Did something dumb today.

[rusticretreater]

Question.  How does checking it at the bottom tell you if it is at the full level at the top?  SMH to get the gear oil off of it.  Yes, I know. I am a real smartazz.

[Old Greenhorn]

SMH= Shake My Head

[Resonator]

The bolt on the top of the axle is the fill plug, the lower bolt on the side is the oil level plug. If you filled it to the very top on top of the axle you would have problems.

[beenthere]

Oh, we all have our days. :

Went to check the front axle oil in my Kubota tractor. Figured I could just loosen the lower plug and not the top fill cap bolt to see if any dripped out. Didn't drip, instead it spit out under pressure.
Ever smelled old gear lube? Kind of stays with you when you gets it on you.

Front axle should be vented, or the oil will warm up and push out the seals. Evidence is the "spit" under pressure.

[rusticretreater]

Ah, I was thinking the drain plug.  My small Kubota is likely different.  I have four wheel drive with a breather plug and a drain plug on both hubs plus a dipstick.

[stanmillnc]

Here we go again.....more 'haste makes waste' kind of mistakes for me. Working alone as usual and built a makeshift platform to get my new 10HP dust collector motor up 15' in the air for installation.....and you can guess what happened. Of all the parts to destroy - of course the fan, which is long obsolete on this 'Air Sentry' unit, who has been out of business for 20+ years.



 



 

[bigblockyeti]

That's unfortunate but I don't think that blade is propreitary just to that DC.  In industrial environments, they're like legos, pick one that fits.  You'll probably be looking at one with a hub accepting a QD or taperlock bushing to accept different shaft sizes.  As an added benefit they're still easy to disassemble with years of rust & crude built up on all the interfacing parts.

[aigheadish]

That sucks stanmillnc, is it safe to assume the lesson to be learned is strap it down regardless of the shortness of trip on its way up? Is that the fan sitting on top of the pallet in the picture? 

[Ljohnsaw]

I donno, it looks like aluminum to me.  A little banging with some wood block backers and maybe a couple new pop rivets and good to go. :-\

[SawyerTed]

We had the exact same thing happen at one of the school shop's during install of a dust collection system.  Our Autobody teacher had it back in shape in about 90 minutes.  

[Old Greenhorn]

Well, I guess it's my turn in the hole again and I am coming in strong here with a classic. I finally broke the cherry on this one.



 

 I had hoped I could avoid this one, because as you can see I am literally up up against a rock cliff on the left side of the mill, no room for equipment to get in there. This was a short log and it went between the hydraulic backstops. I forgot to flip up the manual stops.  Actually, in my (feeble) defense, this is the first time I had needed those manual stops on this mill.
 Oh well, got that over with, let's move on. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Tom,

  I'm sure glad I've never done anything like that. : : At least not without a big audience watching.

  Actually it looks to me like you can hook a chain to the end of the log sticking up up and hook the other end to the end of the lifting arm, lower the arm and pull it right back up on the bed of the mill. Be sure to start with the arm lifted to max height to give you more pulling room. You might need to put a sacrificial board down on the mill to protect the edge of it.

  Another trick I learned with short logs is I carry 2-6' long 1/4" chains with hooks on each end. If I have a log shorter than the arms (>5' ) I hook the chains across the arms and make a sling to lift the short logs which are usually pretty fat. (If they weren't big diameter we could just lift them by hand.)

[Old Greenhorn]

Yeah, after I was done laughing I just grabbed the end and flipped it up by hand. Gotta make boards, move on. These are off cuts from the longer logs, and I need some 4, 5, 6' studs and such for this build, so it's a way to use up the logs. Tales a bit longer with the manual stops, but I am getting the most out of the logs and getting the yard opened up a tiny bit with each log I clear out. I'm just being frugal or cheap, You choose. :D

[Magicman]

I was more alarmed seeing that side of the sawmill clogged up with sawdust, etc. 

