Useful sawmill mods

[TimW]

I do for freezing weather but usually just water and dawn.  I've been experimenting with denatured alcohol (aka active ingredient in WW fluid).   Right now I have a mixture of stuff should be good to 0.

I have gave up sawing in freezing weather.  Back in Feb. 2021, it snowed and I was gonna saw.  Just to say I have sawn in freezing weather.  When I was getting the mill ready,the power went out for 7 days.  I think me getting ready to saw, jinxed the power grid.

[Southside]

It has to get to "The Day After Tomorrow" cold for my Lubemizer to freeze, and if it's that cold I guess it doesn't matter.  :D

[Old Greenhorn]

That may be true Jim, but the day after the day after tomorrow, you will have a heck of a time replacing those two stupid plastic check valves that will split to crumbs when it does freeze. :D ;D

[barbender]

 He uses diesel anyways, it will have to get colder than what you'll be seeing☺️

[Southside]

That was a movie reference from when the jet fuel froze...

[Old Greenhorn]

Yes, I know you use diesel, and yes, I saw the movie. But those stupid check valves break if you just give them a cold stare and can be a real pain to get at and change, plus, they are different pressure values. Which reminds me.....

[Magicman]

I purge mine by removing the jug hose and then drop the suction hose into a jug of RV Antifreeze to refill the entire system with -50° stuff. 

My 5 gallon Lubemizer jug has about a half gallon of RV Antifreeze in it so I know that I would be good anyway.  I take no chances of my pump or check valves freezing.

[barbender]

 When I worked on an asphalt paving crew, every night come fall time, I got to winterize the rollers we were using. Remove filters, fill with washer fluid. Remove inlet hose and put in jug of washer fluid, turn pump on and wait for spray out of the spray bars to turn nice and blue. The procedure should be the same for a lubemizer.

I hated that chore, because when you sit on a big piece of iron with an open station out in the cold all day, your body never warms up. So then at the end of the day your cold body had to get its cold, stiff hands all wet, adding insult to injury as it were☺️ I've frozen way worse at 45° sitting on a roller all day then milling at -10°🤷

[DDW_OR]

side note

a drunk paving crew in MN parked a fully loaded single lane paver on to the grass
they could not move it with the semi



 

 

 

[barbender]

 Haha a Knife River crew. That truck should've been able to pull that, I've seen pavers pulled through way worse. I've spent entire days at the side of a paver being pulled on the frame by loaded end dumps through gravel/mud, where my job was to knock the ruts in before the paving screed coame over the top of them. Most Octobers consisted of a lot of that, as there were jobs where the owners just wanted to get the gravel "covered up" before the winter freeze. Not fun👎👎

[GAB]

I purge mine by removing the jug hose and then drop the suction hose into a jug of RV Antifreeze to refill the entire system with -50° stuff. 

My 5 gallon Lubemizer jug has about a half gallon of RV Antifreeze in it so I know that I would be good anyway.  I take no chances of my pump or check valves freezing.

MM:
On my mill in the hose from the jug there is a reservoir/ filter assembly.  If you unscrew it and dump it out then it takes less RV antifreeze to purge the system.   Just make sure you do not lose the filter screen.  My lube jug is in the house and the mill is put away until after Jake's get together.
GAB

[terrifictimbersllc]

That was a movie reference from when the jet fuel froze...

I thought it was the hydraulics. Anyway 70super owners should be ok with its $500/gal hydraulic fluid.

[Magicman]

I just came from Walmart and all of the -50° RV Antifreeze is gone.  Wonder why??  Anyway I grabbed a couple of gallons of RainX 0° WW Fluid which will be plenty good for me.  I'll purge the system with it and then dump the rest in my lube jug the next time that it gets below freezing or I need a jug refill.

No sawing for me this week.   

[Nebraska]

I saw frozen diesel this morning, went to pour some out of a fuel jug and nothing happened. Screen in the pour spout plugged with gunk. Took the lid off and poured some out.  Looked like cloudy obstetrical lube, flowed like Kero syrup.  I thought all my jugs were number one fuel.   Guess that one wasn't.  Bet my sawmill lube wasn't flowing today either.  :

[Southside]

I came up into Laramie one very cold night through the valley from Ft Carson, -45F and my truck was gelling, so I pulled into the fairgrounds and grabbed my bottle Howes "Guaranteed not to gel" additive - it looked like honey, so I continued onto the Safeway and pulled up to the K-1 pump and began to fill my tank.  Poor guy working in the booth came running over "You can't do that - it's not taxed" - I asked him if he thought the tax man would come out in these temps, that calmed things down.

[barbender]

 The dummy should've been used to ranchers getting a shot to loosen up their fuel☺️

[TimW]

Please tell this SE Texan what K1 is.

[SawyerTed]

Kerosene

[DDW_OR]

cold enough to freeze the balls off a brass monkey

sounds naughty, but is not

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brass_monkey_(colloquialism)

[Southside]

Please tell this SE Texan what K1 is

Think JP-8, without the smell.

[TimW]

JP8.  Got it.
When I was 6 or 7, the Enco dealer (a family friend) had a Kerosene pump with a glass bowl top you would hand pump it up into bowl to the amount you wanted, then put the handle spout into your container and pull the trigger.  I was always amazed, watching the level go up, then go down.  That is the last time I have seen a kerosene pump

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah well, these days they are a little bit different. :D ;D

[Southside]

I still remember a couple of folks who had a similar version, yet much smaller, in their homes to fill the cooking stove.