Corley Mill with Hathcock Feed in MS

[wascator]

Hi, the MS ag Harvest Fest in Jackson today was great!The Corley mill was a beauty: Detroit Diesel 4-53 and all: plenty of sawmill sounds and smells.
Unfortunately the feed messed up; seems the cable came loose somehow. Also, while they were trying to repair it, the feed would take off on it's own.
I noticed that, while they were sawing, one of the men would throw some red liquid on the blade occasionally. Was this oil, or? Anyway, some of it would slop onto the feed belts; could this make the belts grab and move the carriage without input from the sawyer?
Sorry, no photos as I can't seem to upload them. The mill was a classic setup, though. The only thing missing was the sawdust drag chain.

[Jeff]

If they were throwing liquid on the blade, they were trying to cool it. That is a big no-no. Obviously they did not have a very knowledgeable sawmill crew, or if they did, someone was pressing them to make the mill run when it was having problems that should have been corrected first.

[bandmiller2]

The Heacock feed is sensitive to belt legnth and belt material. Probibly the only time the mill sees any use is at shows and that goes for the crew.A really good sawyer and supporting crew is something to see in operation.Frank C.

[wascator]

I thought it was a little strange; they were only demonstrating the mill and putting on a little show, they were going very slowly and making a fairly small cut, not really trying to make lumber.

[Ron Wenrich]

The red liquid was probably diesel fuel.  Fuel without road tax is dyed red.  You can use that to cool down a saw.  A dull saw, poorly sharpened saw, miss aligned mill, and several other reasons will cause a saw to run hot.  I saw a mill that had a garden hose right on the saw.  They're all band-aid solutions for correcting a problem.

Belt length, as was pointed out, would cause it to grab.  So would a belt with the wrong type of material.  Slopping oil on it doesn't help it.

Sounds like a tightening up of the whole operation is in order.