How many of you like to work on your mill?

[HaroldSiefke]

My mill is pretty basic so when I get it to the shop I keep adding thing on. I just re-powered it with a 20.5 robin subaru. I think that's going to be great 8) The motor fit pretty well. Had to change only a few things. Now all I have to do is plumb in my pineywoods turner and I will be back milling. I am going to use the hydraulics of my wood splitter to power the turner. I put two quick disconnects on it. Does anyone know if I will have to put a shut off valve on the pressure side to make this work? The shut off valve would go after the T so I can shut off the wood splitter hydraulics.   

[drobertson]

I don't mind working on the mill, pretty much the only way to keep going when something happens, but would rather just keep sawing,  not sure about your valve,  someone else should help soon.   david

[Chuck White]

I enjoy working on my mill, especially verifying the alignment.

[LeeB]

I don't always enjoy it but if you want to keep using it, you must do what needs done. Today I was going to buy a new radiator bracket that had broken. I rewelded it twice before. WM wanted $43 for it and even the guy on the phone said that was really high for a twisted piece of metal with a couple of holes. I had to agree and made a new one from a piece of flatbar. Looks like crap but works just fine. The flatbar was  piece of scrap I had picked up somewhere.

[Bandmill Bandit]

My wife claims I work on it more than I work with it.

She is known to exaggerate now and then!

[Magicman]

I do not like to have to work on the sawmill.  I'd rather be sawing.

LeeB, I finally welded enough gusset on that bracket that it is now afraid to break.   ;D

[pyrocasto]

My wife claims I work on it more than I work with it.

She is known to exaggerate now ant then!

That's the truth with me, but I did build my mill.  :D I very much enjoy working on the mill when it's adding on, but not so much when it's fixing something broken. Just added bearings in the back stops, should have done that long ago. Also just added a electric solenoid for the lube, so it turns on and off automatically. No more coming in the next day to a puddle of lube when I forget. Next is the homemade "setworks".

[pineywoods]

Harold, on the shut-off valve question, I'm assuming you just T'd into the output of the pump and the return line with 2 hoses going to the turner control valve bank. If that's correct, then yes, you need a shutoff valve on the inlet to the log splitter valve. Otherwise, oil will flow from the pump, through the splitter valve, and back to the tank. There won't be any pressure going to the turner. Be sure to hook up the hoses to the turner before closing that cut-off valve.

To answer your other question, I'm as much a tinkerer as I am a sawyer. My mill started life as a basic mizer manual lt40G18. It now has a kawasaki liquid cooled motor, home-made hydraulics, home-made auto-clutch (just flip a switch), home-made remote console, and a sawdust blower system. The woodmizer service guy's won't touch it  ;D I modified my wm blade tooth setter so it sets both left and right teeth at the same time, and the current project is to upgrade the blade sharpener. I don't have much choice about working on the mill.  Way back in the dim dark past, some voodo witch put a curse on my family that is passed down from generation to generation. Anything we own has to be worked on before you can use it. :

[kelLOGg]

Anything we own has to be worked on before you can use it. :

Amen to that for me. I bought the manual MP32 and made mods like I wanted them. It may not be "better" but it is like I want it.
Bob

[bandmiller2]

Hal,before you buy an expensive high pressure shutoff valve consider a spool type diverter valve their quite cheap and made for what you want to do.Push pull and you can have pressure to ether the splitter or mill. Frank C.

[Berggie]

I like to build and work on my mill just as much as sawing, I built every part of my mill so far and enjoy all of it.

[mmartone]

I dont like to work on the mill at all, I was in the dumps when the chain broke the other day. I love to mill, I hate to work on it. I know it needs and alignment tuneup but am putting it off.

[Solomon]

I enjoy working on my mill.  Although I don't have much trouble with it.
I replaced a flow divider and I do some sanding and painting on it to keep it looking new.   I would like to upgrade the pump to maybe 14 gallons per minute. The one on it now is a 9 gallon.  After 6 years I'd like it to move tha cylinders a little faster.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Despise working on it, but is necessary unless it is something major.
I am only 1 hr from Hannibal so go there when necessary.

[Ocklawahaboy]

My time with the mill is so limited, I hate putting wrenches instead of logs to it.  I've had to do a few things and need to do a few more.  Really want to design a manual toe board for it.  I have it mostly figured out but not quite.

[Buck]

THAT'S IT!!

I don't have much choice about working on the mill.  Way back in the dim dark past, some voodo witch put a curse on my family that is passed down from generation to generation. Anything we own has to be worked on before you can use it. :
[/quote]

I suffer from the same curse! ;) ;)

[John Bartley]

I do not like to have to work on the sawmill.  I'd rather be sawing.

Yup, what he said!!

[Cedarman]

If my mill is not moving back and forth, we are not making money.
But, just because the mill is moving back and does not mean we are making money.
Anything that takes away from productivity, I do not like.
I don't dislike working on the mill.  It is a mental thing.  I try to find enjoyment in whatever I am doing.
If someone hired me to work on their mill, I would enjoy it.
I enjoy problem solving , rather than fixing the problem after it is found.  Such as figuring out that the reason the mill was sawing out of square, even though the square said 3 corners were square.  The fourth was out of square which is geometrically impossible, thus indicating the square was not square.  In this case, get a new square and realign the mill, which I let the sawyer do after the bad square ate his lunch.

[millwright]

If you were to hook the pressure side of the turner into the tank return of the splitter you could eliminate the need for a shut off valve.

[saxon0364]

Way back in the dim dark past, some voodo witch put a curse on my family that is passed down from generation to generation. Anything we own has to be worked on before you can use it. :

I think your great great granddad and mine ticked off the same witch or something. :-\

[Tree Feller]

I don't enjoy working on anything I own. I don't even change the oil in my truck, I take it to a oil-changing place.

Forced repairs are especially aggravating to me. Be it a lawnmower, ATV, boat, tiller, chainsaw or sawmill, I don't keep equipment that demands constant repairs. Routine maintenance should take care of wear items. Anything else is just a pita.

[HaroldSiefke]

Well got pineywoods turner plumbing almost done. Thanks to the man him self. I used allot of used parts. So I ended up only buying the three cylinders new. I have less then 300 dollars in it. I got most of my parts off old farm equipment. It seems to function really well off the log splitter. I have to hang lines and finnish putting the claw part on. The next thing is going to be power back stops. Mine has pocket that a tube slide down in. Has anyone made hydraulic back stops for there mill? If you have pitchers of them would be great. If not i will copy the wood-mizer ones that pineywoods has modified.

[Peter Drouin]

I will, I spend to much money on all the things I have  not take care of it :D

[SPD748]

Well,

'Working' on my mill is, at least for me, what it's all been about! Oh, there's an occasional board or two :D

-lee

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Well,

'Working' on my mill is, at least for me, what it's all been about! Oh, there's an occasional board or two :D

-lee

;D