Mixed marriage at Bibbyman’s – Baker-Mizer or Wood-Baker?

[eamassey]

Hello, I'm not sawing yet- in the middle of building a mill.  It is slow because I always have 20 interests going on at any one time.  They all soak up time and money.  I have a log table drawn up in AutoCad, with a backstop at 4 feet intervals (2', 6', 10', 14', 18'), all powered by a single (double acting) hydraulic cylinder- with tie rod linkage to each individulal backstop.  Does this sound like a good plan to you regular users?

A second point, I have an idea to have a raiseable-retractable-tiltable double live chain inside the log table- for use as both a log positioner and log-or-cant turner.  I saw something like this on a Baker (I think) one time.  Any comments this type feature?

My concept is a sloped slightly downhill-to-mill dead deck about 20 feet long, spaced 4', 4', 5', 5'- using railroad track.   Any comments on this idea?

[Tom]

4 hydraulic backstops, (clamps) is a decent idea if you are cutting toward them.  It will help to have two used at a time to secure the log or cant.  I doubt that you will use more than two at a time.

If your "backstops" are leveling dogs, You will be best off using them 2 at a time.  Most mills arrange them about 6 or 6.5 feet apart.  Just consider that you might have to be able to reach two real close to the clamp for short logs.  When you try to use more than 2 at a time, it complicates their lineup.  One will always be out of line with the others, like a 4 legged chair on a rough floor.

The chain turner is a good way to go.  Don't make it too complicated.  It has to take a beating.

I know a lot of guys like iron, but I would rather have wood as a deck.  You will want to be able to check a log for metal right up to the last moment before it hits the mill.  When the deck is iron, you have eliminated that area from metal detector use.

[Bibbyman]

I got around to getting a couple 3-5 more pictures of the deck and some details of how it was set up.

 

Electric controlled hydraulic splitter valves are mounted under the front corner of the frame. The are needed so that I can use one valve on the mill (the one that would run the loading arms) to run both the chains on the deck and the loading arms.

I asked for and thought there would have been some shielding over the valves and wiring.  The valves are tucked under the "arm pit" of the frame where they should be safe.  But still the wiring looks awful exposed.


 

The hydraulic hoses and electric cable were run through a 3" plastic pipe.  We used quick connectors where they connected to the valves.  The cable can be unplugged so it'll be easy to disconnect the deck and move it out.  (or plug in a new mill.)

Just goes to show that you shouldn't throw anything out.  I had a 16' yellow extension cord that we used on the electric chain saw.  Well,  I set the saw down one time before the chain had stopped and it whacked off the cord about 1' from the end.  I hadn't got around to repairing it or throwing it away.  So I wired the sort end into the deck and ran the long end to the switch on the control panel.  There wasn't 6" too much cable.  I can now just unplug the deck if I want to move it or the mill.  (You can see it plugged in in the upper picture.)

 

The fist lever there beside the switch controls the flow of hydraulics to the selector valves. We drilled a hole in the control panel next to the levers to install a switch to control the valves.  It was pretty simple to wire in - even without directions. The toggle UP position works the loading arms. The toggle DOWN works the chains. 

If you look close, you’ll note that the shield just right of the switch is missing a stove bolt.  Well,  we wired everything up and it worked fine.  Then we put the shield back on and it wouldn’t switch to the loading arms.  “What’s the deal?”.  It had tripped a breaker in the circuit.   Got to looking and the stove bolt had screwed right into the hot contact on the switch and shorted it out.  I should have drilled the hole 1/2" lower.  Or I could use a shorter bolt.  In any case, it works now. 

BTW,  this is the same method Wood-Mizer uses to install a deck on an LT40.   I noted that the new mill have a hole already there beside the valve body.

 

The loading arm cylinder has some kind of valve with a knob.  I assume it's to adjust the speed of the arms raising or lowering or both.  I've not messed with it.  I guess I'll need to ask as I didn't get a manual with the deck.

[Todd]

Congrats Mary+Bibby! Thats a good looking set-up! (Plus I like seeing more Blue in here!)
Is the deck moving the smaller logs ok, or are you having to manually move some?

[Bibbyman]

Congrats Mary+Bibby! Thats a good looking set-up! (Plus I like seeing more Blue in here!)
Is the deck moving the smaller logs ok, or are you having to manually move some?

I’ve had a few small logs (Eastern Red Cedar) that didn’t roll on down for some small reason. And I’ve had a few big logs not roll down because a bump or flat spot hit just wrong.  With the small cedar logs it just took a nudge by hand to get them going.  Some of the big logs that hung still worked better getting after them with the LogRite mill special. Even still,  it was no big effort to get them going.

We just got done sawing 25 or so 8’ oak logs.  All were 13-20” diameter.  All but a couple rolled on down fine.  The couple that didn’t only took a little nudge by hand to get them going.

With the incline of the loading arms as they are,  the logs roll gently onto the deck and usually against the back supports.  They always go far enough for the clamp to get them.  If the incline was set steeper, it may load the small and rough logs better but may cause the logs to hit with a lot more force. 

I’m happy with it loading most of them.  It’s still a great asset.

[Bibbyman]

Ol’ buddy Tom_In_Mo a.k.a. Tom Stout of Baker called me Thursday afternoon.  He said it was to check up on how I was getting along with the log deck he sold us.  But I think it was just a nasty February day and he just wanted to visit. 

Anyway,  he started doing a little back peddling when I told him I wasn’t a bit happy with the deck.  “Oh? What’s the matter?”  “Dang thing don’t work. That’s what the matter is.”  “What do you mean it don’t work?” “Well,  when it gets down below freezing and I’m in here by the stove,  it just sets out there and won’t do a thing.” His reply,  “Operator malfunction.”

We went on to have a good conversation and solved most of the problems of the world – if the world would just listen to us.

That conversation sure enough jinks the deck though.  Son and I were sawing this morning and the loading arms would not lower.  There is a set of electronic valves that split the hydraulic flow from the chain motor to the loading arms.  It was not “kicking”.  I had a little problem with it on Friday but thought maybe it was because the oil was cold or something because it started working.  This time it wouldn’t.

So I got out my volt meter and traced the problem down to a bad wire connection in the junction box.  My bad.  When we installed the wiring to deck, I had used an extension cord I had accidentally cut about 1’ from one end.  Worked slick except for two things.  One,  The cord was not big enough for the connector in the bottom of the box to grip – thus any tug on the cord would be a tug on the wire connection in the box. And two,  in my hurry,  I used a twist type connectors to bunch two groups of three wires together. It finally lost its connection.

I did find a box clamp that would hold the cord wire tight.  That fixed that problem.  I should have put more effort into making a better connection.  But I found a couple of larger twist connectors and applied them.  I had help standing around and if I didn’t get him back to work in short order,  he’d be gone.  So that’s what I did and it works.



Here is the junction box and cord coming out of the bottom that I was talking about above.

[beav39]

congrats bibby looks great ,did you say you powered it with the sawmill?

[bandmiller2]

Good show Bibby,you realize its pretty little butt is out in the weather.A dead deck with a slight pitch twords the baker and a roof over all and their would be a couple of days worth under cover.Frank C.

[beav39]

thanks bibby the pics are great seems pretty easy to set up good luck