Small mills - Check your throttle cable adjustment (note to self . . .)

[btulloh]

Especially if you've got a new mill.  I went over my HM126 (purchased 4 months ago) a couple times to look for loose bolts, etc. as I'd expect a new piece of machinery to wear in and maybe vibrate something loose.  I did not ever check the throttle cable - until today.  With all the things I'm looking at during a cut, the the throttle lever on the engine was not one of them.  Grab it and go, right? 

Predictably, the throttle cable stretched a little and the throttle lever was tending back toward the Tortoise away from the HARE end of things.  I was actually running at about 75% of full rpm's with the handle depressed all the way.  Not good when you're rocking 9.5 hp.  Not good at any HP when the blade speed is below optimum by that much. 

Anyway, a simple adjustment and I got my rpm's back.  Performance improved substantially as you'd imagine.  It's hard to notice the gradual loss of rpm's since it happens over a long stretch of time. 

I better add this to my regular PM list.  Just thought I'd throw this out there.

And by the way, ya'll have a nice Thanksgiving.  In addition to the many things I'm thankful for, this year I'm thankful that I finally got a round tuit and bought a mill. 

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Good post BT. you have a good Thanksgiving too. 

[goose63]

Thanks for bringing  that up will have to check mine happy smiley_turkey_dancing day

[JustGreg]

I had this exact same exprience a few weeks ago with my HM126.

[btulloh]

Seems like blades dull quicker at slower speeds???  Is that right?  Should I already know that? 

[Darrel]

I had the same problem with my LT40 and what brought my attention to it were the "dull" blades that still appeared to be sharp. I came to the conclusion that dull blades become obvious sooner when not running at optimum speed.