The Forestry Forum

I ordered the new style of clamp yesterday for my mill.  They are arriving today, which is impressive.  Well done WM.  Do they come with instructions for installing on different versions of the mill?  I have the cross members that are C channel.  Presumably I'll just be drilling a few 3/8 or similar holes and be in business.  Thanks for any insight.

How do you like the upgrade? Any photos in use?

Ultimately I'm very happy that I added them, but the clamps have their pluses and minuses.  The original clamps raise straight up and down, while these have to raise in an arc.  The problem with that is that I had to mount them on opposite sides of crossmembers, so as I lower them, they get closer to each other.  I moved one of the old ones to the far end of the mill, so now I often use one new one and one old one.  All in all it's been an upgrade to the mill.

I have both on my LT15Wide but most of the time I use the straight up and down style.  The only problem I have with the newer style is that if you bump the log they fall down.  Not so with the old style.

I had to drill a hole through the screw and the end cap so it would not come off, used a small bolt to hold together.  I tired of the end coming off all the time.  Another gripe is that sawdust will get between the iron pipe and the body ring which can make moving the dog back and forth a pain, have to keep coated with ATF and blow out with air hose.  I do like how it lies across the secondary cross member, that way it can be slid up against and hold a cant in place without rising above the small  side square stops, the slit in the end cap is perfect for holding even a flat lying board etc.  I am thinking of buying an extra one  to install for longer logs.  The main problem with the arch is that in a rare circumstance the cant can lift because the dog is not being held down  vertically..  This always occurs when I am doing something stupid like cutting a rectangle with small end down and long end up.  I stopped that bad habit.

I added the new design to my mill when they first came out. After a couple years, I removed the original clamps and can't think of a time I've missed them. My only complaint is the ends falling off the clamps; wish they had some type of a snap ring to hold them on. 

I've experienced the log lift ocassionally on the first cut of small logs that weren't braced properly or when using poor sawing technique.  I don't think the original clamps would have stopped this; I think the logs would have just popped out of the clamp and the log would have ended up on top of the clamp.  I generally cut large diameter logs so this is not a serious issue for me.