop or tool box. 

If you're having this much trouble with the bunks, they must be twisted or something. This would be unusual so that's probably why woodland mills wants to confirm what the exact problem is. 
HM126

Michaeljz

So I have received feedback from Woodland mills. Tech support explained that stock steel is not 100% square, and that this issue has arisen before specifically with the Woodland Mills HM 130Max. Since these bunks are longer than the other Woodland Mills Sawmills, it leaves more room for error. Woodland Mills has designed metal shims for the HM 130 Max specifically for this reason, and they are gladly going to send me some. I hope it helps. Thanks again for all of the responses.

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