That time of year again when the frost is coming out of the ground and i spend countless hours it seems re levelling my mill. So a few questions in regards to this. The mill is a Norwood LM-29. As many know this mill comes to you in pieces and you bolt it together. I have always assumed that once bolted together and the bolts torqued the rails are essentially like a solid rail. Meaning any adjustments I make in levelling are in the levelling legs and not in taking sections of track back apart putting back together. So then assuming the sections of track are well together, that would mean the the rails as a whole are bending under its own weight. Do others with solid rails have as much re levelling to do with different seasons of the year?
My mill sits on blocking at each levelling leg and the whole thing sits on crushed rock underneath. I am considering pouring a concrete pad for it. But I know the pads of concrete in my barn and garage go up and down with the seasons as well. Those of you in Northern climates. Do you find you are re levelling just as much with a concrete pad as you did with gravel? The concrete would sure make clean up easier but if I'm still levelling the same amount Im not sure Ill be in a hurry to do it. I live in Atlantic Canada.
I also have a LM-29 and yes the part that I'm most disapointed with are the rails and bunks.
I don't have the frost heave problem here in western Arkansas that you have but it is a
pain to get the rails and bunks aligned and level with this model.
Even when you get the rails straight and level, that doesn't mean the bunks are also; they
have some play in the way they attach to the rails, so they need to also be level with the rails.
Norwood, IMO, just used too flimsy steel for the rails and the bunks should have sat right on the rails instead of being mounted the way they are.
How much simpler and stouter it would be if they would have just used 3 sections of say
1/4" x 3" x 6" x 6' angle and let the bunks bolt directly onto the rails at the joints.
You wouldn't then have all those bolts nor the need to adjust the bunks also get all the joints exactly right to keep the rollers from bumping at the joints.
I have my rails mounted on treated 4"x6" timbers edge ways which in turn rest on
4"x6" treated timbers flat ways and they rest on solid concrete blocks at each joint.
I have the timbers cross braced to each other but if I'm not careful, a heavy log will
knock everything out of whack.
I just got through raising the mill 10" by putting 10"x8" short beams between the rails
and the treated timbers at each joint. I also did away with those flimsy leveling legs
and lag bolted the rails directly to the beams using shims to level the rails. Then I angle
braced the 10" beams with each other and I also drove 5/8" rebar into the ground
through the bracing of the treated timbers to keep heavy logs from shifting the whole
thing on the concrete blocks.
For your application, maybe if you made a full length subframe using stout steel such as
3"x6" or larger rectangular tubing and welding cross braces on it to make it one solid structure, then the frost heave might not affect it. You could even put wheels on it to make it mobile.
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September 17, 2011, 07:27:00 PM
