Somedays.....

[Corley5]

Fired the old Corley up over the weekend for the first time in almost a year  Saturday I sawed up 1,500 bdft of red pine 1 and 2 inch.  We actually started sawing at 10:30 AM and shut down at 1 PM.  Sunday Dad and I got things around in the AM and started sawing around 1 PM.  We had a pretty good jag of mostly 2X4s and 10s with some 1x sheathing lumber when we knocked off around four PM.  This evening we went to saw and things just didn't go as good ;D  The first stick was a 16' bigtooth aspen which I squared to 8", sawed into 2X8s and then put back on  the carriage to rip into 2X4s.  All was well until I left the stick to help Dad pile the boards.  I'd just set foot on the other side of the husk and I heard the carriage start to move back.  Before I could get anywhere close to the stick it was accelerating to full throttle and didn't stop til it crashed through the back wall of the mill. : :.  The wall is no big deal as what we're sawing is going to be the mill's new home but the backlashed cable laying in coils didn't look good :( :(.  After some head scratching, we got things figured out and back together the right way 8) 8).  I'd never really paid any attention to how the cable was wound on the drum, where it fastened to the carriage, how it was tightened etc.  Now I know ;) ;D  I've left the stick many times to help stack lumber and this has NEVER happened before.  Guess it's time for a re-evaluation of standard operating procedure ;D ;D ;D  I took some pics Sunday with the camera on the wrong setting : and planned on taking more tonight but.....  Maybe tomorrow

[beenthere]

Ouch! and I'm glad no-one was hurt.
Any idea what allowed it to 'take off' that way?  Some wear or tear, or something broke?  

How do you get across the husk?  

I've watched at some antique tractor shows, where guys walk across a plank over the husk with the blade still turning. Scary to watch too.

[Ron Wenrich]

I've always used some sort of stop on both the front and back end of the mill.  A big block of wood with tires in the front usually work pretty well.  More sophisticated ones have a board with springs.  My current one has rubber stops attached to a steel 4x4, but the carriage is a lot heavier than yours.

Just think what would have happened had it run forward.  Something that could happen if the cable snaps.

We used to have problems with our cables.  It would snap every couple of months.  We went over to the plastic coated stuff and now its years before it snaps.

[Corley5]

When the mill is setup in it's new home we're gonna put some stops on it ;D.  The Meadows #2 that some friends have has some heavy springs on a piece of steel.  I've seen other mills with a tire mounted horizontally on an axle set in concrete.  That's probably something like I'll do.  As to what caused the "runaway" I think it may be in the adjustment on the stick ???  There is a parking brake that's been installed as an afterthought that was probably to address this problem in the past.  The brake has never worked as long as I remember but it may be time to free it up.  There are steps built over the madrel and husk so it's no big deal to get from one side to the other

[dail_h]

   Didn't never trust them old friction drives with my back turned,always kept a coupla blocks to chock the wheels

[ibbob]

Our carriage likes to wander too.  A big ugly log at the end keeps it from running too far out the back door.

Hope you get the camera going.  Like seeing pics of the old ones in action.

[D._Frederick]

Corley 5,

Were the frictions rusted and rough from sitting a year?

[Frickman]

My current mill was bought used, and when I rebuilt it I had my welder fabricate up stops on each end that resemble the stops used at the end of a train track. There is an iron framework holding two one inch steel rods that are mounted horizontally and allowed to slide inside tubes. Attached to the rods is a steel plate, and old car coil springs are in between to absorb the shock. They've been used a few times as sometimes the friction feed will work it's way out of adjustment and allow the carriage to move, like when we're busy rolling logs in.

We put a new cable on back then, and it stretched alot at the beginning. We put the cable back on at least once a week until it settled in. Just a few weeks ago a piece of wood helped kick it off the rear pulley back at the log deck. We have so much practice by now that it only takes about half an hour to put it back on.

[Corley5]

The old Corley uses flat belts in the feedworks no friction discs.  Some of the problem may have been...  The belts were slipping and the carriage didn't always want return so I sprayed some belt dressing on them.  No more slipping ;) :D ;D

[Percy]

Heya Corley5
Hindsight is the best vision, heh, no injuries, no loss. You learned somthing...bonus...sorta ;D. When you are building your new mill, you could make the place where you stand at the "stick", a springloaded trap door with mebey 1 inch of up and down travel so when you step off the platform, the stick gets locked into the neutal position. No more runnaway log carryin thingies :D :D :D

[Corley5]

Spring loaded trap door hmmmm.....  With the first slab of the evening the cable went wild : :( >:( ;) ;) ;)  It came unwound, backlashed etc.  After we put it back together the other night I ran the carriage back and forth several times and all seemed fine.  We got it sorted back out and rewound again and sawed with it for a couple hours with out further problems.  Somedays....... ;)  No pics tonight because it was rainy and dark.  We are planning to saw again on Sat.  Got other stuff going tomorrow night and we need to edge up a bunch of stuff Friday night.  Lotsa fun.  Had one BIG log tonight.  It was 28" on the small end and 16' long.  That took two of us to turn on the carriage.