Adjustable blade guide arm, that is. I was playing around with the board return for the first time the other day and didn't raise the blade before returning. Slammed the blade into the log pretty hard and it jacked up the adjustable arm. Lots of play in all directions. I got WM to email me the manual and I believe I know what to do. The outer, lower bearing was loose, so I raised it by loosening the jam nut and turning the cam bolt. Tightened that bearing, so now there is no up/down movement. But, the flange is literally touching the back of the blade. The manual says to adjust the two inner upper and lower roller bearings outward to move the arm away from the blade (common sense). I've got some 15/16" sockets but they won't fit because the bolt heads somewhat "inset". Do I need to get a thin-walled 15/16" socket?
Then I've got to check and adjust the blade deflection and adjust it by moving the outer rollers up/down, right?
Let the fun begin!! iirc I used a wrench to get it just the tip to break it loose it's an awful time. You might as well take the guides right off, keep the blade on at full tension, bring the arm in and out and measure the guard to the blade on the back and on the top to make sure it goes in and out evenly. Except when you have it in all the way you want to make it so that it pushes down approx 1/32" vs when it's all the way out. Also get your head tilt idk I run mine flat but some say 1/16" up on the outside so that when the blade is spinning it brings it level. Make sure that some buckin arm is real tight and then slap your guides back on and make em push down on the blade 1/4" and then set them flat and I run the distance about 1/16" from the back of the roller flange to the back of the blade and with a slight sideways tilt so that when the blade is pushed up against it the flange pulls the blade up into the flange. A wm tech set mine backwards so it pushed the blade away and that didnt work out too well for me. And if those guides are wore out or real old I reckon now is as good a time as any to replace them. Have fun!
not sure the damage, you did not mention that today,, sorry to hear its this bad,,
One thing I always do before I drag back is in that little nick of time just before or as the blade exits the cut, I bump the guide arm out a piece just before bumping the head up before the drag back drops so that the guide arm isnt right up in it when you are draggin back. Sometimes boards or slabs can get cattywampus on that return shot and hit the ever so sacred movable guide arm.
I use a 15/16" wrench. The blade guide arm is the most delicate and unfortunately, usually the most aggravating thing on the mill to adjust.
Are you sure you didn't bend the cam bolts? I did, and caused twisting of the arm, and also uneven, unpredictable adjustments.
Also, get a beer and enter a quiet Zen state for these adjustments. They can be very frustrating.
What yellow said and 4X4 as well. I did the same on my 97 lt40 and couldnt get it right till I replaced them bolts. The LT70 has a much more user friendly adjustment system that Woodmizer should put on the 40's IMO. Regardless, persistance will get that puppy aligned again...and some cussing.... :D
Oh no! You must not have been wearing MY lucky shirt :D. I wrecked mine really good :-\.
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One learns what one must not do.
Thanks everyone. I bought a socket that should fit, and a 1 1/8" wrench this evening. I will tackle this tomorrow. I'm afraid I bent the bolts a tad. Not sure. The fun begins tomorrow.
Danny, I should have been wearing the shirt. Guilty as charged.
Danny did you bend you blade tensioner there too or is that just an optical conclusion?
If the threaded portion of any eccentric bolt is bent I would replace it.
Quote from: 4x4American on August 22, 2017, 10:07:29 PM
Danny did you bend you blade tensioner there too or is that just an optical conclusion?
Pretty sure he's taken the bolts out of it and it's hanging on angle.
When I got my "low hours, well maintained" LT30 one of the first things I noticed was that the blade guide arm was real loose and flopping around. Tuned out the previous owner had some sort of a wreck between the arm and a log.
The arm went "thump" when moving it in and out, turned out one of the rollers that the arm rides on had a good sized dent in the flange. The arm itself had some dings in it that I fixed with a file. One of the cam bolts was bent, actually the heavy sheet metal structure it bolts to was bent, making it seem like the bolt itself was bent. Per a thread somewhere by Marty Parsons I straightened it out with a cheater bar over the bolt end.
I kept getting confused trying to figure out which way to turn the adjusting cam bolts. A center punch would've worked just as well, I took a Dremel engraver and marked the high point of the cams on the bolt heads, that made it a lot easier to know which way to turn the bolt.
Last and least, the inboard fixed guide roller mount was also bent. Not so bad that I couldn't still adjust it so I left the repair for another day.
I've broken that inside guide roller mount right off before lol from dragging a board back that slide over and whacked it
Quote from: Bob_T on August 22, 2017, 10:45:45 PM
Pretty sure he's taken the bolts out of it and it's hanging on angle.
Yes, that is exactly right.
Hello,
I posted some alignment tips last year. Check out here https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,86877.0.html.
Hope this helps.
