Another build thread... JoshNZ

[JoshNZ]

I was watching one of redbeards vids where he takes a 22hp predator twin and rebuilds it to get 80hp from it haha sounds like a completely different animal.

Anyway he did away with the voltage regulator altogether. I've got a wiring diagram for it there too I'll have a look at that and figure out how to get rid of all of it.

It's going to end up in a peculiar place I'd say, there's not much room anywhere, and nowhere ideal.

[JoshNZ]

Had a neat afternoon today milling Japanese cedar for a friend who is going to clad the inside of a shed with it. Im looking forward to being able to see a log on the ground and know exactly which way it should go on the mill and where the first cut should be. One of my biggest inefficiencies is how long I spend scratching my head trying figuring out how to get quarter sawn grain without taking the Micky...

I had a digger parked and keys left to me again - jeez they're neat machines. I'm considering getting one for the big walnut job.

Also, I ran my whole saw down to a sharpening outfit last week and asked if they'd put a tension gauge on it. Turns out I've been running at about 15k. I got it dialled in at 20k psi and it is singing a lot better now. Less harmonics, cleaner cutting etc. I'm still on the same blade I started with after 400m of boards and still throwing nice thick sawdust. But on that note for future DIYers, the math isn't as obvious as you might first think. Outward pressure can't be translated to tension when then ram isn't directly in line with the blade, there is some degree of lever there, I don't know why I thought it'd be that simple.



 

 

 

[JoshNZ]

This was a month or so ago where another friend left me to it with his digger. Both have grabs on it. This one today has a bucket that opens with teeth on the sides of it which is actually better, you can rotate the log by crowding the bucket.

I love the dexterity of them, being able to put a log on a dime on the bed, rotated correctly, pulled into back stops and clamped securely before you even let it go.

Is there any reason not to have a digger  :D milling aside... Most men must ask themselves that question at least once in their life



 

 

[Crusarius]

I often thought that a mini excavator would be the perfect addition to any sawing operation. Very easy to grab logs and place them on the bed.

Especially logs my tractor cannot pickup.

[mike_belben]

I ask myself twice a day and my wallet bites me in the thigh then screams "No! Nonononono! You cant have it."  Then i check the classifieds for broken ones.

Glutton for punishment i guess.


Nice work youre doin there josh.  

[JoshNZ]

It's amazing how expensive a flogged out one full of rust with clock wound off its end still is... But you can't take that money with you Mike xD. I'd hate to work on one, everything up to the cab would be ok but electronics/slew/tracks I don't think that'd be any fun at all to overhaul.

I might make a log hook for the end of my forks, that's probably a more reasonable punt.

[JoshNZ]

I did get around to putting an alternator in this week. Picked one up from a wreckers in town, he gave it to me for free which was nice. I'll have to drop off a platter or something.

I put it in a vice and played around until I had the terminals figured out, with a bit of searching around online to help. Pretty neat spinning it with a drill you can feel the field winding relax when it reaches 14.5v. I put a little LED and resistor on the lamp terminal to test it but I've done away with that.



 

 

I wanted to stick with an A belt so, turned down a pulley I had lying around to make a 2:1 ratio with another that didn't need resizing. Pressed a brass bush in and that side was done. I used that broach tooth thing I'd made for the larger pulley, but on the lathe this time. Very cool to have in the drawer and not need a broach.



 

 

 

There was just barely enough room on the crank shaft to fit a pulley with the hub turned slightly thinner. It has actually worked out pretty well, not in the way of anything. I did check the mill can go to max height this time. Missed that check after adding the dripper tank and made an egg of myself my first day out hah.



 

 

I've now got a quiescent current of 0.2mA with key off, which is fine for the batt but I wonder if it's worrying for the alternators sake, I'm not sure what's normal. Even if it is on the way out, the price was right and appears to be common as muck to replace.

[mike_belben]

Nice work!  

I dont know the cause but the alt on my dozer will eventually drain the battery even with no power to the field.  The case itself measures at a volt and a half higher than ground, so maybe check that on yours.  Its just 2 wires, charge output lug and field.  If i pull the charge lug it drops to zero so obviously thats where its getting the juice.  Charges fine though.

I just pull one cable after using it. 

[Ljohnsaw]

I've now got a quiescent current of 0.2mA with key off,

I never bothered to measure mine.  I just installed a battery cutoff switch that uses a removable plastic key.  I store that key in my control box that locks.  My check at the end of the day is to be sure that red key is sitting in the box before I lock it.

[charles mann]

Could ya'll install a diode on the wire that is back feeding? I ran into a similar issue on a heli 1 day, that had an aftermarket air con installed. 1 diode was installed backwards and need a 1 installed bc even with the switch off, there was just enough juice flowing to drain the battery over night. 

[JoshNZ]

I don't know what size the battery is but I'll assume it's at least 60Ah generously, at .2mA drain it'll take approx 34 years to empty it if I've done the math right so I'm ok with that. I just wondered if it's normal to have any draw with the voltage regulator off and if not, is it a sign of pending failure.

