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Learning....

Started by OlJarhead, February 28, 2016, 09:44:12 PM

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OlJarhead

So I go the mill to the property and realized I would need the tractor to put it where I wanted (by my log deck) so I unhooked the truck and went and got the tractor after dumping a few things into the cabin.

With the tractor I was able to move the mill to about where I wanted it but clearly it was too steep so an hour later and a lot of moving dirt, logs, and the mill I had it more or less in an 'ok' temporary spot.  However I could see right away I would need to move the log deck and put the mill on better (more level) ground.

As you can see the mill is on a bit of a hill but I got it pretty stable and even level (wasn't my intention to level it actually, just to keep it set well enough to make straight cuts.

I found right away that the front was too low (of course) and though I knew I needed to move it I decided to mill a log anyway just to get some practice since I don't have the time to do much.

Didn't help the log deck was frozen and I had to break it apart with a chocker chain and the tractor but I managed to get it done and loaded up a 12 foot blue stained ponderosa.

Once on the deck I set to making a cant.  Early on I realized I was off square so after playing around a bit (and double checking the band alignment etc) I managed to sort it out (lifting a but on clamping) and squared it up (pic on my phone so not able to post yet).

I set about milling up the log and found that I tended to forget simple set a little too often but eventually got to where I didn't forget (after getting tired of making adjustments).  I did find that I was getting about 1 1/16" with the simple set at 1 1/8" and scratched my head a little there...thought it was supposed to be set to account for the kerf but maybe I was just not doing something right.

When I set it to 1 1/6" however it darn near nailed 1" perfect so I'll go read the book (read and you will succeed right).

Anyway, I played for a while (couple hours) milling up that pine (100bf) and took some vids but all in all nothing impressive! LOL  What I need now is to move the mill to better ground and move the log deck to it.  Where the deck is now is where I used the other mill which sat 90 degrees to the deck so I could load with the tractor.  It was also slightly downhill from the deck but that wasn't an issue before, in fact, was helpful.  Now I need to rethink the mill spot and get a better arrangement.

At least I have enough logs to get proficient with though ;) :D

Oh and yes I had a blast!  Didn't break anything (knock on wood) and generally learned a TON!
Can't wait to get back to it now.
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

Magicman

Eric, you have gotten your treasure while I have been traveling, so I will add my congrats.   8)

You will have everything dialed in very soon.
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

ncsawyer

Looks like you're having fun...and that's what counts!  You'll get the hang of the mill and simple set pretty quickly.

Simple set does not allow for kerf.  It simply moves the blade down the entered measurement. 

If you want to use your quarter scale in combination with the simple set you will have to allow 1/8 inch for your kerf.  For example set the simple set to 1 and 1/8 inch for 4 quarter boards.  That way you can use your quarter scale to tell you where to make your first cut so you will always end up where you want to. 

Synchronizing simple set and the quarter scale makes life a lot easier and takes all the thinking out of sawing.
2015 Wood-Mizer LT40DD35
Woodmaster 718 planer
Ford 445 Skip Loader

azmtnman

Good lookin' machine!
I'll bet 90% of us brought our mills home and set them up temporarily just to get started. I did!  ;D
I've had mine in the garage doing some maintenance and haven't been in a hurry because I thought I had time. Now it's dried out and warmed up! I could be sawing but I got to finish putting it back together.
1983 LT 30, 1990 Kubota L3750DT, 2006 Polaris 500 EFI, '03 Dodge D2500 Cummins powered 4X4 long-bed crew cab, 1961 Ford backhoe, Stihl MS250, MS311 and MS661--I cut trees for my boss who was a Jewish carpenter!

paul case

Looking good there!

I thought I was just sure to see band cuts on fresh orange painted steel given the title of this thread.

