Sawmill maintenance – how to’s and tips.

[jpgreen]

I sure glad you're postin' all this stuff Bibby, cause I'm just getting ready to go through it all.. 

[ElectricAl]

Bibbyman,

You need to market your lumber as "Precisely Sawn Lumber"

not Rough Sawn Lumber.

Rough sawn is for the the guy that saws roughly what the

customer wants

[woodbeard]

Bibby, I seem to remember reading a bit about allowing for the 1/16" that the outboard side of the sawhead tilts downward when the blade enters the wood. This was in the setup section of the WM manual. Is that something you noticed when you were doing this?

[Bibbyman]

Bibby, I seem to remember reading a bit about allowing for the 1/16" that the outboard side of the sawhead tilts downward when the blade enters the wood. This was in the setup section of the WM manual. Is that something you noticed when you were doing this?

Yes,  the manual says to adjust the blade guide arm all the way out and then back in 1/2".  (Make sure the blade is tight.) Measure from the bed rail to the bottom of the blade near the inside roller guide and then measure near the outside guide.  The outside should be 1/16" higher than the inside.

I checked this mesurement after I changed out the cam rollers and it was more like 1/8".   I went ahead and sawed with it like that and it was pretty close.  On 6" stuff it'd be awful hard to see the error in adjustment.



But Wednesday morning I twinked head tilt bolts about 1/8'th turn.  The mesurement came out 1/16" then as it should.  But I went ahead and measured the first and last boards as above to see if it was really doing what I expected.

I'll watch it again when I saw some really wide stuff.

[Bibbyman]

Not good.  No more adjustment left in the hydraulic blade tensioner.

If you’ve got a Wood-Mizer LT40 series mill with an hydraulic tensioner,  you’ll eventually have to add some oil to the tensioner.  I’ve done it by the book but that takes too many steps.  For the last couple of years I’ve done it this way and saved a couple of steps and a little time.  Works for me!

First,  you don’t see it but I leave the blade on the mill.   By leaving the blade on the mill,  I won’t be able to overfill the tensioner and thus not have enough slack to get a blade on when the times comes.  (How do I know this?  I’ve done it and had to go back and bleed some oil back out.)



I then screw the tensioner out an 1-1/2” or so and push the idle wheel in.  This pushes the tensioner plunger in. 



I then pull the idle wheel back out against the blade.   This leaves a gap between the idle wheel axle housing and the plunger.



I then remove the plug from the tensioner that is on the inside of the blade housing.  (Right arrow pointing at plug - left arrow at plunger) There is also one on the outside behind the gauge but I don’t bother it.


I then use a pair of channel locks to pull the plunger out until it hits aginst the wheel axle housing – being careful not to leave marks on the plunger.  You may be able to do it with just your fingers but I’ve never been able to.



I then carefully stream in the ATF fluid from a special designed bottle with application tube.  (Made from a small soda bottle, soap detergent cap and short length of some plastic tube I found somewhere.)  The trick is to let it flow in in a small enough stream to allow the air to come out.  If you pour too fast you’ll likely cause an air bubble to form and cause you to think it’s full when it’s not.



Then replace the fill plug and crank up the tension to see if you’ve gained enough adjustment back.

Two things you don’t want to do.  One….  Start screwing the tensioner in before you replace the plug.  Two…  Don’t push the idle wheel in when the plug is out.  I know this from experience too.  

[pigman]

When I ran low of oil in the blade tensioer on my WM I read the instructions  in the manual six times and still couldn't understand them. After unscrewing the blade tensioner a bunch, I just pulled out the hyd cylinder slowly with my fingers as I poured oil in the plug hole behind the gage. In about two minutes I was back to sawing.   I just know I did it wrong and it shouldn't work but a guy has to do what he has to do to keep sawing.
Bob the ignorant one

[Bibbyman]

Years ago Mary built a small 8x8 shed on skids that set in front of the sawshed.  (Can be seen just behind logs on the right.)

When we got the travel trailer to use as an office,   we pulled this shed across the drive and used it to collect junk.   When we added the hydraulic pump unit a couple of months ago,  I unloaded the shed and moved it against the back side of the sawshed.  We installed the pump unit in there and it also made a convenient place to keep blades.

I’d intended right along to build some shelves to better use the room but didn’t get one of those “round-to-it’s” everyone talks about.  Well,  today I was trying to saw out some special 1-1/4” white oak boards but they didn’t come out good enough for the order.   I looked at them and decided they’d make awful good shelve material. 



It’s pretty crude carpentry but I think it’ll serve the purpose.  The first shelve is 36” off the floor and 20” deep.  The next one is 32” higher and 14” deep.  The box of blades on the top shelve can be pushed back between the studs.  Right now we have all our boxes of blades on these shelves and room for the three that are out for re-sharp.

I’m pretty pleased.   It’s the best place we’ve ever had to store blades.

[Bibbyman]

I'd had this sample of Rust-Reaper for a couple of year and never tried it.  ButI found out this morning that Rust-Reaper really, really works on when I used it to free about a dozen rusted nuts and bolts that are on the blade guide assembly.

[Part_Timer]

Hope you don't mind me posting a tip for swingmiller's.

When your center unit gets hard to move from left to right just spray the rails down with silicon spray.  I spray them when I sharpen the blade.

