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Manually setting the blade height

Started by TexasTimbers, February 23, 2007, 07:59:08 AM

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TexasTimbers

Setting the blade height on the manual mill was quick and accurate. I sure can see how setworks are indespensible on these hydraulic mills. I have to have them. In the meantime, how can I quickly set the blade height to take accurate cuts off the top of the cant?  I am cutting 2X6s and 2X8s and 6X6s. This is what I am cutting for the porch frame. I also need 3/4 siding so I take those off to get the cant to a 6" or 8" dimension then flip 90°and start cutting from the top according to the grade scale.
So without setworks, I have to lower the blade manually. On the norwood setting the blade height consitently to within 1/32 is fast and easy. This very difficult to do on the LT40 and to get consistent thickness boards is very time consuming.
For example, once I have the slabs and flitches off and have a certain size cant, whatever I end up with say 115/8X97/8. Now I want to take boards off until I end up with a 8" x 115/8 and just set the scale to line up the 8/8 mark with the indicator and start taking 2xs off, well this sounds easy, but getting there is the hard part. Reason is I have to set the blade height to line up with the indicator when I need to take 3/4 boards off because there is no 3/4 on the scale , I am having to use the rule itself so I have to look at wherver the blade is, on some random fraction, then lower the head 3/4 of an inch and then try and figure the blade thickness in with it, and I have to attempt to do this for 2 or 3 3/4 baords then take off the bastard thickness to end up with a 8" cant. This is proving extremely time consuming because I have to physically mark  the end of the cant and set my blade height to just below the line, and bump-up and bump-down until I think I have gotten it close to 3/4.
I don't thnk I am getting them any closer than 1/16" in consitency and maybe worse. This is going to eat my lunch on the planer.
What am I missing?

One other thing, when I do start taking off boards by using the 8/8 scale, they are all coming off at 21/8 thickness. What's up with that?
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

pineywoods

Pull the sliding scale out and turn it over. There's more scales on the back side.
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

TexasTimbers

I'll check that out. It'll solve one problem if I don't have to be flipping between cuts . . . . . .
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

Dan_Shade

do you have a picture of the scale on the norwood?

i've noticed the same "problem" with my Wood-mizer.  you can make new scales to help you cut whatever you want.  I've considered doing this for various sizes that I would want.
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

pineywoods

Kevjay there's an easy way to do what you are doing manually in your head. I could show you but can/t put into words so it would make any sense. I suggest you spend a day with some of the old wm owners . It would be time well spent. The longer I work with this mill, the more I respect the folks at wm.
1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

Dan_Shade

that's a tease if I ever heard one, pineywoods!
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

logwalker

The scale is affected by the kerf of your blade, depending on the thickness of the blade you are running and the set you are using on it. On my WM the cover is missing on the up/down belting. I just grab the pulley wheel and make the adjustment by hand after getting close with the power control. I would like to get a sheave with a crank on it to make it easier. Does that make sense? Joe
Let's all be careful out there tomorrow. Lt40hd, 22' Kenworth Flatbed rollback dump, MM45B Mitsubishi trackhoe, Clark5000lb Forklift, Kubota L2850 tractor

D._Frederick

  kevjay,  On my sit on the ground mill, I only have scale in inches to set the cutting height of the blade. What I do is make myself a cutting chart for the lumber that I plan on cutting the next day. I use a TI hand held calculator to do the math in fractions. I start the chart by making columns to cut ¾ inch and 1 5/8 boards. Start with the thickness of the last board that you can cut then add the ¾ inch plus 1/16 inch for the saw kurf. Keep adding this 13/16 until you reach the diameter for the log you are going to saw. Do the same for the 1 5/8 thick boards
.For the 7 X 9 cants, start with the 7 inch side and add 1 5/8 inch plus the 1/16 saw kurf,  add enough cut height figures to cut 4 or 5 boards. Do the same thing for the 9 inch side of the cant.
I make a sub column and add 13/16 to each of the 1  11/16 board figures. This way, if there is not enough wood to cut a 1 5/8 board, you can cut ¾ inch thick board.I use the cut height of the first two columns to saw down to the either of the two 7 or 9 inch sides of the cant I want to saw. 
I figure out what I want to cut the next day and make myself a cutting chart the nite before. Works well.