Marty
That arm sure can be a pain. These make the job quite a bit easier.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10973/wrenches%20sized.jpg?easyrotate_cache=1192063034)
I've been going to get those wrenches, just in case, post the sizes please!
15/16" is what my mill uses. The bolt heads are under the bandwheel covers, and difficult to get to. I also do as someone else suggested, mark the point of max eccentricity on the bolts with a Sharpie so I know where it is high and low when I'm turning them.
There is definately a feel to it, I watched a WM service tech adjust them in about a minute. Not me, I've taken much longer to get them right. One of the tricks is to get the locknuts on pretty tight to take all the slack out of the eccentrics, then start gradually tuning them, that way the bolts don't shift when the locknuts are tightened.
Top wrench is 1 1/8" Bottom is 15/16"
Quote from: YellowHammer on August 22, 2017, 12:01:22 AM
I use a 15/16" wrench. The blade guide arm is the most delicate and unfortunately, usually the most aggravating thing on the mill to adjust.
Are you sure you didn't bend the cam bolts? I did, and caused twisting of the arm, and also uneven, unpredictable adjustments.
Also, get a beer and enter a quiet Zen state for these adjustments. They can be very frustrating.
Somebody said earlier go to the bathroom first if you have to.
As with any adjustment on these mills,, all it takes is patience, small adjustments, and at all cost avoid getting rammy,
All the adjustments are easy enough,, you gotta like getting in the saw dust on a few, not the blade guide. Once done and crashes are hopefully over,, these adjustments hold for a long time,,
Quote from: drobertson on August 25, 2017, 06:12:27 PM
Once done and crashes are hopefully over,, these adjustments hold for a long time,,
No doubt, this is the best incentive and motivation to never crash or damage the blade guide arm again.
Most crashes happen when you are doing something different from your normal routine. At the end of a sawing day, I went to the back and removed the blade. I did not raise the head back up and for whatever reason the clamp was higher than the guide arm. I found out that the guide arm will not stop the sawmill on it's return to the front of the sawmill. ::) I think that it broke everything that was not bent. :-X
Quote from: YellowHammer on August 25, 2017, 10:06:57 PM
Quote from: drobertson on August 25, 2017, 06:12:27 PM
Once done and crashes are hopefully over,, these adjustments hold for a long time,,
No doubt, this is the best incentive and motivation to never crash or damage the blade guide arm again.
This is the reason why I don't let anyone run my mill, cause I ain't about to adjust that guide arm on someone elses account!
I haven't had much time lately for sawing. Busy season at the job is almost over. I think I've got her dialed in pretty close. I'll be attempting to saw an oak log this evening and I will know more afterwards. Saved most of my vacation time thus far this year. Taking some time off next month to cut down roughly 300 30 year old planted pines and square them into 20' lengths as stock for future sawing. September is going to be busy. Also just got about 3 acres secured for the future home of my sawing operation. Lord willing, the first barn will go up this winter.
I'm gonna give ya $.02 worth of my thoughts on that project with the 20'ers...I wouldn't go cutting all them trees down at once...I would spend a day or two logging, and then a day or two sawing, so that you can get
an idea of how much work you're signing yourself up for. Because if you go and cut all them trees down at once, then you gotta saw em before the bugs get to em and 20'ers are kinda slow going idk if you've sawed any before but if you have any amount to cut an extension would be worth it cause on the stock mizers you gotta get them logs just right on the sawmill so that your blade can enter and exit the cut. And your dragback won't work you have to pick up the head and pull the board/slab back a little bit for the dragback arm to be able to catch it before you can drag it back. Plus you can't have em much longer than 20'6", so thats less that you can trim due to end checking after they been sitting for awhile. 30 year old plantation pine is gonna be full of stress and theyre prolly gonna move all over the place whilst drying (read more waste, one top of having to cut them down to whatever length your customer wants. Personally I would leave them standing and cut them as you need them, if you have that option available. Keep them the freshest. Unless you can move em quickly. And you're gonna need a good level covered area to stack them under if you want them to stay halfway decent. If you leave them out in the weather you're gonna have alot of loss. I dont quite know the deal but thats my thoughts, add salt/pepper to taste.
4x4 you are correct. But this country boy has a plan. Waste is fine. Skid steer on tracks with grapple to set logs on bed. Square it, grab it, set on gooseneck. 10 miles home. Unload with forks, sticker/stack, cover with tin. Big barns and barn trusses are on my mind. Excited.
Oh, and right across the road from the Honkey Tonk.
Getter done!
4x4 man you are 100% right on with your comment. I totally agree with ya. My plan is to somewhat saw as I go...kinda. I'm gonna make a good whack of 20-30 sticks, then square, haul and stack, then repeat. There's no deadline. This guy just wants enough removed to build a barn and said I can have them all if I want them. So it will be interesting how it plays out. Good for him, good for me. All trees alive and well. Aint gonna leave them on the ground long before sawing.
