I had to say goodbye

[Deese]

I just got off the phone with a local diesel mechanic who used to work for CAT. He is supposed to come by sometime next week and take a look. Although the machine is running great, I'm getting him to go ahead and replace the head gasket and install the crank support kit. Might as well go ahead and get this taken care of so I can get this off my mind.

[Darrel]

Getting that engine protected is a wise investment!

[Deese]

Well, she's sawing 18 big boy syp logs tomorrow regardless. Cleaning the log yard up.

[Darrel]

Pictures please

[Deese]

Well, she's sawing 18 big boy syp logs tomorrow regardless. Cleaning the log yard up.

Well, I got a late start today and spent a lot of time learning the controls. Definitely did not get all the logs done. I just stopped for the day and made good progress. I'm juuuuuust now getting to the point where I can use the controls with my left hand without looking at them. Also getting a better understanding of the Accuset 2 pattern mode. Still getting the hang of it. The last log really went well. I got eleven 16' 1x12's out of it and it took about 30 minutes from the time the log hit the deck. I'm happy with that at this point. But things can go much faster when I get used to it. I've got thirty 1x6's to do tomorrow for a man down the road. My back is thanking me.

[4x4American]

Just make sure that you don't hit the right drum switch in pattern or auto down mode when the head is over the log or cant.  As a rule, I never let the head park above the log/cant when the mill is in auto down or pattern mode for fear that someone may bump the right drum switch and send the head down on top of it.  On the newer mills they have a lockout mode that will lock the head from going on a downward mission to guide arm destruction if the computer box has a glitch.  Or so I'm told.  Ask Cutting Edge Richard about adjusting his guide arm lol it's happened to me a few times and boy what fun it is fixing that.


When using the dragback, I find it wise to open your guide arm a bit so that if the board gets cattywampus it is less likely to knock your guide out of whack.  I've had a board dragging back get caught and stiff arm my inside guide and brek the weld right off.  Luckily I was able to have it welded back and aligned in maybe 90 minutes or so. That wasn't as difficult a fix as it is to readjust that movable guide arm after setting it down on a cant though lol

[larrydown60]

Congrats on the new model. Just be careful everyone I know that traded for the new upgraded model has aged them really fast and resulted in some more payments    Nice sawmill

[Deese]

4x4, I had pattern mode set dropping 1 1/8" and did exactly what you said. Except it hit the top of the log, not a squared cant. I freaked out and instead of hitting UP, I hit DOWN again! The blade was running too. I then hit up a few times and came on back. Changed the blade and guide arm seems to be ok as far as I can tell. This happened the first time I operated it after getting her home.

[Deese]

I've since sawn probably 50 1x's and things are good...

[4x4American]

 :D :D  yea it happens.  Sometimes it's okay and you lucked out that it was only 1-1/8" drop.  I had it happen once doing a 4" drop.  That was fun.  If you want the head to stop you can hit the reference mode button real quick and it should stop it, at least on my mill IDK about the older models.  I took a sharpie and wrote life on the left and death on the right above the drum switches on the top of the box where I could see them.  That way if one of my helpers thought they'd touch the controls they knew which one would end them up on death row.   ;D

[Deese]

There is one thing that troubles me...to me, this doesn't sound possible, but if I'm sawing 1x6's and set board thickness in pattern mode to say, 1" and stops at 6", the lumber is exactly 1" thick but will be about 5 7/8" wide...it's somewhere between 1/8"-3/16" off...I've done it twice so far with exactly same results. I'm about to saw another one and set it to 1" drop and bottom 6 3/16" and see what I get.

I'm thinking it's gotta be movement in the can't but the width doesn't vary much at all throughout the length of the board... 

[4x4American]

Try to recalibrate your head.  Measure from the bed to a downset tooth and get it to within 1/32" of 12".  Don't measure near where the stainless steel bunk cap is bolted on.  Then go into your Accuset and set your head at 12" in the vidjayo I sent you I think I showed how to get to there.  See if that does anything for ya.  Oh and don't forget to set your kerf too.  And save your settings before shutting the mill off.