Whatcha Sawin' 2025 ??

[TimW]

My bathroom has a picture of an old person.  It is mounted right over the sink.

[GAB]

My wife informed me that I have an active imagination, and should probably schedule an appointment at the optometrist (says what I'm seeing in the mirror ain't no movie star).

With a good imagination and enough time and paint and other products someone just might be able to help you.
GAB

[Wlmedley]

A while back I posted some pictures of some old hand hewn beams that I sawed into a little bit of lumber. The beams came from my mothers old house and were identified as chestnut and cucumber tree. There was one left that I didn't bother with mostly because it had several nails in it. Yesterday I decided to see what I could get out of it. Sawed it in to two pieces and got all the nails that I could find out of it.Not positive but I'm pretty sure it's Chestnut also. Seems to be just a little lighter in color than the Chestnut I cut last fall but it may be because it is freshly cut. 

[Wlmedley]

Didn't hit any nails. Lucky I guess.

[Wlmedley]

Feeling lucky so I ran them through my planer. My luck held out. Made some pretty wood. Plan to make something special from it.

[Magicman]

Lucky you.  Yes, special wood deserves a special project.  

[WV Sawmiller]

   I spent about half the day at a pig roast hosted/thrown by my band sharpener, I met up with several neighbors there and it is always a great time. It is basically a family reunion on his family is more fun than mine. He was raised about a mile from where I live but I never met him till about 2 years ago when he started his sharpening business and WM ReSharp got bogged due to Covid. His dad was one of the first neighbors I met here 35 years ago when we first moved to WV. (I rounded the curve too fast and hit him head on and totaled my truck, his truck and the camper he was towing which is not a good way to meet the neighbors, His wife and brother riding with him weren't non too happy either bit all turned out to be great neighbors.)

    When we got there I saw his nephew who lives in his grandpa's old home and we talked about the new Cooks mill they recently bought. He went with his dad to Dothan Ala to the factory and got the grand tour and were very impressed. I sawed for his dad a couple years ago and I guess he decided he needed a mill.

    I stopped by the parts place on our way out and when I got home I replaced the terminal ends on the wires to my forward and reverse drum switch.

   I even rebuilt my second drum switch and using JB weld just to keep Lynn happy. I will see how that turns out.

[caveman]

Howard, I'm glad you got your mill back into operational form.  A couple of things (which may have been mentioned but I missed them).  Resistance can cause heat in wires.  Poor connections can increase resistance.  The smell that MM and Tom mentioned, smells like money.  If you have ever let the smoke out of a motor or any electronic equipment, you'll probably remember it.  With 12v DC, good grounds are very important to avoid problems.  On my outboard motors, I check the grounds, clean them and spray with Corrosion X frequently (Tule Peak suggested to me to use Boeshield).  

The first time I recall smelling it was when JMoore and I were 16 years old and we were making $3.35 an hour.  He bought a $160 stereo for his 1970 VW Bug that we installed late one night.  It played great for about 1/4 mile down the dirt road I lived (and still live on-now paved) before it quit playing music and let all of the magic smoke out.  That was many moons ago, but the smell is still dreaded and easily recognizable.  I hope your fix will hold up and provide you with good service for a long time.

[SawyerTed]

In the first photo where the contact finger is laying to the left, the plastic/bakelite mount does appear to show heat as well. 

That would lead me to look for a ground problem somewhere.

Didn't you recently replace the motor controlled by that switch?  Might be the heat was prior to the motor replacement.  

But my view isn't any better than Tom's.  I'm almost 10 hours away.  

[WV Sawmiller]

   All the connections inside the control panel look tight. I will double check the connection to the motor itself the next time I am out there as I recently replaced the feed motor too and even replaced the controller. There was definitely heat there somewhere.

   I do remember a burning belt smell and the problem occurred when I was sawing in hard dry oak logs. I sawed about 1000 bf of green poplar with no problem but they were cut mush easier than the big and dry oak.

[Old Greenhorn]

All the connections inside the control panel look tight. ........

