Sawmill Maintenance/Repairs

[moodnacreek]

I to have wrenches hanging in several locations. My favorite combination wrench is the Williams super wrench and i have those in the sawmill up to 2". There is nothing metric in the sawmill and picker trucks are too old for metric. That helps. When ever I see adjustable 'cresent' wrenches I buy them and get laughed at. I have things bolted with large square head bolts where these knuckle busters work fine but they are so handy for bending. things

[Southside]

I find it useful to keep my metric adjustable wrenches in a separate drawer than the SAE ones. 

[doc henderson]

have to remember to turn the little screwy thing the opposite direction when south of the equator. 

[rusticretreater]

yeah, its pretty difficult working on things at the equator.

[barbender]

I love crescent wrenches. There, I said it.

[LeeB]

I always kinda identified with a cresent wrench. 'Fits anywhere and will slip off on you when you need it most. '

[moodnacreek]

I also have square sockets. Kinda square myself.

[doc henderson]

kind of like Channel locks and vise grips.  work on anything, or nothing, depending on how you were raised.  

[SawyerTed]

How do y'all organize left handed wrenches and screwdrivers?  Seems like I have a mixed set of right and left handed tools!

[SawyerTed]

All my axes, sledge hammers, shovels, bush axes and rakes MUST be left handed, they don't fit my hands too well anymore. 

[Old Greenhorn]

I used to (and probably till do) have an adjustable wrench which I don't know where it came from, but it was a cheapy. On one side it said the range was 0-1" and on the other side it said the range was 0-25mm. I guess it don't know how to identify.  I always told folks that used it it was metric if you used it left handed and English if you used it right handed. This often made the new young guys stop and think for a minute.

[Magicman]

What was the outcome on the relay?

Lee, the Glow Plug relay is Part# ED0021931340-S, and I ordered from OEM.  I got a shipping notice this morning and I will let you know how this works out.

[barbender]

 In "for real" torque and wrenching situations, I will get the appropriate tools. But I tell you what, I have a little 4" crescent wrench that rides on my Learherman case. I may be heavier for all of the walking that that little guy has saved me over the years. It opens up to ½", gets used daily, and I develop an immediate nervous twitch if I misplace it.

 Running forwarder, sometimes a hose or something will fail up on the boom. The only way to access it is to swing it over one of the wood piles so you can climb up on the pile. Well climbing a wood pile isn't always the safest of easiest thing, so you want to minimize trips for tools. Plus, in that situation you don't want any more tools than necessary up there. If you drop one...does anyone remember Plinko Chips from The Price Is Right?  So a crescent will always be up their with me, it works better than the 22mm that us still down in the toolbox.

 There is also a big difference in capability from a quality crescent vs an El cheapo one.

[doc henderson]

most guys around here carry the little two notch plyers and use them for almost anything.  In fact, do not bother telling them it won't work, cause they will make it work just to prove you wrong.  they love their little plyers and leather case.  a farmer I worked for required us to have that with a screwdriver stuck in there as well between the handles, in order for us to work for him.

[jpassardi]

In "for real" torque and wrenching situations, I will get the appropriate tools. But I tell you what, I have a little 4" crescent wrench that rides on my Learherman case. I may be heavier for all of the walking that that little guy has saved me over the years. It opens up to ½", gets used daily, and I develop an immediate nervous twitch if I misplace it.

My Father was a Carpenter and always carried a 4" adjustable and same size pliers.
Many times we'd be working on something and he'd hand one of them to me to get the job done without having to run for a tool. I miss the Ole' Man.

[Magicman]

What was the outcome on the relay?

The replacement Glow Plug Relay came yesterday.

$135.85 total with shipping, ordered from:

The searching that I did indicates that they have a good stock of Lombardini/Kohler parts.

I love my direct wired full time voltmeter which gives me a constant voltage reading.  When it reads 12.7 or higher I know that my sawmill battery is OK.


When the glow plugs are energized the voltage drop is an instant indication that the glow plug relay has operated.

With the engine running it will read 14+ volts showing the the alternator is doing it's job.

[Stephen1]

Because I live in the land of metric, beside a country that is still sae, we discovered that you can use metric  to replace an sae, but not sae on metric. Saves walking back to the tool box.
Tom I really like those wrenches on nails, I am going to set that up in may shop and at home, I have lots of wrenches laying around. I bet I have 6 1/2" in my 1 toolbox.

[TimW]

Adjusted my head tilt for the first time today.  Wow, that was way easy.   It is amazing how a little tweet squares it up.

