The Forestry Forum

This is so weird.  A couple times recently I have had my hour meter run while I have the key off and out of the machine.  I now have about 75 hours of run time that never happened.

Anybody ever hear of such a thing?

Take your multimeter and run it back from the hourmeter.  The indication is that your switch is not switching (completely) off.  Probably the "auxiliary" leg.  A new switch should fix your problem.

Since the importance of the hourmeter is engine hours, personally I would make a notation in my log book and not think about it.

I have run two different new engines in my sawmill and put a new "zero hour" hourmeter in with each engine change.  To me, sawmill hours mean nothing.

or it was wired to the hot off the battery and not the run wire of the key.

Too bad the mill didn't get anything done by itself with the clock running.  ffsmiley

got it, so it is intermittent.

I went down to the mill yesterday, put the key back in, and found it unresponsive.  The battery was measuring 5 volts, and I could see more hours added to the meter.   

It was jump started and after about an hour of real run-time, I finished for the day and disconnected the positive battery cable so it can't take on any secret milling jobs.  Hopefully the battery took enough charge to start up again today.

I'll have to give Woodmizer a call and see what they say about this.  

I called my WM rep, Ross (in Maine).  He agreed with MM that the key switch is most likely the culprit.  They're shipping one out under warranty.