Just starting to mill with Mobile Dimension

chet · July 18, 2012, 01:02:56 PM

Good ta see anudder Yooper on board.

I lived in Mqt back in da early 70's while at NMU. After school I headed back ta Iron River, dat big city life wasn't for me. ;D

oakiemac · July 18, 2012, 10:39:26 PM

Royal Oak, I run the exact same mill as you have. I also bought mine used with only 43hours on the engine.
I'm not sure I fully understand the problem you are describing but if your cross beams are level and your track is level then you should be good. I welded on 4 trailer jacks on each corner to help with the leving process but now that I don't move the mill, they are not really needed.
A few things to keep in mind. Your bottome edger blade should have a slight dip to it and it should not be level. I have had this adjustment get out of whack and then had a real hard time cutting boards horizontally. the manual goes into detail on how to adjust this.
If your bottom edger is leaving uneven cut lines in the top of the log, you can fix this by putting shims in the bearing on the bottom edger. I called the factory and they sent me a package of different shims. Before you make any big adjustments make sure your teeth are sharp and cut a few differnt logs just to make sure you are not getting a lot of tension in one log that could be causing problems.
Good luck and have fun.

morgoon · July 18, 2012, 11:18:41 PM

Welcome to the best place on the Internet

And DanG you have a nice setup there

DanG · July 18, 2012, 11:52:33 PM

Just to clarify here, the "slight dip" that Oakiemac mentions is "lead". The leading edge of your bottom edger should be very slightly lower than the trailing edge. We're talking 1/64" or less, and the leading edge I'm talking about is the part of the blade facing away from you. The 1/64" is from the leading edge to the trailing edge of the disc. On the MD, the only downward force you have is gravity. If you don't have that little bit of lead, the edger will try(and succeed) to climb out of the cut, giving you tapered boards. You need to constantly monitor your boards for signs of taper when you are cutting boards that are oriented horizontally. It doesn't take much of a bump when you are gigging back to knock the lead out of your edger. I'm not sure why, but the main blade on the MD works quite well with no lead at all.

pasbuild · July 20, 2012, 08:08:06 AM

Hey Mike nice ta see ya here, are you still on Smith Lane? would love to see that thing making lumber.

Royal oak · July 20, 2012, 10:43:59 PM

Who are you pasbuild? Yes on south fork off of smith lane.

pasbuild · July 20, 2012, 11:26:31 PM

I'm your neighbor, just a stone's throw away through the woods on Willow Rd. ;D

Royal oak · July 21, 2012, 04:52:27 PM

I will give you a call sometime when I am cutting. Let me know if u need anything milled. I am log hungry!

oakiemac · July 22, 2012, 02:36:50 PM

DanG did a much better job of describing the lead in the bottom saw then I did. Anyways if you are having further problems call the factory as they are usually pretty good at helping. Sawmill John used to be on the forum here and he worked for the company for many years and is a wealth of good info.

Royal oak · July 22, 2012, 05:02:10 PM

I have the lead set like DanG explained. But my saw is tilting to the right. I added shims to the bottom edger bracket only to get it to run 90 degrees to the main saw. I would have to put close to 3/8 or more of shims there to get the bottom edger to run flat horizontally so it will not leave cut lines in my horizontal cuts but doing that would put the edger blades grously misaligned to the main saw blade. So instead of adding a ridiculous amount of shims to the bottom bracket I removed the welded shim from the shoe mount which brought the entire box beam, engine carriage assembly level. Mobile dimension has no real explanation. They think I should put the welded shims back and find out what is causing my carriage to lean to the right. The only way I think it could be fixed right is to buy new shoe mounts that are welded correctly. When I remove the box section from the shoe mount and put my level on it the bubble does not match the rail. Mobile dimension says it should not be welded out of level and constantly reminds me of what you get buying a used one and not a new one with a warranty. Yes sawmill john might have some suggestions. Has he been around the forums lately?

oakiemac · July 23, 2012, 10:39:15 PM

Sounds like something is out of whack on the mill. sawmill john has not been on in a while that I have seen but PM him and maybe he will pop out of the woodwork.