Weekend of milling and first oops

[Finn1903]

Spring is in the air and finally had a chance to get some logs lined up and milled. 
I have not been milling to long, about 30 hours on the mill, and this is my big weekend and my first major opps.  That was bad.  But the good was this weekend I was able to spend some quality time getting my routine down, especially handling the 16" boards.  I found out the the board return can be used without an off bearer, just stop 2/3 the way back and move the boards to the stack. 
My plan for the weekend was to make the dimensional lumber for a pole barn to store the farm equipment.  My buddy in the tree service business hooked me up with about 20 straight pine logs, cut to 16'6". 

After picking up the two loads of logs and moving the mill I was ready to get started.



 



 

By Sunday evening I managed to get all but 4 logs cut before I had to call it a day, clean up and move the lumber before dark.  All I had left was to edge off the last set of flitches.  I was edging this set down to 6", made a cut at 7" and decided to be in a hurry and return the saw head at the same time grab the edge sticks.  Well, that dynamic move as I was walking back with one hand on the return drum switch and the other on the sticks, I let go of the return lever, went to grab the sticks with both hands, the sticks hit the down lever, and the accuset was still in auto down, dropped the saw head down 1" right on top of the edges.  I didn't see it happen as I was walking the sticks to slab pile, but I saw the damage when I went to bring the saw head the rest of the way back and make my last cut of the day.  I looked in horror at the mangled mess. 
I was racing the sun at that point, cleaned up my work area, got the mill packed up and back to the shop.  After further inspection just a couple bent parts on the drive side.  But, the blade guide arm did suffer some damage, arm is bent and the metal around the roller eccentric bolt was also bent.


 


 
After talking with tech support at WM, all is not so bad, and apparently I am not the first person to have done this.  Ordered a few new parts and found a cheater pipe to bend the metal on the mill back into alignment.  Now I need to read in the manual to do a major alignment. 

[Tim Lea]

Glad you will have it going soon..

[dboyt]

I bet that's the last time that happens (I say that every time I try to saw into a clamp or log stop).  Glad the damage was minor and that you'll be sawing again soon.  Might also keep someone else from making a similar mistake.

[bandmiller2]

Ayup thats how it happens,a self taught course,most of us have something simular.Your not hurt and the mill can be tweeked as good as new. Frank C.

[Peter Drouin]

WOW I did that one time but it not bend a thing, even the blade was ok. I wish you good luck getting the mill back together

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

This is nothing to be ashamed of......it happens to the best of us.
I've done worse  :D....and I'll leave it at that.

[Peter Drouin]

This is nothing to be ashamed of......it happens to the best of us.
I've done worse  :D....and I'll leave it at that.

O tell us the worse  :D :D ;D ;)

[samandothers]

Yes do tell!

Sorry to hear Finn. Hope you are up and going soon.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

This is nothing to be ashamed of......it happens to the best of us.
I've done worse  :D....and I'll leave it at that.

O tell us the worse  :D :D ;D ;)

Let's just say I upgraded to a brand new engine..... ;D ;D ;D

[Dave Shepard]

I did that a couple of years ago. I straightened that roller mount and rewelded the crack. I did get a new mount as a spare.  Aligning that guide arm takes a few minutes the first time, but It's not terrible.

[Bibbyman]

Sure makes for a bad day!  I managed to make a wreck of the adjustable guide arm assembly but never damaged the inner guide. 

[AdamT]

That would make me cry.   But luckily everything on the mill is fixable, and fairly easy to work on/ adjust

[Chuck White]

Wow!

That really looks like a mess, but as mentioned, not too bad to get it back to sawing!

Good luck.

[pineywoods]

The bad thing is - the tendency to do that sort of OOPs, never goes away. I've been sawing for over a dozen years.. Yesterday, I sawed the tip off a backstop. I didn't exactly say "OOPS"

[thecfarm]

The worst part is we all know better too. And the worser part is most of the time we see it coming just a split second before it happens.   smiley_eek_dropjaw

[Finn1903]

Thanks for all the support.  When it happened I felt like I just broke my favorite toy, and I didn't exactly say oops but rather a more colorful term. 

The forum has been great to read the lessons learned, I came close to sawing the clamp, but fortunately have not, yet.  But I have jumped the blade off because I stopped short of the clamp and did not wedge the cut before I tried to back out the blade. 

Like most things, I learn by reading to give a general guidance, but really learn by doing and successes and mistakes give good feedback.   Learning how to be a sawyer is the same.  Glad I found the forum.   I have to mention that I try to keep safety in mind when I am trying something new.

I do have to give WM credit, that machine is easy to work on.  The WM tech support was very supportive.  In this case parts are easy to remove and most of the parts can be bent back and welded as Dave Shepard described. 

[thecfarm]

Those felling wedges work good for backing out of the cut. Get one and keep it on the mill.

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

The worst part is we all know better too. And the worser part is most of the time we see it coming just a split second before it happens.   smiley_eek_dropjaw

This is probably the truest statement I have ever read.

[Peter Drouin]

The worst part is we all know better too. And the worser part is most of the time we see it coming just a split second before it happens.   smiley_eek_dropjaw

This is probably the truest statement I have ever read.

Me 2 a second to look and see it coming  :D :D :D :D :D

[Magicman]

Ouch, but as has already been mentioned, stuff can be fixed, replaced, and aligned. 

It only takes one moment of attention "collapse".  I once removed my blade guide arm with my log clamp,  :-\ but that is another story.  ;D