Got that 8-20 Lucas mill

[Meadows Miller]

Gday All

After a long 2 and a 1/2 day hike Im the proud Owner of a 11yo Lucas mill with under 200 hrs on the clock  all i can say is its a DANG Good mill for the $7700 i payed for it after 3 hrs work giving it a good scrub up and fitting some new toys/mods when we got home  . that i  had picked up from the Lucas's when we droped in at the factory on the way home today and picked up a planing head , Side winder kit ,Lapsider att ,new rollers and new chains and a few other odds and sodds for another $1700 dollars with fuel ,meals and acomadation the total cost came to an even $10k  ;) ;D ;D 8)

The mill is sett up in the yard now with the first two Pine logs about 18 dia under it for the final fine tune up with the saw angles in the morning and then the Charge to get 50000 bft out in the next 4 weeks starts  ;D ;D ;D 8) Im aiming at sawing 2 to 2500 bft per 10 hour day on my own as ive found this an easy target to achieve on a Lucas in a day in the past  ;D ;D im in better logs this time tho ;) ;D ;D

All i can say is the mill runns like new (stats first pull ) ;D 8) 8) and nearly looks like new  ;D  Ill try and post some pics tomorow when i finnish for the day  ;) ;D

Lucas's checked the mill over today and also said it was in bloody good condition for the age of it and that id gotten a good buy  ;D All i can say of Lucas mills is that they stand by their mills 110% and will look after you reguardless of wether you have brought an new mill or just need a hand getting an old s/h one back upto speed  ;) ;D 8) The only thing i can say is i should have brought one years ago : ;) :D :D the Bloke that was serving me even gave me his card and said if you need to get something sorted over christmass just give me a call and ill try and sort it out the same day for you  ;D 8).You dont gett that sort of commitment from many employees these days  :

Reguards Chris McMahon

[Captain]

Nice price on the Lucas Chris.  2500BF a day is a chore for 1 person, especially 1" (sorry 25mm  ;)) stock.

Captain

[Banjo picker]

I'm glad for you Chris.  I know you will do well  ;).  Tim

[oakiemac]

Good luck on the mill. Sound like you got a great price.

[WildDog]

Congratulations on the mill Chris no doubt you will have plenty of fun with it, what size motor? I am still trying to convince Nicky I need the side winder, there always seems to be something else to spend the money on :(

How are you going milling on your own, are you walking around each time to tailor out or starting with a verticle cut?  I have done a few logs on my own and are not looking forward to my 17yr old son leaving home but I'm grooming the 14yr old for the mill and then there's the  young 2 & 1/2 comeing through. ;)

[WildDog]

Forget my previous question

what size motor

must be having a bad day, should of taken notice of the title 8-20 :-[

[Firebass]

Congratulations!  Sounds like you got plenty of work to start with.  Your going to be in shape after that work out. 

Firebase

[bandmiller2]

I'am glad for you Chris,its handy to have the manufacturer and support so close.Does Lucus retip the blades in house?I can't prove this Chris but believe you can extend the engine life with synthetic oil,also a little syn.2cyc. oil in the gas air cooled engines run hot ,and dry in the head and valves. When I watch a Lucus or a pete running all I can think of is standing at one end with a feed lever in my hand.Keep good footing mate. Frank C.

[Burlkraft]

Congrats on the new to you mill Chris.   8)   8)   8)

Make sure we git some pics of your activities   ;D ;D

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Captain I know what you mean by it being a chore cutting inch boards Ive found it is on any single saw mill thats why i try not to cut it  ;) unless you have a bull edger  ;D that is  then its easy but you gotta keep up with it then  : ;) :D Ive got a used Ukiah 48' x 7' clamshell comb bull edger with infeed and out feed coming  the price was GOOOD I barterd the bloke in exchange  for timber but its located 1400 miles away  : it will be a full semi load but it can sit there for the time being  ;) ;D You blokes wont be hearing mutch about that project for Awhile  ;) :D ;D

Banjopicker thanks Tim I tryed to pm you the other nite but the inet failed and i lost it now that things are on the move it looks like ill definetly be comming over to harass you and and the boys for a few weeks and go to Sawlex  ;) :D ;D     Btw hows the Pretice loader going  Mate  ;) ;D 8)

Okiemac thanks Mate ;) ;D

Wilddog tell Nicky that what it will save you on physio will pay for it over and over it makes it so much easyer on your right arm this is the first lucas ive used with one and to look back at doing over 2000hrs on them with out it in the past and wonder how i did it sliding that 140 kg saw unit back and forth allday  : ;) for the $310 bucks its Well Worth IT I think it would give you a 5to10% increase in production as you dont have to do the sett bar lock on as tight to allow for the constant pounding it recives from the head hitting it on every size and the problems that come with it Resetts ecetra;) : its that light i usually only use my index finger or thumb to side shift  ;D

Ive almost always sawn on my own even on big mills Id just saw till the greenchain was full then stack it out  ;) ;D
When im on a Lucas i Allways start in the vert cut wether in sawing solo or have a tailer out  with me the reason being that i find it alot quicker  ;) my sawing proceedure starts with the vert cut followed by the horizontal cut I also sett the size as im doing that cut then when i get to the end i side shift then put the saw back to vertical  stack the peice in a pack rite behind the mill  ;) ;D this letts me when i get back to just start the cut with out any second guessing  ;) ;D 8)
also when Im about to do a down sett shift i allways leave the saw in th horizontal bring the carriage back along the log then sett it up for the face cut and then shift it back to the start and flip the saw back to vertical then do the down sett

also starting in the vertical cut letts you get better recovery out of the side boards as you would sevver the holding wood and lose say a 4x1 of the side if you where to do the horizontal first   : :(   ;) :D ;D