PC
life is too short to be too serious. (some idiot)
2013 LT40SHE25 and Riehl edger,  WM 94 LT40 hd E15. Cut my sawing ''teeth'' on an EZ Boardwalk
sawing oak.hickory,ERC,walnut and almost anything else that shows up.
Don't get phylosophical with me. you will loose me for sure.
pc

OlJarhead

Thanks MM et al,

I probably just didn't pay enough attention when using simple set today and wll et better ;)  IN fact, I think I was just in such a hurry to make sawdust that I didn't pay enough attention to things like the scale at first...funny, I went from all manual where you had to constantly remind yourself where your next cut was to fiddling around a whole lot! LOL

I can't wait to get back to it though as I have a LOT of 2x8's to mill and noticed I was breezing though the 1x's in record time!  Even with only half throttle or less I was doing 3 or 4 in the time it took me to do one before and I'm only just getting it down...I'll try to upload a vid soon but Hugesnt might take an hour to do that! LOL
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

ncsawyer

We have hughesnet too....not my first choice of providers.   :-\  But out here in the boonies it was about the only choice.
2015 Wood-Mizer LT40DD35
Woodmaster 718 planer
Ford 445 Skip Loader

4x4American

Quote from: azmtnman on February 28, 2016, 10:08:03 PM
Good lookin' machine!
I'll bet 90% of us brought our mills home and set them up temporarily just to get started. I did!  ;D
I've had mine in the garage doing some maintenance and haven't been in a hurry because I thought I had time. Now it's dried out and warmed up! I could be sawing but I got to finish putting it back together.


So did I, I moved the mizer into place with my wheeler, cause had to get it into tight spot.  It was mud season and I went off the drive a little bit with it and the mill just sunk right down.  Bottle jacks, boards, sweat and beer were involved in rescuing it.. lol 
Boy, back in my day..

OlJarhead

https://youtu.be/65UFUXkPIQQ
This is all I could upload but you can see I goofed with the simple set on and had to recover...still, making sawdust anyway :D
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

4x4American

Your sawdust fingers have something caught in them ;)


Mill looks good!
Boy, back in my day..

4x4American

BTW you didn't goof up that bad with the simple set, because you didn't have the blade over the cant, that's when you know you really goofed up, ask me how I know! lol
Boy, back in my day..

WV Sawmiller

Quote from: 4x4American on February 28, 2016, 11:04:11 PM
Your sawdust fingers have something caught in them ;)


Mill looks good!


   I was going to suggest the same thing. First time I did that my sawmill was so constipated the entire area around the drive wheel was completely tight packed with sawdust. I don't see how it even ran but it did.

Eric,

    I love my Simple set and use it for almost every cut except the first one. The only bad thing I encounter is bumping it while sawing or forgetting it is on after moving the cant. In those cases it makes my blade dive and jump off the bands. Usually no problem except when it is in the middle of a cut. As mentioned the setting moves the blade that much closer to the bed rail. Oh yeah, if you bump it down to far it will trip the breaker on the left. If your head won't rise check that first. Also up in the debarker is a breaker that trips when in too much of a bind. Little black breaker you just push back up. Those are things they don't normally show you in the demo because experienced sawyers don't usually make those mistakes. Enjoy the machine.
Howard Green
WM LT35HDG25(2015) , 2011 4WD F150 Ford Lariat PU, Kawasaki 650 ATV, Stihl 440 Chainsaw, homemade logging arch (w/custom built rear log dolly), JD 750 w/4' wide Bushhog brand FEL

Dad always said "You can shear a sheep a bunch of times but you can only skin him once

OlJarhead

Ha!  Thanks ;)  Ya I'm so used to drawing back I probably won't (now I probably will) do that.

If only I'd taken today off!  Oh well, I will be back to the mill Wed through Fri and might take half the day Friday to get a little more time with it.

Main thing I want to do now is move it and the log deck.  I know I can plow through that log deck quickly once I get a few things down and it's moved to a better location.

I also want to make a drying 'crib' like one another poster shared a while back in another thread which I can't find right now.  Basically he used bricks as the base to allow him to level each brick so the crib was flat and level (instead of having to do that for multiple pallets like I have to) then set 6x's across them and ties between them making a sold foundation to stack and stick on top of.

I've been fighting with un-level ground for 5 years and seeing that thread made the lightbulb go on.

