a funny story

lumberlady · November 10, 2003, 07:22:02 PM

as you all know we put new track in our sawmill, well when we fired it up for the first time my husband told me to stand at the handle just in case the carriage took off. the belts sometimes grabs and the carriage will roll a bit. well anyway
he started it and the carriage did roll a bit ,so being the good wife i am i pull the carriage back, to my suprise the carriage shot down past the saw and it was moving on. my father in law just stood there with his eyes as big as they could get.what happen is they put the cable that pulls the carriage on backwards so when you pull the handle back it sent the carriage forward,and when you pull it forward it went back. my legs shook for 30 min afterwards. my father in law said 'sis if that thing had rubber wheels on it you sure did burn them off :D :D haha just had to be there. its fixed now and i sure am glad no more runaways could have won 10,000.00 if id had a video camera

Jeff · November 10, 2003, 07:40:02 PM

Lumberlady, actually you should pull the lever to feed for safety's sake. Imagine accidently falling into the lever, this would send the carriage and possible you into the saw. Pushing forward should gig back and fpull back should feed in my humble opinion.

D._Frederick · November 10, 2003, 08:10:52 PM

Jeff,
You are a 100% correct, you pull back to feed the saw. If something is traveling with the carriage and hit you. It will push you and the lever ahead and return the carriage. A great safety feature the old timers had.

lumberlady · November 10, 2003, 08:25:15 PM

you are right that is how it is suppose to be. but do you know how hard that would be for me to learn to saw like that... :D
that would be like you guys trying to drive a truck and brake for gas and gas for brake. or something like that.
the sawmill was already like this when we bought it and we knew no different so that was how we sawed for 5 yrs. know we know this after all the excitement... and we intend to change this .i think but it will be different for awhile..
for safety reasons that makes since . i never looked at it that way i just figured someone thought it would be funny to switch things :

Jeff · November 11, 2003, 02:21:14 AM

The switch really should be made. When I switched companies in 1984 I switched to a mill where EVERTHING was backwards from what I was doing. Were talking a multitude of switches and controls including both feet. I did end up with a few logs in the track and some udder problems but you eventually get used to the change.

Frank_Pender · November 11, 2003, 05:38:37 AM

You are so correct, Jeff. that is exactly how the MD mill operates. Pull the hydrostatic lever toward you and the mill carrage travels down the tack away from the operator. Release the handle and the carrage, as well as the lumber retrun to the operator.

Bibbyman · November 11, 2003, 10:27:39 AM

Not quite the same problem.. But after the cows eat the wires off of the motor that ran the blade guide back and forth on our 94 Wood-Mizer, I somehow got them switched in the re-wire. Push the toggle switch right and the blade guide would go left, push left and it'd go right.

That wasn't a problem for me as I'm dyslexic half the time anyway. We got use to running it that way. Then we got a second mill and had to remember to do it the other way when running it.

We've since sold both mills and the new one has it's left/right, right. I'm still messed up. But just half the time. :

Stump Jumper · November 11, 2003, 12:06:10 PM

Keep being safe.

This reminds me of another story.

Friend I worked with got his first boat from his grandfather 16 ft starcraft older one decided to restring the steering cables asked me to go with him for a taste run after he had worked on the boat I asked him did you get the cables right cause I know lthat they are tricky he said YES so off we went got in the water got the boat fired up started to steer away from the dock and the boat almost took out the dock it turned right for the dock instead of away from the dock when the guy panicked he turned the wheel that much further. :D :D :D :D I had my life jacket on I wasn't worried I laughed for week and the guys at work laughed too. I still think about this and laugh. :D :D