bent?

[woodmills1]

went out yesterday to cut some oak trailer deck and some white cedar for bat houses.  I released the blade tension to add some air to the tensioner bag with out a problem.  Filled the bag and when I tried to rotate the handle to put the blade back under tension I could not get past the cam lock.  upon inspection it appears that the handle (part # 048430) had bent pulling away from the cam and interfering with the close geometry of the cam lock.  I was able to pry and hammer to get the blade back under tension, but it will be a bear at the next blade change.  anyone experience this?

[Tom]

Not in a configuration such as yours, but I have on the old configuration of the early '90 mills.  When the adjustment nuts were drawn too tight (short), the resulting problem was similar to yours.  The arm practically refused to go over center.  It usually took an effort in balancing the adjustment nuts and the Brake to get it back into shape.

I don't know if the Brake is as important on your configuration as it was on mine, but it used to be the first "go-to" adjustment and was used to get the handle to "rest" at 10 the o'clock position.

[customsawyer]

On that LT70 if you take that handle off and bend it back flat put it back on then  when you tighten the blade in the future make sure you pull strait out and up with the handle and it will work fine. Don't ask me how I know.

[MartyParsons]

You can change it to the new style hydraulic tensioner. With the handle issue I have seen a few of these bent. 


Use 006052 to retrofit sawmills originally equipped with cam-style tensioners (Rev. A5.03 - A8.01). $470.00
Use 006044 to retrofit sawmills originally equipped with screw-style tensioners (Rev. A1.00 - A5.02). $629.00
The cam style and the screw style work ok. And you dont need to do this retrofit. If you are having issues with the handle etc. might be an upgrade worth the $.

Marty