Well Deese, I was thinkin of ya today. I had a lot going on today and was sawing with a full brain (not recommended), and I broke a rule of sawing which is don't saw faster than you can think. Short story long I was edging a 16' 2" flitch on the mill gonna get 2- 2x6x16' out of it. I usually never edge on the mill but the butt flare on the flitch was gonna make it difficult to get through the edger plus insead of having to handle it through the edger twice figured it'd be easier on the mill for such a big piece. Well I needed a block to get the clamp to hold that piece in tight enough and I musta forgot it was there and the guide arm hit that block of wood with the head going at full tilt I mean as fast as that thing will possibly go. The crunch noise it made is gonna give me a nightmare lol. That guide arm came right unglued and it bent the cam bolts, the sprocket that turns the cams, the motor mount, and probably something else. After alot of beating/bending stuff back to fit and getting it put back together and aligned we was sawing again and it did need an alignment cause it's sawing better now than it has been in awhile. So that was good. It was about 5 hours of fixing and then we sawed a little over 1mbf after of 16' pine 8x12 + 8x8 beams and 2x10's so the day turned out not too bad after all especially for a holiday.
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Didja still get those two 2X6's?? ???
Quote from: Magicman on September 04, 2017, 09:54:10 PM
Didja still get those two 2X6's?? ???
Yup I took it off and ran it through the edger
I did not see anything to smile about :D.
Dang 4x4, that made me cringe. I was sawing 7/8" thick 1x's yesterday for my grandfather. I mean, I was getting after it. I had 1 man offbearing and he couldn't keep up. Well, I "lightly bumped" the clamp with the guide arm on the bottom cut. I almost fainted. I thought I had clearance. I thought wrong. But thankfully, there's just a "teeny weeny" wiggle room front to back. I mean, just a tad. Up/Down is still rock solid. So, I'm good as far as that goes.
HOWEVER...
The mill is down once again, and it's nobody's fault but mine. I made another mistake that I will NEVER EVER make again...
I was getting the mill ready to haul, and pulled the pin that allows the control station to be swung over to the left, so that I would have room to back up my truck and set the tongue on the ball. Well, for some reason I moved the saw head towards me a little after I had swung the control station over. The energy chain rolled forward, catching and pulling the cable that's connected to the station downward. Not much, but just enough that it's pulling the plug down a little bit. I obviously moved the saw back and pulled the plug from the receptacle. (Remember, I've already replaced this receptacle once from another mistake.) I checked the prongs in receptacle and all looks fine. So, i screw the plug back in and the screen says ERROR: Check Breaker/Cable. I messed around with it for about an hour and still nothing. So, I called WM today and ordered another receptacle AND cable. UGH!!!!
I like that message. I can check breaker and cable all I want and usually it doesn't matter. Starts working again anyway. ::) Really I DO NOT LIKE that message. >:(
Quote from: WDH on September 05, 2017, 07:49:31 AM
I did not see anything to smile about :D .
Trust me, I wasn't smiling when it happened!!! lol
Quote from: 4x4American on September 05, 2017, 10:40:11 PM
Quote from: WDH on September 05, 2017, 07:49:31 AM
I did not see anything to smile about :D .
Trust me, I wasn't smiling when it happened!!! lol
Most likely ducking flying shrapnel. I bet it made an ugly sound.
For whatever reason, I have hit/touched the wrong control lever/button many times while sawing or otherwise. It's at least embarrassing when the belt starts squealing or some other weird thing happens. I just explain to the watching crowd that a "senior moment" is not when I forget....but rather when I remember. ::)
I was referencing the smiley face on the end of the blade guide arm ;D.
Should have been :-[.
I was talking to Magicman a while back about making mistakes with the sawmill, and I will never forget what he said...
"You know what the problem is with these sawmills and why we keep breaking things? Because they do exactly what we tell them to do." :D :D :D :D :D
Deese, I've never ran a manual mill, so I have nothing to compare your current mill to in regards to experience, but will say I've seen some run at the shoot outs, and for me it's like describing the difference between a draft horse in the timber to a skidder? Point being, I think you have done well, with limited damage, you went from horse you lead to a full blown barrel racing quarter horse,,You've held on pretty good,, IMO, and yes they to what you tell them 99% of the time.
Thanks drobertson, and you are correct about the vast difference between my manual mill and the LT-40 Super51HP. They both can saw flat lumber, but that's about the only similarity.
The new Accuset 2 harness assembly and cable was delivered yesterday. Installing tomorrow morning. Not sure which is the issue, so replacing cable first, checking, then will replace wiring if necessary. It has to be one or the other.
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