[Captain]

Tom, Rust reaper in a trigger sprayer is BETTER that the silicone spray.  The silicone will degrade and wear the plastic blocks, and it flashes too quickly / doesn't last long.

Captain

[Part_Timer]

Cool I got some of that. 

Thanks Captain I got lots to learn yet.  Glad your around to keep me straight.

[Bibbyman]

Hope you don't mind me posting a tip for swingmiller's.

Jump right in.  That's what this Forum is all about.  Your post just gave me some ideas of where to use Rust-Reaper - now that I discovered it. 

I just don't know enough (anything) about swing blade mills to ever add anything.

[Gus]

Bibs,
This is good stuff, Thanks

[Bibbyman]

You'd think that I would have about did everything and seen everything that could happen to an LT40 after 15+ years of owning three of them and sawing around 3 million board feet on them.  But I never seen nothing like this before!

 

I'm not sure how it happened but I was sawing the slab off a walnut log this afternoon when the outer guide bumped the flair on the log.  I stopped the forward travel and stopped the blade.  I moved the guide out and started up again.  BANG! I guess the blade jumped off and took the belt with it. It twisted up around the shaft behind the wheel.

 

The belt lost.  The blade did a job on it.  I'd been thinking it was about time to change the B57 belt anyway.  But we had this one more log to go before quitting for the day.

[ElectricAl]

We've never twisted any belts up yet, but we have severed several




Have fun sawing
 

[flip]

How'd ya get that snake wrapped up in there

[Bibbyman]

We could tell a month ago that the B57 belts were getting worn way down.  Normally we have at least a couple of extra.  We always check our spare parts inventory before we go to any show where Wood-Mizer will be and arrange to pick up anything we need.  But for some reason, we use up our spare B57 belts. 

At our next opportunity we ordered a couple of new belts. That was thoughtful.  But we neglected to replace the worst worn one on the drive side of the mill.  Yesterday we heard a strange metallic sound coming from the housing area and were starting to get some wavy cuts.  The B57 belt on the drive side was worn until the blade was running on the pulley rim.  Time to change!

In case you’ve not see a worn out B57 belt on a mill,  I took some pictures.

 



Here you can see the worn groove where the rim of the pulley well ran.  There is also a lighter one towards the back edge of the blade where the back rim of the pulley ran.

 



It may be a little hard to tell but the old B57 belt is crushed into the pulley groove and the blade is running against the pulley.

 



Here is the tensioned up blade on a new B57 belt.  There is about 1/8” of belt between the blade and pulley.

[backwoods sawyer]

Mill maintenance, now that is a long list.

There is some good stuff posted here.

I see a bit of a safety issue with using a bar to prop up the head on the mill when changing the bearings. I use the same concept just a different method. I cut a block of wood that will sit square on the mill frame and then set the head down onto the block using the travel pin hole for the block to come in contact with. If done correctly you should be able to push and pull on the head with out it moving.

When rebrushing the Up-Down, Forward-Reverse, and Debarker motors be sure to clean out the groves in the armature and replace the shaft bearings while you have then apart. It will make a noticeable difference.

[bandmiller2]

I've been a heavy truck/diesel mechanic all my life and have never put much store in snake oil concoctions and additives.One exception is a product called Sea Foam comes in pint can most NAPA stores have/can get it.Add it to fuel gas or diesel and to oil sump.The Dagenham 6cly diesel I just got for my mill ran good but one cylinder was lazy when I shorted out the injector that day i had added sea foam to the fuel.Next day I pulled the valve cover to check valve adjustment and mayby pull that injector to check.Just to be sure i pulled the right injector i shorted them out again all the same, no lazy cylinder #5.Holmatro co. that makes the rescue tools recomends adding it to the fuel.It works its majic as it sits in a carb or injection system.Where I work I add it to all small engine gas it also is a stabilizer.Its dandy in an engine that has sat with fuel or hasen't run for a wile.Try it and tell me if I'am full of puppy poop.Frank C.

[backwoods sawyer]

Today I was sawing 6”x6”x16’ Doug fir. I was returning the head, when the head jerked to a stop and tilted down about two inches. I knew it could not be good and it wasn’t. two of the bolts under the mill that hold the front two rollers on the rail had sheared off and the other two were bent from the strain, allowing the front rollers to drop below the rail leaving only the rear roller holding the head. After drilling and tapping the holes and replacing the bolts with grade eight bolts, I checked on the other roller and found that the main bolt that holds the block in place was stripped. It had been the only thing that held the head from falling completely off. I will have to go to town tomorrow to get another bolt to replace it with. Then I will have to adjust it to the bed.
That was a close call.

Tip for adjusting the head if the outside is low:

Put a block under the out side of the head and lower it until the weight is off the head. Loosen the long bolt a couple of turns and tighten the short bolt a couple of turns on both the front and rear blocks. (Both bolts are the same length, just one is threaded so it can pull and the other is not so it can push, so one appears shorter.) This will raise the outside edge of the head. Then you can remove the block set the head to 12” on the control panel and then the adjustments that you make will be lowering the head and not putting undue strain on the bolts. All four sides of the block that slides should be well oiled (Viper lube works well here) so that the adjustments are easier to make, if it is still not moving freely loosen the four bolts on the bottom of each block a half turn. (Remember to tighten when finished.)