Lucas spat the dummy today But things are still on track

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Well after 8 months and 700 hrs of hard work patches, reseals  to keep the mill sawing after the clutch locking up at shutdown about 4 times and Buggering almost everything in the driveline on the mill mainly the gearbox and twisting  the output sawshaft in about march due to the twopiece keeper assembly for the clutch on the end of the crank locking solid while the saw was still spinning  which i welded up into a single piece w/o any dramas since   
The gearbox letgo to day at about 5.30 pm jumping a bearing on the imput side at the end of a cut with that noise we all dont like to hear Clunk Clunk Clunk wich i can tell you dont sound any better at 3200 rpm       

Ill be either heading up to Lucas in the morning to pickup an exchange swing frame sawshaft and gearbox assembly or getting them to post one down they are $1050 as i was allready planing on going up to the factory open day and getting one as ive allredy orderd it  then as i looked at him today and thought to my self only another 20 days to go mate and you will have a new gearbox He obviosly had other plans though 

Ive got alot on Atm and need to get sawing asap as ivegot a 4000 bft order to get out by monday morning in 5x1" pallet boards and only got about 500 into it this afternoon in a couple of hours after spending the morning unloading logs and started setting the mill up at about 2 pm Its not bad going for one bloke in Inch boards as most of the 30000 bft of logs i have in the yards are 3' to 4' dia n 8' to 12' in length he musnt have liked the idea of his new Diet n workout regime  I also have 2 15000 bft garden sleeper /tie orders to get out by about the 25 th also  Im liking daylight savings as ive allready done 36hrs in 3 days so im just getting back into the swing of doing my 60 to 70 hrs a week againg   

Regards Chris 

[Lud]

You are a busy lad.....  be careful and good luck.

[Captain]

untimely demise....should be back in shape in no time however   

[bandmiller2]

Chris,I may be mistaken mate but, your overworking that little swinger.Their designed to be light weight and portable.Better to use the headrig for the big runs and swinger for short runs and odds and ends.Id try synthetic gear lube in your new gear box Chris, good luck.Frank C.

[fishpharmer]

Chris, hate to hear of the bit of bad luck (or overworking a Lucas )

Good to hear you have plenty of business.

[Magicman]

Yup, "stuff" happens.  Especially when you are really busy.....

[James P.]

hey Chris, I think I might break an arm to keep from having a stroke too. especially if I new what was coming. Well I know you'll get the job done despite the breakdown. those are some big logs. I imagine that swing saw is perfect for cutting those 1x5 boards. Never seen one in action but have seen the product it produces. online of course. Good luck

[Carpenter]

Glad to hear you're buisy.  Good luck with the repairs.  I wish I was working 60 to 70 hours a week.  Well, I probably do work that much but, I wish they were billable hours, which they all aren't. 

[sparky]

Chris,

Sorry to hear that the Lucas failed you. I am thankful it did not happen when I was at the controls back in April. The Ford 641 that I gave you the raffle tickets for is listed for sale for $7000. If you had won it, you would have had some $$$ in the bank to cover the repairs for your Lucas!

I believe I will be getting a new sawmill for the tractor club. The one I have been working with has not been the most reliable, or accurate. I have been offered a 48 inch, right hand, Corinth that is in excellent condition. It has an extremely heavy duty frame and is very well built. The purchase price will be about $4500 and I expect that the purchase will be approved by the board of directors. I guess I will need to retrain myself to operate a right hand mill. Everything I have operated to this point has been left handed. I put a few hours on this mill a few months ago to check it out and it will be a great improvement over the old mill.

I hope you Lucas will be operational soon.

Will (Sparky)

[customsawyer]

It just goes to show that you never break down when the mill is parked.

[ljmathias]

Yeah, I keep telling myself that the only equipment that doesn't break is the stuff not being used.  Given that, I must be using my equipment like nobody's business!  Murphy also has a saying though- if it ain't broke, don't fix it could be translated as if it ain't broke, it ain't worth fixing...

Lj

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

Mills been back running and been sawing for 3 days now   only 24 hrs downtime which i think would be going along way to find someone else beat for downtime on a major component in any industry it only took them an hour to fit it total cost was around $1030 inc labour and a sett of new carriage rollers   Ive done the service on the box and its running smooth and its as quiet as a mouse as i also gave it a good clean , service and tune on the motor the week before   I only had to spend about 5-10 min tuning in the cutting angles on it the next morning to get it sawing spot on   Orders going out tomorow

It Wasnt the shaft   it was a bearing race that collapsed and it was all down hill from there but i knew it was coming i was ringing it for every cent i could get out of it  

The best part of the day was spending about 3 1/2 hours talking with Warren and Geoff about sawmilling and the industry in general we also fitted a couple of addons like the anti runoff covers to the mill  for if you dont put the end stops on as only one was fitted to the cariage   Warren also gave me a set of the new two bearing rollers ontop the sett id just brought as we fitted the rollers as we where talking he looked at the ones id brought and said these are the old ones and ran into the shed and grabed the new ones and put them on telling me to keep the others as spares  
As i said when i first got it that the Lucas's stand by every mill the sell and treat everyone well weather your buying a new one or like me running an 11yo mill

Thanks Lud  

Captain not too untimely but spoton Mate  

Frank The carriage is in the build process now should take me about 2 to 3 months doing it out of pocket and properly   Ive got the Hyd  a 6354 perkins 125 hp for it just got to get the tracks and husk built and get the mandral made and im going to set it up to do the smaller stuff under 2' to 2'6" with the 44" and buying a 50" insert  Mate   Im also thinking of training a couple of young blokes on the lucas and keep it sawing fulltime on Sleepers and dunnage when i get it built  

James/Fish I dont think i could ever overwork a lucas its wearing me out as it is Mate  

Magic it dose happen but its all going well now  Mate  

JamesP their not the biggest ive cut mate a nice size though    you could'nt find anything that would beat a lucas in the big stuff for the price but you get abit more out per movement and per day  when i swap back to sawing 8x2 n 8x3 sleepers on tuesday Mate  

Carpenter Thanks mate i love been flatout but i realy need three of me   all my works by the volume so there would be afew free hours somedays but the more i cut the money i make Mate !!  

Custom they never do   but theres no point buying one if your just gonna look at it either   Congrats on the new Lt 70 see there was a reason for keeping the edger Mate  

Regards Chris