[WV Sawmiller]

Lynn,

    I think Tom does that so logs can't roll off the other side. It seems to be working. :D

[Old Greenhorn]

Geez Lynn, Now you are sounding like Howard. Everybody is a critic. Actually we keep that sawdust there just in case this happens so the log gets a soft landing. :D

 Truthfully, that is a problem, every few months we shovel the sawdust into bags and sell it to chicken farms. We are slowly working on an automated plan to handle and have collected the blower motor and some other stuff we need. Probably in the spring, but I can't move that wall, it's a 35' tall solid rock face. We don't have a lot of open spaces here and we work between the rocks. Also, keep in mind I am just working there half days when I work and I am alone, I fetch logs, buck them, mill them, stack and track them. I also have to clean up the slabs and drive them up to the OWB at the end of each 'shift'. So I have enough to do and every few months one of Bill's guy's need a task to finish out his hours for the week and he gets sent to bag sawdust.
 What it comes down to is that it's better to have me making lumber than shoveling sawdust. Not ideal, but it works for now.

 Yeah see now, You got Howard going again. Geez, youze guyz!

[beenthere]

Seems a simple dragline system could drag that sawdust to one end or the other. Short flights on farm conveyor chain with a car rim on one end and a gearbox driven by electric or small engine on the other. But don't know how much time and effort is needed to clean that mess out, either. 

[Wlmedley]

I thought WV was bad about not having a lot of flat ground but New York must be really bad.We have a lot of rock cliffs put ours are mostly used for out of staters to climb on :laugh:

[WV Sawmiller]

   At least our rock in WV are brown. Notice that purple tint to that NY granite. ;)

[Old Greenhorn]

Yes, on this we can mostly agree. That 'purple tint' you see is ERC sawdust from 2 weeks ago or so.

[WV Sawmiller]

   My main dumb move for the day is correctable and educational - tome anyway. I was doing a 50 hour service and when I got to the checklist item about inspecting hydraulic lines, fitting nd fluid level all was good till I went to remove the plastic fill cap on the reservoir and noted it had a 1/4" hole in it. I decided it had blown a center out as I was sure it was solid. I had to go pickup oil and an air filter anyway so I stopped at my local hardware and showed it to the guy there and we determined it was the same size as a 3/8" pipe so I bought a plug for about $4.25. I went on to my small engine guy and got my air filter and showed it to him and he told me those hydraulics had to breathe an speculated there used to be some sort of filter in it.  I came back and called WM and may have been their last call of the day but James in tech support confirmed that hole belonged there. I put it back on and all is right with the world again. I guess if I'd have put that solid plug in I'd have blown a hose or fitting somewhere.

   What I don't understand as many times as I have done that inspection why I never noticed it had a hole in the plug before.

    We don't need to mention putting new oil in before I forgot to put the plug back int he drain hose do we? That only cost me a few ounces before I noticed that. I do need to buy me another oil filter wrench as I guess I lost the one that fits that one and really buggered up the old one getting it off but it is done and I put the new one on good and hand tight it seems to beholding. I'll confirm in the morning  but I check the oil before starting every time anyway so that is low risk.

[bigblockyeti]

At least those are minor and didn't cause any damage.  If the reservoir isn't vented, you'd likely collapse it or blow the cap off depending on where the level was and where it was going to be as various cylinders cycled.  A heavy metal reservoir with a failed vent can cause a pump to cavitate which breifly isn't usually a problem but for any real time can destroy the pump.

[Old Greenhorn]

Well at the risk of putting myself up for ridicule once again. I will simply say that this was just a close call. Focus on that left glove in the knuckle strap area.

 

That was from the band sawblade. No, my hand was not in the glove at the time. It was near the end of the session and I was working on a squirrely log and without being aware of it, I took my gloves off and left them on the log while I was measuring pith height and trying to get max out of the log. I forgot about the gloves and never saw them when I sent to saw down on the opening cut.
 Obviously my hands were never in danger, but if that glove had sucked into the cut with the  blade, I hate to think what would have happened. Instead the saw danced with the glove a bit and then it fell away. The right glove was one top on the log and never touched.
 I gotta pay better attention, especially when I am getting tired and can smell the barn.

[OlJarhead]

Ran my gloved thumb into the band moving lumber on the deck and cut the glove but not my hand. ;)
also used my machinest rule and forgot it started 3/16ths from the bottom!  Fixed the scale height and snacked myself before continuing to mill;)
Does that count lol

[aigheadish]

I get real nervous anytime I see gloves, knowing spinny things are also involved. 

Glad both of you guy's hands are ok!