Lucas Mill 830 Vs Peterson WPF 8"

[wtf]

Sigidi, I think you may have miss understood. The Peterson ATS only has a winch at one end of the rails. It raises the the entire rail at one time. Two winches, one for each rail and they are at the same end of the mill set up.
Russ

[sigidi]

Well I have to admit, I'd never thought about it happening, so I could be wrong...but what was explained to me was when rail 'A' is raised,  it can't be raised 3' foot and then Rail 'B' raised 3' as the carriage is then 'twisted'...



in my rudimentary drawing (apologies for the quality and admittedly it isn't to scale) it looks as though about the depth of a rail would be the most one could have either side 'out of height' with the other side so around the 8" 200mm I was told by a Peterson owner here in Aus???

[NZJake]

Hi guys,

Thought I'd chime in here... Just thought I'd put you guys straight with the ATS thing. You can near enough lift as I recall on my machine around 800mm to 1m before anything would bind. There's enough flex in the idler winch to accommodate this.

What you might consider is lifting the carriage weight is near enough halved with the ATS as the carriage is divided between the winches regardless of position, length ways...

I would expect to achieve this same weight distribution on the Lucas, you would need to park the carriage mid way the track lengths each raise and lower...

Jake.

[Captain]

Jake designed it, he would know 

[sigidi]

Hi guys,

Thought I'd chime in here... Just thought I'd put you guys straight with the ATS thing. You can near enough lift as I recall on my machine around 800mm to 1m before anything would bind. There's enough flex in the idler winch to accommodate this.

Jake, as I've said a few times, I've never used one, but was just relaying what an owner/operator had stated on our Aussie forum. I know it's another forum, but you might want to pop your head inhttp://www.woodworkforums.com/f132/portable-mill-advice-114868/index2.html and set him straight? Post number 17

What you might consider is lifting the carriage weight is near enough halved with the ATS as the carriage is divided between the winches regardless of position, length ways...

I would expect to achieve this same weight distribution on the Lucas, you would need to park the carriage mid way the track lengths each raise and lower...

I understand what you are saying with half the weight on each winch. If ever using a helper, I always take the 'carriage' winch although I don't know how much 'heavier' it actually is. I've personally not had any trouble with the different weights on different winches (I reckon the gear ratio must be calculated well) having said this I have had one time where the different weights have saved my bacon... I had a four day job and was on the morning of the 4th day when I noticed a crack at the weld on one of my winch handles, so I swapped it to the 'light' winch and it got me through the job without busting, and I fixed her up at home. Turns out the way I have been loading the mill into my truck for the last 6 years put stress on the winch handle and thus the weld and after that time she decided to let go, not bad I reckon 6 years to break it- mind you, I now have a different loading system for Bo Derek and don't foresee the same thing happening again

[Part_Timer]

I have cut a few hours on both and I do like the Peterson much better.  Half the price is a big deal breaker but I would still buy the Peterson or at least look for an ATS.  The ATS is a lot closter the the Lucas in function and price.
Just my.02