A fool and his Lucas

[JohnM]

Are not soon parted but I'm not helping either. :  So I'm trying to get a sense of what kind of production I can get out of my mill, keeping track of engine hours, bf, gas used etc.  Go out this morning thinking I can clear my deck (really haven't had a high output day to date).

  The deck.

First thing I do is sharpen my blade.  Put everything back together and turn the key...and turn the key...turn the key some more.  Will NOT fire so I assume bad plugs and of course I killed the battery.  Put the battery on the charger, jump in the wife's car for the hour plus round trip for new spark plugs. >:(  I also had to stop at the store for gingerale and crackers because of on top of this silliness my oldest (12) spent the morning horking up his breakfast and spent the day on the couch watching the first three Star Wars.

So half way home from the store a light bulb goes off (one of those slow to warm up LED ones :), I hadn't popped the blade cover all the way down on the mill! smiley_dunce  Got back, pushed the cover all the way down, replaced the older of the two plugs cause it was out anyway and felt all warm and fuzzy (and dumb).  Well not all warm and fuzzy, as I was messing with the mill and plugs and whatnot this morning I got to looking at the Emergency Stop.  It was pushed in and had always been pushed in since I've had the mill (9 months and have put on 40 or so hours).  No light bulbs for this one.  I had even tried to use the stop in the past when the blade bound up pretty bad once...it didn't seem to have much effect. :-\  Shocking, I know. :  So I pull it out to where it should be, like this...

 

I see the brake lift off the clutch.  Start it up and to no ones surprise I'm getting about 400 more rpm than I was.  Roughly 3600 from 3200.  I'm pretty sure I fit a number of these Old Saying https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,70413.0.html  :-[

So the question is.  How much damage did I do?

PS The baby (18 months) threw up tonight (she was not happy!) so my wife and I are placing bets on which one of us is next me, her or middle son... ??? :(

[Gasawyer]

Sorry for your bad luck. With the log size shown in the picture as a guess for production I would say average of 1500-2000 bdft in a hard 8 hr day by yourself. A helper would give you greater production.

The only bad thing that your learning experience did to the mill is probably shorten battery life.

Good luck! Happy Sawing! Hope the children feel better.

[drobertson]

Yea I hate to hear of the lil one being sick, but it happens, as to your mill, not sure, maybe just unneeded wear on the starter and flywheel?   Sounds like there is still a silver lining in every cloud,  nice looking load ready to go.  You getting that swing milling down pretty good?  does it take a bunch of figuring?  dumb question, but those mills amaze me.    david

[Part_Timer]

Every one's output on a mill is a bit different but on mine by myself with a wack of logs like you have production would average 200bf per hour for the day's time.  With a helper you may jump up to 300-400bf/h give or take a bit.  With the swingers log size and handling do more to set the BF/H than anything else.  If you only have one log to saw but that log is say 40" across you could probably jump up to 600+BF/H of 1x material by your self more with a helper.

I doubt you did anything to your mill with the clutch on.

Stay healthy and have fun

[shelbycharger400]

Well I'm glad to know your guys #s,  my built slabber is slow too.  I'm building a resaw!   Break down on mill,  saw to size on circle blade  resaw. 

[Seaman]

Don't feel alone John. The slabber was a long, steep, expensive learning curve for me. But these mills are worth it !
Frank

[bandmiller2]

John, guess that was one of lifes lessons that will be carved in stone. Probably you just wore down the brake pad apparently the brake setup is of little value seeing as it doesn't stop the blade anyways. At least you found out about this emergency feature before you really needed it. Frank C.

[thecfarm]

Sorry to hear of the kids not feeling well. Hope it's just a one day thing.

[ET]

Hi John, Im not familiar with your model, but my throttle and Emerg brake are all one. The emerg brake should work when pressed. Its not instantaneous but should stop the blade within seconds. I also dont believe you hurt anything except maybe using extra fuel. Follow your brake cable to the brake, certainly you will find its adjustment point to give you your braking back. I would make sure you get it working right before sawing any more. Be safe and Good sawing!

[JohnM]

Thanks for the well wishes and thoughts on "damage", so far it doesn't sound too bad . 8)  (wife and I are still waiting for the other shoe though )  Those first 3 logs on the deck (the only ones I got cut yesterday) are not very big 9", 8" and 11" small end.  They took me 50min to get 96.67bf out of them.  That's just sawing not loading and handling, so some of the numbers you guys are throwing out are a little discouraging. :(  I'm also kind of making up the cut list as I go which doesn't help either.  I'll see what happens with the bigger logs.

You getting that swing milling down pretty good?  does it take a bunch of figuring?  dumb question, but those mills amaze me.    david

David, that was the first thing I noticed with this mill, all the figuring is basically done for you!  Meaning they are very intuitive and there's not a lot you can screw up (obviously there are some things... :-[).  It's not a set-it and forget-it type thing, you have to pay attention but overall it is very straightforward and easy work with.  I love it!  The only really big limitation is board width, in my case 8", so the wide board market is out.  Course then we can talk slabs... ;D

Don't feel alone John. The slabber was a long, steep, expensive learning curve for me. But these mills are worth it !
Frank

I've still got my Red Oak project (https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,69740.0.html) to tackle.  This winter pretty much killed it and seeing as how this winter doesn't want to stop... >:(  I'm waiting for the weather to warm up (just a little, please!) so I can try out my slabber here at the house before I try to go on the road with it.  But I can't wait too far into the thaw cause I'll tear-up my friends yard.  Tangled web and all that...

apparently the brake setup is of little value seeing as it doesn't stop the blade anyways. At least you found out about this emergency feature before you really needed it. Frank C.

Yeah, I'll need to get the skinny on how that stop is supposed to work from Lucas/LCS.  I would think it should kill the engine as well as slow/stop the blade correct?!(ET just answered that while I was typing)   Minimum I need a new pad.

ET you can see my set-up is different, throttle is separate from kill switch (or is just a brake? ??? :-\...nevermind :-[ see 'new' lightbulb).  I'll get it figured out soon enough...I hope. : 

As I'm writing this another  ... I could never figure out why the mill wouldn't idle while I would step out around to adjust the height for the next pass...guess I know NOW! smiley_dunce smiley_dizzy smiley_goofy_face

Well if nothing else writing this all down let some things sink in and I haven't puked yet! 8)  (Wife says she's a bit queezy though... )

[sigidi]

Good onya John  8)