[TimW]

I was having rpm fluctuation problems and thought it was a fuel quality problem, so I posted here https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php?topic=7789.1900 in post 1924, about replacing my fuel tank with a sump tank.  Anyway, I took it to the Yanmar dealer and they found a fuel pressure relief valve intermittently opening and shooting hot (by pressure alone) fuel back to the fuel tank.
The valve is downstream from the fuel injector pump, before the injectors.  I got her home today and bedded down, to saw tomorrow.  Tier IV sucks to the tune of $$$$.  This should have thrown a fault code, but did not.

[NewYankeeSawmill]

How do y'all organize left handed wrenches and screwdrivers?  Seems like I have a mixed set of right and left handed tools!

Some of the most fun I ever had working in the print-biz, was the rookies.
Working in modern pre-press it's all computers, but some of the other stuff was still 'big machines'. We'd get these kids in fresh out of school and would have an issue w/ one of the old machines. Send the kid down to the maintenance shop at the other end of the building and ask "Fletch" (Maintenance super, that man could fix ANYTHING) for the left-handed Pflugler wrench. Fletch knew the game... he'd find the biggest, heaviest, most awkward thing in the shop to give to the kid. When he came back, we informed him we needed the METRIC left-handed Pflugler wrench. Drag it back across the plant (200k sq. ft. plant mind you), and Fletch would tell the kid some other department had borrowed the metric one, to go see so-n-so in finishing.... Who was hip to the game... Of course the whole plant knew what was going on, so for 30 minutes or so most machines were running half-speed while everyone watched the new guy try to lug a 250lb chunk of steel across the floor. Repeatedly. For no reason whatsoever.

Almost beats the pranks they pulled igniting the film-kleen in the dark-room...     

Shame you can't do that kinda stuff at work anymore. Those were good times!

[Magicman]

I badly needed a metric Crescent wrench a couple of days ago.  Using an open end wrench with a screwdriver "spacer" will bust knuckles.  

[WV Sawmiller]

    New Yankee's tale about the new guy reminds me when i worked summers in the paper mill. I was in the Shipping and Finishing Dept. Our banding machine would mess up and we'd call the millwright. 30 minutes later the millwright would climb the spiral metal staircase followed by his helper lugging a 90 lbs toolbag. The MW would watch the machine as we ran a couple of rolls through and then he'd walk over, pull a pair of pump pliers out of his back pocket and adjust one nut 1/4 turn, step back and watch and conclude the machine was fixed. Then he and his helper, still lugging the 90 lbs of unused tools, would climb back down the same spiral staircase and move on to their next assignment. You'd have thought the MW would at least reach in the bag and get out and end wrench or socket wrench or such to make the helper feel needed.

   Other new guy tricks were send them to the tool room for a left handed hammer. I understand in the USAF they used to send new Airmen to the toolshack to get 100 yards of flight line.

    While not authorized some horseplay still went on. I remember hearing about one of the paper machine guys standing on catwalk of the paper machine and when HogHead Jernigan who worked the repulper walked by the guy threw a Dixie cup full of warm water on him and when HogHead looked up the guy had his fly open shaking his Willy at him and HH thought he'd been pithed on and it took the whole machine crew to keep him from killing the guy. (Maybe you had to be there.) HH liked to play pranks on others but did not like them played on him.

   Anyway the horseplay usually ended badly as you had to top whatever the last guy did and people got mad or hurt and I've seen both parties fired for it even when one did not seem to be at fault.

[fluidpowerpro]

Reminds me of the time one of the pranksters at my company pulled a good one on our inside sale manager. One afternoon the power went out but the phones still worked so we continued to get calls. Our inside sales manager , John, who was a big guy with a short fuse took a call and because the computers were down, went into the warehouse with a flashlight to check inventory. The prankster, Barry, proceeds to go get a bratwurst he brought for lunch out of the fridge and he snuck up behind John, now standing in the dark, and he lightly rubbed to braat on the side of Johns hand.
You could hear John swearing at Barry throughout the building. Barry was lucky to make it out alive.
The good ol days. Can't get away with that stuff anymore.

[TimW]

In the hangar year ago after getting my A&P, we would send new mechanic's assistants to another shop to borrow some prop wash.  One of these assistants found his toolbox out by the tetrahedron  in the middle of the airport.  Another time (an Aggie, but same assistant) we took all his used everyday tools (he left his box unlocked) and hung them in the top of the hangar with saftey wire.

[Machinebuilder]

the best I may have been involved in.

I worked 2nd shift, It was common to have to search the plant for your toolbox, they got moved often.
One coworker regularly called in on Fridays.
Well one Friday he called in and we decided to paint his tool cart bright pink. we even put it back in the same spot.

Monday afternoon he came in steaming, he had come in to get some tools on Sunday and couldn't find his tool box.
We calmly looked over and said " It's right were you left it". we got cussed for  a while