[JoshNZ]

Had the first big blowout today with a main bearing on the idle wheel failing. Let go with a bang, blade flew off etc.

I can't find any info about the rating of this bearing here. It's got written on it FAG UC208-24 and M1216-08.

Is a 1.5" bearing enough, can I find a high load one or do I need to go up in shaft size? Or turn collars for my current shaft and go up in bearing size? They were quite a tight fit, it may be that I damaged them while pressing.



 

[charles mann]

@JoshNZ 
Does you idle wheel have enough meat around the bore to machine it out, leaving a lip and get a set or a single bearing/s, drill/tap the front face and press in the bearing/s and install a cover plate, bolted to in the tapped holes? An example, 
https://cookssaw.com/25-metal-band-wheels/

Replacing the tapper bushing with bearing/s 
https://cookssaw.com/bearing-for-idle-band-wheel/


Then turn a shaft that fits the ID of the bearings, weld on 2 pcs of 3/8" (whatever metric) 2x3-4" angle, slotted to match up to your existing pillow block holes and bolt it on. 
Something similar to this for the idle shaft, 
https://cookssaw.com/standard-idle-shaft/

[Crusarius]

my bearings were a super tight fit but with persistence I was able to slip the shaft into it. I do not believe that should be a press fit into those bearings. I do wonder if that is whats causing a failure. There is actually someone on my forum that just had the same type of failure with 1.5" bearings.

I have 1-7/16" shaft and have had  no issues at all. One day I will try the caliper trick to find out how much blade stretch I have.

[JoshNZ]

I ended up just replacing the bearings, will see how it goes one more round. I did put the shaft back in the lathe and polished the journals down until I could tap fit the bearings. Excessive interference and the blasting from a hammer/drift can't have been good.

[KenMac]

All pillow block bearings I have ever seen were slip fit not pressed or tapped on. I've replaced probably hundreds over the last 25 years as a commercial HVAC mechanic. For what it's worth.

[JoshNZ]

Thanks Ken. It's tap fit now, rubber mallet tap.

[JoshNZ]

This is the stack of logs that ended up arriving. Some crap walnut, some decent walnut, and most of the blackwood looks in pretty good shape.



 

I pulled the longest walnut log off the pile when it was small and sawed two 16ft 12x4" beams out of it. Lots of movement when sawing unfortunately, but it was a smaller log. The cracks in the log ends want to continue opening if sawing perpendicular to them (i.e. blade spanning the crack) which will be a real problem for the logs with stars in them, will be lots of sawing curves and bellies out of cants and lots of firewood logs there I suppose.

I put the beams up on posts and used some old galv ag beam we use in the orchards here to span them. Will put some tin on it tomorrow. Piles are driven in behind the tractor for the mill to go on. All temporary, I don't know how big the beam should be but I did try bouncing in the middle of it and it doesn't move, so I hope it'll do a few months.



 

[thecfarm]

Like the dog in the picture. My dog would fellow me whatever I went.

[Hilltop366]

Wondering... if both bearings were locked to the shaft as they warm up with use would they transfer enough heat to the shaft to cause the shaft to lengthen slightly creating a thrust (pushing) on the bearing?

[JoshNZ]

I think it'd be negligible, they don't heat enough. I had a similar thought though of whether or not I should lock the shaft to the bearing before adjusting the tracking. Since your bearing point technically draws an arc around your other point, but your pillow adjusts in a line. I think it's negligible also.

Yeah the dog is good to have around she's never far from me.

[Hilltop366]

What got me thinking of that was the trailer hub and spindle I had on my CSM would get warm enough that I had to run a little extra slack in it when cold to prevent it from binding when it got warm which would make it warmer and get worse.

Could keep an eye on the bearing temp and try it with the inner one unlocked if it felt warm for comparison.

[JoshNZ]

I got my little mill shack finished today. Looking forward to spending some time under it...



 

 

I pulled another log off the stack, 2 down, ~70 odd to go. I didn't have my log hook so I picked the smallest one I could reach, which had a bunch of stress in it too.

From the two logs I've played with I think I've figured out it's the sapwood in tension that is pulling the ends open and causing issues. I'm hoping if I cut the sapwood off before taking cants and boards I'll be ok with the heart. Will be pretty low recovery but it is what it is.

I took a couple of slabbing cuts just to watch what the log did and they all just about explode open along their pith. I turned them on their edge and ran the saw down the split, then sawed again to get straight boards from them, cross cutting in half if necessary. So I've ended up with straight boards but whether or not they're going to stay like that...

If anyone has any thoughts on dealing with logs with cracks in their ends that want to continue splitting, feel free..!



 

 

Thought I might get away with just edging this one that didn't have a split but no such luck. Exploded apart about 2ft into the cut

[Magicman]

Turn the log so that you are sawing parallel to the pith check/crack.

[JoshNZ]

This one was a 3 armed star from memory. Some of them are 4 which makes things tricky right?

If I've taken a board that has crooked and I then remove sapwood and edge it on the mill and see no further movement, is it likely to warp while drying? There's not much more for it I can do at that point is there