And as Peter pointed out, with the new mill I'll be building things all over the place! LOL  It cuts through a 100bf log like butter and it just sorta changes your mind about what you might do...before I'd look at a log that size and think, I'll get that done today and I'd also think that I darn well better make sure I make it into something I need right now because it's gonna be some work.......now I look at it and think "that was easy"  ;D 8)
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

OlJarhead

WV -- ah hahaha  I learned that one!

I was jerking the head around a little too much so it protested and just stopped.  No matter what I did it would not move......duh!  Starting hitting breakers (didn't have my reading specks on) and whaddaya know it started moving again.  Note to self, stop jerking around! lol

Then I messed with the up/down stick a little much (maybe when I set the debarker on the cant one time too many) and it stopped moving....hmmm....darn it....oh ya!  Breakers! 

Once I did that a couple times I relaxed and only did it one more time and knew right where to go to fix it.
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

Magicman

You will develop your rhythm and everything will be smooth.   :)
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Percy

Quote from: OlJarhead on February 28, 2016, 10:46:08 PM
https://youtu.be/65UFUXkPIQQ
This is all I could upload but you can see I goofed with the simple set on and had to recover...still, making sawdust anyway :D

When you walked back to the camera and said "Ooops", I shot coffee outta my nose...........

Been following your milling adventures for a while now (stirring up memories for me)....our journeys are similar cept Im a little farther up the road, age wise....
GOLDEN RULE : The guy with the gold, makes the rules.

OlJarhead

LOL ya talking to myself out in the middle of no where and caught on camera!   That's me, the old jarhead ;)

Got some other vids (one that makes it painfully clear I need to develop that rhythm but after one log I'm starting to)...which I will upload later today.
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

Peter Drouin

I put a level on the mill and get good from end to end, then a ΒΌ bubble going back to the stops. One hole up on the jacks next to the loader will work. So the log will want to go there, and not roll back to the loader.
I got to go out and scale some logs. good luck. 8) 8) 8)
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

Remle

OlJarhead, congratulations on your mill, you will never regret the up grade.  8) 8)
Not to criticize , but turn your mill 90 deg. and it will be a lot easier to set up and more stable, the books that came with your mill explain how to do it. While you want the mill some what level it is not necessary IMHO to be dead level, setting it up by eye is quite acceptable . Actually you want the bed rail/track to be straight from front to back, after all 30 min. into sawing and it will not be dead level unless it is bolted securely down to an immovable surface. Tweaking the legs during milling is just one of the things that comes with the sawing process. After all none of the mobile sites you will be going to will have the perfect surface and you need to adjust and setup as quickly as possible, time wasted is money lost. 

OlJarhead

Thanks -- I plan to move the site to a better location closer to the cabin and on flatter ground.  On this site I could turn the mill 90 degrees though and I might do that but first I'll have to move about 20 logs.  Originally the site was set up with the logs 90 degrees to the mill to make it easier to lift them with the tractor and set on my manual mill.  The location the manual mill was in was would great except that it's downhill from the logs and I didn't want them rolling down into the lift crib ;)

Next trip up I plan to move the mill.
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

OlJarhead

2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

OlJarhead

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J3Opj8ELWrk
You can see the goofup on the simple set early on here but later I get it down more or less ;)
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

OlJarhead

2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

Peter Drouin

Good job, But why is the saw dust not coming out of the hose. Did you have the shoot up some?

Here is a pic of the level I use on the mill when I set it up.



 
Old 4' one I cut down.  :D
A&P saw Mill LLC.
45' of Wood Mizer, cutting since 1987.
License NH softwood grader.

OlJarhead

I didn't notice the sawdust coming out the chute that way until after looking at the videos later.  I'm wondering if maybe it got jammed up a bit.  Early on I had the chute up because I just plumb forgot it, then later dropped it.  It's also squished a bit from the bungee that holds it up so perhaps it got clogged up a bit.  Will have to check it next trip -- which now, due to my missing a day (darn leap years) isn't going to be until Thursday :(  I could have stayed today but thought I had a meeting tomorrow...nope, Wednesday!  Grrr
2016 LT40HD26 and Mahindra 5010 W/FEL WM Hundred Thousand BF Club Member

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