I don't want to sound like a smart ash or beat this to death but 'looking tight' is just not good enough. You can't tell by looking or shaking, you have to take them apart, clean them and re-assemble to be positive.
 My Dad had a station wagon once and it had a weird 'thing'. I borrowed it once for an errand and when I got it to return home it would not start. So I called him and he said 'pull the battery cables off, scrape them with your pocket knife to clean lead and do the terminals too, then it will start right up.' I told him I checked those and they were clean and tight, no issue, no junk. He said if you want to get my car home before tomorrow, just do what I told you. If that doesn't work call me back. when it does work, drive home.'
 So I did what he said even though I knew it was stupid. It worked, they looked tight and were tight, clean too. but just didn't have enough conduction is those sub-zero temps. I cleaned them and put them back on and it started like it was a new battery.
 Too often there is just a fine film of oxidation between the terminal lug and the wire tab. Cleaning that makes it all better. That's why conductive grease helps a lot also, it prevents oxidation and maintains good contact. It takes very little to make those DC contact connections conduct poorly.

[Magicman]

I consider a multimeter a bare essential when chasing gremlins.  I have measured a difference with one lead on the conductor and the other on the connector.  No load it may measure OK, but put a load on it drawing current and bam!

This ongoing problem could very well go back to that center conductor/connector.  Drum switches don't "just go bad".  There is/was a high resistance somewhere causing a voltage drop and subsequent high amp situation which is/was destroying the drum switches.  

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

   I should not have said "looking tight" and should have said "are tight". I can understand there could be some corrosion or such between the ring connections and clips and the terminals but don't see it. 

Lynn,

   I am not good with my multi-meter but I will play with it some. I assume if I adjust the speed controller down to prevent the mill from going forward I should still get power to the switches when I activate them forward or backwards just like when I am testing the debarker or such.

   Part of my big problem is I have no idea what is considered excessive amps until the breaker trips. I assume I should be getting in the neighborhood of 12 volts. Any idea what amps should trigger an areal of concern?

   Any tips or tricks to try there?

[doc henderson]

With trailer lights especially, my dad always told me it is usually the ground.  Intuitively you think it must be the supply but ignore the return.  no circuit no lights.

[SawyerTed]

Howard, I looked at the schematic.  It looks like that connection that melted runs directly to one side of the feed motor.  

Given your previous feed motor problems, it's probably related to the old motor.  

[doc henderson]

first class Ted.

[WV Sawmiller]

Ted,

    But I replaced the motor with a brand new one. As I mentioned I will check that connection again when I go out. Any other suggestions?

    I am worried about how to reproduce the problem with the smaller logs I have here. I have 1-2 white oak logs I guess I will go ahead and cut up as a test. Also sawing alone and trying to walk along holding a probe from a multi-meter looks like it will be difficult which is why I asked if slowing the speed controller to a dead stop and activating the switch will reproduce the same current issues.

[doc henderson]

I wonder if the thought is the damage was done prior to the change and just now reared its ugly head.  Howard was the belt burning smell before you changed the motor?

[SawyerTed]

What doc said.  The old motor probably caused the problem.  The damage was probably prior to the new motor but became apparent later.  

It's a good thing the drum switch took the heat.  The other side goes to some real expensive stuff!

[WV Sawmiller]

   Thanks Ted.

Doc,

    I can't remember and suspect now it was the switch melting.

[WV Sawmiller]

What doc said.  The old motor probably caused the problem.  The damage was probably prior to the new motor but became apparent later. 

It's a good thing the drum switch took the heat.  The other side goes to some real expensive stuff!

Yeah and it looks like my $100 switch did a real good job of protecting that $5 circuit  breaker.

[SawyerTed]

I was tracing the other way from the drum switch.  

The MOSFET and Feed Controller are what I was seeing.   Note the Feed Controller is the electronic component that the speed potentiometer controls.  

Not cheap parts.  

[Dave Shepard]

Friends bought a '92 LT40 E15. The previous owner popped a fuse. He jumpered it with some 14 gauge wire. Never told us. It cooked the drive motor. Sad thing was there were spare fuses bolted in the box, as well as a decal saying as much. I have a battery cable and wiring OCD that fills a 3 drawer and a 4 drawer Milwaukee Packout. I've started using marine grade terminals and heat shrink. Corrosion and bad connections cost a lot of time and money. In 2015 I replaced a hose on the mill. Went better than expected, if you've ever pulled a hose through the tube. Then I did just about every dumb thing I could have done. The mill had been sitting for a couple of months. I turned the key on to run the glow plugs. While it was doing that, I cycled the hydraulics, then I cranked the engine. It started, but it let almost all the magic smoke out of the mosfets on the back panel of the main box. I say almost all, because it still worked, but WM warned me about pushing it. I upgraded to the dual plane H-bridge. This rendered that back panel obsolete. It also rendered my wireless remote inoperable, and now, when the mill gets hot in the summer, the head won't move forward. You can really chase your tail with wiring issues.