Firebass Ive got work coming Outa Me ears Ive even picked up another costomer last week he wants 15000bft + per week of pallet timber at 55 cents a bft il probly stick with this inbetween the cypress Job I just told him ill send him what i can ;) im del 2 to3000 bft on monday his factory is only 25 mile away so it works out better for me on the cartage ;) :D I could probley put in a mill to cut 10 to 20 000 bft aday tomorrow and still not keep up but Who wants all the dramas that come with it  : It would take All the fun outa it  ;) :D ;D Anyhow how did you know i wanted  to loose a few pounds  ;) :D :D :D it wont take me long being summer and all like i say to ppl its only me gut that goes in and out between Beer and Burbon seasons  ;) :D :D

Frank I might have to give that a go when i do the next service on the mill Mate I have my bearas set up so i have a 2' Walkway up the inside of the mill frame and also keep it clean  ;) I also look forward to swining the big stick Soon  ;) :D ;D

Burlkraft thanks mate Ill have to get onto it in the next couple of days i got some good ones today but ill prbly get carried away and wanna post everything   :-\ might even just post a  new topic what the hells Meadows miller up to or How much gear can a bloke collect yep Dad Informed me the otha day That Im A Collector  :-\ then told me that one maby two of the same thing is an intrest when you have 3 or more complete things your a collector HE goes you will have 3 in the yard and then you have all the other stuff that you have gotten and havent even gotten around to picking it up thats spread All over the bloody countryside :  ;) :D :D :D ;D ;D 8)



How I wet today  ;)

went out to the mill at about 9am spent about 15 min tuneing the saw angles and a sharpen then cut the first two logs in about 20 min then got interupted for a while while i gave Dad a hand with a couple of things and didnt get the third log about 24"sed setup till untill after 2.30 pm and started sawing again  ;D the totals for the day was

114 minits running time on the hour meter and about 3 1/4 hours total time spent sawing and setting up logs for sawing and cleaning up ;D ;D

5 logs sawn in total incuding a couple more  that where 17" and 18" mid point dia

981 bft or 2.21 m3 Sawn chasing mainly  12' x 4x1&3/4 inc  with assorted recovery ranging from 2x1" to 4x3"  and two new 8 1/4 by 6'3/4 12 skids for under the mill ;D  

With a recovery rate of 67%  ;) ;D 8) Not bad outa smallish logs for a lucas  ;)

and burnt 3 gal of fuel  ;D im liking the fuel economy  ;) ;D 8)

I was also just crusing along as i dont see the point in busting your butt as you will only end up sore and sorry for it  ;) :D ;D

Tomorrow shoud be a better day as ill be starting at 8am and going through to about 6 or 7 pm with some good breaks in between  ;) ;D 8)

Reguards Chris

[Captain]

Chris, I've got a job cutting a bunch of 1x4x14' pine in the near future.....several thousand BF of it.  I'm thinking a band resaw sitting next to the swingblade....

Captain

[Meadows Miller]

Gday Captian

That would do the trick mate . i was thinking about a single head resaw myself but i might not go that way as ive got plenty of gear sitting around the place to build a realy good sawmill for myself it will just take Me time and a good budget the Meadows carriage will first thing to get done now  ;) ;D 8)

Chris

[Firebass]

I've been thinking about making a add-on attachment to my swingmill.   I'm thinking of a small compact light wieght removable bandsaw head that could re-saw up to 8 x 16 cants.  It could be very simple in design and wouldn't have to have all the capacity that a normal bandsaw needs. It could be run off a clutch from the swing mills motor.   Even if it would only  saw through the 8" cross section.  It could sit idol to the main swingmill then after the cant is cut it could be lowered into place and do its job re-sawing  then index back out of the way for the swingmill to do its thing again.  It would definently cut down on sawdustwood chips. ;D

Firebase

[brdmkr]

Chris,

I run a 618.  It is a nice mill and Lucas (Bailey's over here) is a good company to deal with.  Congrats on your acquisition.  I would appreciate pics of your setup when you get time as I am always interested in how others do things more efficiently.

Mike

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Brdmkr ill try and get some picks posted Asap mate Im the same aswell Ilike to see how other Sawyers do things as we all do things alittle diferent from mill to mill and it dosent hurt to try out somthing that works for someone else if it works it works if it dosent it dosent  ;) ;D

Reguards Chris

[Captain]

Chris how is the Lucas running?  Got all of the big logs done yet?  Sure could use some of that Australian summertime here today, 0 degrees F here this morning and I've got some milling to do...

Captain

[Meadows Miller]

Gday captain

I like the warm weather too mate  ;D ;D ive only worked in the snow afew times over the years i dont mind the cold  ;D but when your cold and wet  :( im Not a Happy camper  ;) :D :D its being avveraging 80 f here for the past few weeks verry nice to work in  ;D but the real hot weather starts mid jan 100 to 115 f 

The mills running a treat but because i hit the christmass slowdown things arnt realy going to get moving for the next few weeks All 42000 bft + of timbers allready sold i finalisd sizes the day before christmass so im just cutting it and stacking it in stock for when they start taking delivery from the second or 3rd week in january ill also be getting hit with about 170000bft of cypress pine logs about the same time so im just trying to avoid getting doubbled up with work i should be about 3/4s of the way through it bu then ;D
Im averaging 220bft + per hour running time on the mill at the moment but you have to add about 1/4r to that time to get my avv production per hour ;) ;D ;D

Im trying out the planner head after lunch as ive got an order for some cypress 3" bark to bark slabs to go out that ive had drying for some time probly only 4 to 500 bucks for 5 slabs  ;D 8) 8)

I hope you had a good new years mate

Reguards Chris