woodmills1

I do this all the time on my 40.  say you want an 8 by 8 and the log is around 15+ inches you need to think about what you can get so maybe it will give the 8 by and 2 2bys in each plane and the rest 3/4. so...........8 + 2 +2 then gives 12 then 12 3/4 +1/16  then 13 1/2 +2/16 then 14 1/4 +3 16.  I dont add in the 16ths I just remember how many.  I would then cut  at 14 1/4 plus 3 lines(thats how I do the 16ths) then 13 1/2 plus 2.  Rotate 90 and repeat, rotate 90 and cut 12 3/4 plus one then 12  etc etc.  You can do the math inside and write it down for each possibility you want.

As i said I do this all the time especially making 4x4 where I want 4/4 boards frome outside so for me I just count 4   5 plus 2    6 plus 4  7 plus 6   sounds tough but it works

I even did it for 1/2 inch wood that I cut at 1/2 plus 1/16th
James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

slowzuki

All I've got on my mill is a straight tape glued in place so I'm pretty good at fraction math now.  My kerf + a 1 5/8 board is 1 3/4.  I usually will cut on a 2" scale for my own lumber.

Ken

onionman

Quote from: kevjay on February 23, 2007, 07:59:08 AM
Setting the blade height on the manual mill was quick and accurate. I sure can see how setworks are indespensible on these hydraulic mills. I have to have them. In the meantime, how can I quickly set the blade height to take accurate cuts off the top of the cant?  


I had the same problem when I first got my mill. I found 2 things that helped me, make sure that the indicator line is very close to the scale ( mine is almost touching) and try to keep your head at the same place each time. When lowering the head drop just past your mark and bump back up to the mark.
Onion

woodmills1

James Mills,Lovely wife,collect old tools,vacuuming fool,36 bdft/hr,oak paper cutter,ebonic yooper rapper nauga seller, Blue Ox? its not fast, 2 cat family, LT70,edger, 375 bd ft/hr, we like Bob,free heat,no oil 12 years,big splitter, baked stuffed lobster, still cuttin the logs dere IAM

Dan_Shade

any particular reason for this?  my setworks drops down to the cut.
Woodmizer LT40HDG25 / Stihl 066 alaskan
lots of dull bands and chains

There's a fine line between turning firewood into beautiful things and beautiful things into firewood.

Minnesota_boy

Quote from: Dan_Shade on February 24, 2007, 07:10:29 AM
any particular reason for this?  my setworks drops down to the cut.

Yep, there is.  The head on a Woodmizer is lifted and lowered by a sprocket on a chain.  This chain has to be reasonably tight but not completely or it will bind.  When you lower the head, the slack in the chain will be on the top and as you start the cut, the slack will move to the bottom as the head drops that slight amount and your setting will be off.  If you move the head up to the set mark the slack is on the bottom and the head will stay where you put it.

Of course, after a few years you learn just how much it drops and set that much high and when you hit the power it drops right to the line and stays there.
I eat a high-fiber diet.  Lots of sawdust!

Larry

After getting all the 4/4 FAC off a log I have a choice of 6 different size flooring cants to saw...all are weird sizes.  The white scale is sliding and 4/4.  Blue and yellow are fixed and the bottom mark is my bed (left side of pic).  Blue is my cant thickness which is always 3 1/4" and yellow is the 6 different cant widths.  Using a inch scale is way to much math for me, plus those little marks are hard for old eyes to see.  Must have made maybe 5 scales for different uses over the years.




When I release my down switch my mill will overrun my mark a little...it varies if my screws/chain are clean and lubed or dirty.  I practice hitting the switch once only...jogging is hard on the switch and a big time waster.  Yeap, sometimes the width varies a tick...guess that's the reason we cut 4/4 at 1 1/8" thick.
Larry, making useful and beautiful things out of the most environmental friendly material on the planet.

We need to insure our customers understand the importance of our craft.

