Made my first Sawdust today

[music_boy]

 8)
Made some sawdust today after satisfying myself  the mill was set up correctly. I had a couple of pirces of 3' long cherry in the shed so I decided to mess with that. Took a little fiddleing with :D :D :D, to get the logdogs working. Too much paint.  Sorta got the hang of it after a few tries. Using Doyle, I figure I cut 7 board feet. ;D 8)
     Then experimented with thickness cutting. How far down the blade dropped per crank. The stick-on measuring thing rubbed off the first time the band head went up and down. At full throttle , saw really shakes. Backed off a little and it did better. Thinking a few shims would help under the tracks. Cement floor is good but not perfect. My little cants are a little off square. Might not be the saw as opposed to the cant moving while being sawed. Could only get one dog on cuz the piece was too short. May have to come up with a rig to accomodate small pieces like that. All in all, once I got things going , it was was cool ;D ;D ;D ;D

Future log hauler





Going to get some of the Osage Orange tree tonight. ;D
Rick

[Minnesota_boy]

If your dog let the log slip, the cant will have a twist to the face.  If the face is straight but thinner on one side than the other, that means a head to sawbed alignment problem.  Check the cant for square before you saw too much.  If the log supports are not square with the bed, the cant will not be square, but oposite sides will be parallel.

[Mark M]

Hey that's the first time I ever saw some saw angle-irons from a cherry tree ;)

Hope you are having fun.

Mark

[Tom]

Music Boy,
 What Minnesota Boy describes is called a "Diamond Cant" and usually means that either the saw head isn't parallel with the bed or that the "dogs" aren't 90 degrees square with the blade and bed.

It causes a parallelogram which isn't good.  It can be lived with in some circumstance when cutting 4/4 stock but is nothing that you want to leave like that.   A cabinet maker can straighten it out on a joiner but can lose a considerable amount of board width in the process.

It can also be caused by a piece of foreign material, like bark, under the cant. That is something that you have to learn to check every time you turn the cant.  Twisted cants may cause it too but that is usually very rare.

[music_boy]

Thanks you all.  I'm going to re-check the set up. Specifically the squareness of the blade to the bed.   Must have missed something.  Don't  believe Hudson would let an error like that out the door. Possible, but not probable. All part of the fun
Thanks again
Rick

[Kevin]

Check the dogs also when you apply pressure to clamp the cant.
They may be square as is but when pressure is applied they go out of square.
A good indicator for this problem is the cant will lift off the bed a little when pressure from the clamps is applied.

[music_boy]

You know Kevin, I noticed that happening. Wanting a secure cant,I tightened down and raised the cant up. Thought I fixed it but I'll bet when the blade hit the log, all that was lost. I think the one dog short piece is a bad combination till I rig something up specifically for that. Before I go dumb,I try a longer log with a two dog sys.
Thanks
Rick

[AtLast]

Sure would like a chunk of log from that Osage...ummm Music boy...wher exactally IS this Osage Orange..;)....might be time for a road trip.....lol ;D

[music_boy]

I be in down town Southern Maryland. Calvert County to be exact. Osage is in St. Mary's County . It's being guarded by a large man and two ferrel women. Good luck :D :D :D :D :D
     I got a couple of  limb logs yesterday. Across the way behind his house was another Osage tree, BIGGER than this one.  
     My friend was telling me the property is being looked at to be bought and a bank built. I'll bet I can offer them to remove that nasty tree for free and they'll take it. You gota BIG saw that's movable????
Be glad to share 8)
Rick

[mhasel]

Hey Rick,

Looks like you are going to be down in my neck of the woods, I live is St. Mary's, wow small world. Osage Orange isn't native to this part of MD, at least I didn't think that it was, are these trees that were planted for ornamentals maybe??

At any rate just wanted to say hi neighbor:) And if any of those are too big let me know and maybe we can work out a deal to put that orange tree on my orange mill 8)

Mike

[music_boy]

I'm not sure if they are native or not. They grow like weeds in the midwest. Actually, there are alot of them around our area. Alot of folks mistake them for hackberry. The male tree doesn't have the hedge apples so that gets missed too. The man that owns the tree said his friend knows that tree was hand planted 200 years ago. He has another one in his back yard he's not fond of either. People behind him have one in their yard. Alot bigger ;D 8) He's keeping his eye on that one for me.
Good to hear from a fellow Southern Marylander
Rick
BTW
check your mail

[pappy]

music-boy,

Nice choice of mill,  8)

I got a little Oscar 3 1/2 years ago at the forestry expo in Bangor,Me and I find it a great lil' saw for the money. I see they have made it even better than the one I got, double pillow block bearings on the idler wheel -smart move.

I've sawed about 20,000 fbm with it and it's been holding up very well. Besides blades ( 2 dozen) the only thing I had to replace was the band wheel v-belts.

About sawing shorts I place a 4 foot board on the bed and stand a 2" thick plank on edge against the log bunks and use one screw clamp. Just don't over tighten it, doesn't take very much pressure to hold the chunk in place anyway. Allot of times I just use the log clamps for the first two cuts (on the larger logs) after it's been squared the weight will hold against the short stops.

hope this helps  

tim

[music_boy]

Hey Termite,
      Thanks for the info. That helps :P I will probably be doing a lot of  shorts cause some of the best instrument wood is inthem. Had started using a 2x4 to line up the shorts and stabilize them. Works pretty good. I figured heavy stuff would sit better. I'm thinkin of addng a screw type dog in addition to the existing with some teeth to grab the piece. Like a floor clamp you can slide in , then screw it tight and those teeth grab it high and low.
appreciate the help,, always welcome
Rick