One of the mills I sell logs to called me today asking me if I would run his mill do to the fact he is having open heart surgery on Monday. Ive ran alot of hand set mills but never one that has a key board and a log kicker. He wants me to come tomarrow after lunch not sure what I am getting myself into but hopefuly I can figure it out and help him out so he dosen't lose orders that has taken years to get. Everything is electric two motors on the head saw one for the bottom saw other for the top saw finding all the switches that turn on and off different things kind of blows my mind I sure would feel bad if I damaged or burt it down ::) If it works out I may need to ask some questions to you guys that run this type of mill. I wish he would of asked me a month ago but this health problem pretty much happened over night.
Good that you are there to help him. You can read the log,the rest is easy. :)
Bill, you will just have to go slow and think before you flip a switch, it will probably spoil you. Frank C.
What a fantastic opportunity 8)
The gentlemen who owns the mill has enough confidence
in you to ask, show him he was right!!
Pictures I hope.
Best
DGdrls
Its fun and entertainment to watch someone else run your mill. They can feel your pain sometimes. Its an understanding, and sometimes ya gotta ask for a hand, to fulfull a customers order knowing your not gunna make any money payin someone to run it, but ya get paybacks other ways!
Sure sounds exciting and a lot of fun. smiley_thumbsup
If'n you get needing some help, twist Jeff's arm to come down and help you... Bet he'd be a DanG good mentor sawing on that mill.
Dgdrls,Takin' selfies while using another's sawmill might not be politicaly correct. while pressing the wrong button on the mill.
It's just like riding a Bike
Or Flying the Starship Enterprise
Same thing
Theirs nothing worse for a sawyer than watching a pilgrim run his mill. Frank C.
I ran a similar setup for a number of years. The keyboard takes away a lot of the tedious headwork of trying to figure out where to start your cut. You can enter a stack of different thickness boards, hit set, and the headblocks will come right to the point you want to start. Then, its just a matter of hitting set every time you want to pull a board. You'll see its a lot easier. You do the entering on the gig back before you turn your log. Lots of thinking ahead when you use the system.
The other controls are just a matter of getting used to using them. You'll be moving headblocks, setting dogs, turning and unloading from your seat. It all sounds easy. It will take about an hour or less to get used to the controls. Just don't try to rush things too quickly. We're talking a lot of hand/eye coordination. At the end of the first day, you'll be exhausted. The problem is, everything is too fast for you. In a couple of days, things start to slow down, and sawing becomes enjoyable.
Quote from: Don_Papenburg on April 03, 2015, 10:11:36 PM
Dgdrls,Takin' selfies while using another's sawmill might not be politicaly correct. while pressing the wrong button on the mill.
No No!! no selfies and certainly not while operating, never said that.
I don't believe Autocar would ruin an opportunity or the confidence
this owner has by taking selfies or by snapping a couple photos without an O.K. from the owner.
DGDrls
Here's your tutorials. The only videos of me ever sawing on an automatic mill over ten years ago. I think they are now considered vintage films :D
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VPJ-Ojha-s
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i3PftuULqdk
Jeff, you sure that's you in those videos? Your head don't look right... :D
That was back when I didn't have a stressful job. ;)
Good vids Jeff......ain't no way I could keep up with you with my LT40. :D
U B Smoking that mill. 8)
Like all sawmills theres alot of different thing to remember, but I feel pretty confindent that if I use the common sence God gave me and take my time it will all fall into place. Looks to me if a guy can figure it all out that over time it will be a ball ! Sawing big timbers that makes life pretty easy,bigest problem is cutting them to length [ 14 inches ] and the other orders will be half inch by four inches. For now this is all I am responsible for I sat a few low grade logs on the deck and this coming week will see how I do on them. Not use to pushing a button and it's ready to go to work, no hammers, gas cans, pry bars or anything Iam not use to that :D
Too bad you couldn't put the whole operation in slow motion wile you learn. Be sure to tell us how you make out mate. Frank C.
We need a Live Video Feed
The only problem I had today was setting the carriage to the correct thickness. There's a panal with a bunch of togle switches and it says thickness but he told me Saturday not to use that but go by the dial on the carriage. My problem was when I would set the carriage it would roll past the spot I wanted to be on the dial then I would have to back the headblocks back and a number of times I messed around trying to hit the spot more then I sawed at times. Any ideas what I am doing wrong ? The feed is so different then any mill Ive ever ran it is so smooth of a feed but at the same time it can be a rocket ship. It will just take time to get the feed down but using the dial in inches has me baffled.
If it doesn't stop when you take your finger off the button, its probably not you, it is probably the set works brake.
I called another mill I do business with ,there mill was the same but now with more electronic stuff. On the feed handle there are three buttons one is forward the center one is back and the third is the set button. Not real sure how that works but today I hit the button and the blocks rolled forward and then stopped. So I will play with that on Thursday and see what I can figure out. Also maybe in a few days I can call him if he's feeling better and maybe he can give me the low down on it.
Are you saying you need to eyeball each set? I've run several mills with toggles for board thickness. They could be set so that you got a repetitive set. Most mills I run I had to come up with my stack before I started cutting on a face. That meant I had to figure out the start point, but after that, it was just hit the set button and the headblocks would move the set position.
The last mill I used had a hydraulic motor that ran the sets. That was controlled through electronics that would turn it on and off. There was a certain amount of drift in each set so that it would ease into it.
Sounds like the set button works. The toggles should change the thickness. Those can all be controlled somewhere on the carriage.
Ron today it was all eye balling each cut,but after taking to the sawyer up north of me I am going to play with the set button and toggle switches and see what this will do.
What is the make of the mill?
Jeff the carriage says Cleereman and today I played with the toggle switches on the set and figured it out so now I just hit the toggle and I saw the right thickness. I must of miss understude him on the dial I talked with his wife this morning and he came thur the operation fine and I told her I was doing fine on the mill and she remarked that that would make him feel good and not to worry about what was happening back here. Thanks everyone for your interest in this voyage ;D.
Sounds like you only have to eyeball the opening face cut with the dial. After you get your numbers set in your head, it will get a lot easier. Hitting set will take a lot of the tedium out of what you were trying to do.
I was sawing big pin oak today 16 feet 39 inches on the small end, the mill might be automatic but the rest is all man power. six inches by twenty six inches cants just about all I could do to handle. Get them out of the way then to reload them to saw into two inch stock. When I left tonight I had three four by twenty six inch by sixteen foot left on the dock,tomarrows another day. My help went home at noon said he had a sick cow and had to call the vet. Sawing logs like that will get old pretty quick by yourself. It all came back to me today I always told people that the fun part of a sawmill was getting it to run and see the first board come off the saw after that it is all work !