D._Frederick

The sign of a good sawyer is NO shim cuts, the last board cut is the correct thickness.

TexasTimbers

Thanks for all the great answers. I printed this off and hope I can apply some of the suggestions. This is something that took me totally by suprise. I had no idea WM, or no one else, has not found a simple solution to this problem.
Years of practice seems to be the answer. With all the automation and technology going into the these mills you would think that something as simple as lowering/raaising the head quickly and accurately would have been solved.  :-\
Hopefully Arky is going to be blowing through these parts in a few weeks and can set me straight. It looks like its going to take powerful medicine to fix my ailments. If anyone can teach this dummy anything Arky is the one to do it I reckon.
Thanks for all the help fellas much appreciated. I will be practicing until he gets here so maybe he has less of a chore.  ::)
The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

footer

Hey kevjay,
One thing I did was to lay out a 3/4 inch scale right next to the 4/4 scale. Take 3/4" + the kirf thickness and make a little template, then transfer the marks onto the quage with a fine tip sharpie. That way you can switch from 4/4 , 8/4 and such to 3/4 without replacing the quage or calculating in your head. Just loosen the thumb screw and set it on your 3/4 mark. Also, does your head stop when you let off the lever? I have seen a woodmizer that the brake was loose, and the head would coast. That was a real pain to try and lighn up to the marks.

Tom

The older woodmizers have a pulley that is exposed for the up/down.  If you wear a glove, you can stop the head almost right-on by grabbing the pulley.  If you miss, just a flip or two on the pulley squares it up.

It's better than using the drum switch because you don't burn up contacts or motor this way.

The newer mills have brakes on the up/down motor that is supposed to help.  I don't know if the pulley is still exposed or not.

Robert Long

keyjay

Similar to Larry's measure sticks.......I made 3 or 4 common dimension sticks e.g. a 3/4 scale for the needs of people who want the skinny thickness of boards found at the big box stores :D and at the big box store I found aluminum flat stock the same dimension as the slide scale on the mill so I drilled a hole at the top of the flat stock and inserted a stop rod (as is on the slide scale that came with the mill) I then made my own scale taking into account the kirf thickness of the blade and to make the math easy I cut a small hard wood T- square the thickness of the finished wood and kirf and using a fine permanent marker I draw a line and move the T-square up and draw in the next line and so on and so on to complete the length of the al. flat stock I write on it what is used for( e.g. fence board). The other side can also be used as another scale. I drill hole in it to hange it on a nail in the shop and it is available as needed.

Robert

logwalker

On my Lt40, a 1994 model with almost 5k hours on it, I always have a tendency to catch a little on the mast. It starts out on the bottom with a jerkiness and about 5/6 inches from the bottom that stops but there is still friction in the travel. Makes it hard to stop on the mark. My questions are two things. What are other people using to lubricate the mast and has anybody tried to retrofit roller bearings to the mast in place of the rub blocks? Joe
Let's all be careful out there tomorrow. Lt40hd, 22' Kenworth Flatbed rollback dump, MM45B Mitsubishi trackhoe, Clark5000lb Forklift, Kubota L2850 tractor

Robert Long

keyjay

Here are two photo's of what I explained earlier (I hope :o :o :ostill trying to get this puter to run like a mill) :D :D

Robert Long

.........and another :'(



Well, I tryed!!!!


There,  You can see the top with the stop in it and the bottom shows the lines and a hole to hange it up when not in use

TexasTimbers

It's getting a little better already just from reading thise thread; I am alot closer than I was earlier this morning. I devised a little system of my own. I'll explain it at a later date but it is working very nice for now. I can take off my 6x6,  2X,  and siding cuts without looking at or using a scale, stick or anything like that. ;D

The oil is all in Texas, but the dipsticks are in D.C.

wwsjr

Spray bottle of Dextron III does wonders for the mast.
Retired US Army, Full Time Sawyer since 2001. 2013 LT40HD Super with 25HP 3 Phase, Command Control with Accuset2. ED26 WM Edger, Ford 3930 w/FEL, Prentice Log Loader. Stihl 311, 170 & Logrite Canthooks. WM Million BF Club Member.

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