Normal LT40 Issues?

[rmack]

I have a little over 40 hours on my 2012 lt40 super, and am running into a number of issues, I wonder if these are normal.

I'm cutting wide douglas fir, I have to travel slowly, the headrig does not move smoothly, rather proceeds in fits and starts, slows to nothing then jumps ahead.

lowering the cutting head using accuset, the saw will come down to height, then jump up, then back down and keep doing that until I move the up/down lever or press the manual button to move it out of pattern mode.

The mill was supposedly set up from the dealer but I have had problems cutting square cants from the beginning, it seems I have to mess with the dual plane clamp and sometimes use the cant turner as well, in order to square the cant to the blade.

The accuset started leaving 3/32 - 1/8 thick boards at the bottom of the pile, I reset the 12" reference to the bed rails, now my ruler is about 1/8 out of whack, I don't get it. Should I try move the ruler to the new reference point, or figure out why the height changed in the first place?

Once the blade starts to get dull, it rides up in the first few inches of cut, I checked the guide wheel alignment using the blade alignment tool, and the front edge was about a 1/16" high, readjusted to parallel, problem still occurring and seem more prone to waviness now. Even in cleaned off cants, blades are dulling very quickly.  :-\

[drobertson]

Sorry to hear, going through it now as well, head travel is fine for me, but in pattern mode, it will climb randomly, have to go to manual as well, I swapped out transducers and maybe this helped, it climbed once, I still suspect the H bridge, not a big fan with the ones I've had, went through several to date, you might check the drive belt tension and the feed pulley and would not rule out a faulty rheostat on the speed control. and check the band drive belt tension too, this can cause some wave as well,  but the climbing is a head scratcher, either voltage loss or communication loss, taking a break and hoping after lunch it runs,   david

[rmack]

Well, went out and cut for a few hours this morning, took the felt cover off and lubed it good, seems to have eliminated the travel feed surging. don't know what happened to the accuset going up and down, but it quit doing that.

couldn't figure out how to move the ruler to bring it back into line with the computer.

Have figured out to make the opening cuts with a blade that is almost done, then switch to a new one once most of the bark is off. seems to be taking about one new blade per log to cut these.

... and I still can't cut a square timber for the life of me. I'd have bet, after 45 hours of trying, I would have been able to figure it out by now. maybe that's why it is so frustrating, I thought this mill would cut a square cant practically on it's own.  :(

[thecfarm]

40 hours it should cut true. Did it ever cut true? Have you bumped it,hit it with a tractor,truck?

[wwsjr]

Check all connectors and cables on your Accuset. I have had problems that somehow connectors became loose causing trouble to appear at times. I had one that I used a small amount of Teflon tape to keep tight. I did not want to use pliers to tighten. Usually a transducer error message will appear as conductivity is lost. I did have a transducer go bad at about 3,000hrs on one mill I had. It only failed at 90+ degrees outside temperature, strange problem. Clean the contacts if you can, I have used pencil eraser. Check cables for nicks that may have damaged a wire, but is not broken.
The ruler should slide if you loosen the 7/16" bolts on mast. Not sure if mine is accurate or not, I do not use mine when sawing.
Have you checked your side supports to insure they are 90* from bed rails. I think manual will show to use something like 2 pieces of 3/4" steel tubing about 6' long on bed rails, place framing square (12"X24") on tubing against side supports. If not square, they are adjustable. I have also learned that too much pressure on log clamp can cause cant to rise slightly causing to make cuts out of square. As you clamp, when side supports are fully vertical, look close for gap at either top or bottom of support between cant and support. I had to learn it does not take a lot of pressure to hold the cant I still sometimes get in a rush and hit the cant with too much pressure , causing cant to tip.
I would go step by step thru manual for sawmill alignment, I usually check mine about every 50 hours. Many times, I do not have to make any adjustments, just verify alignment. Takes me about an hour. I clean felt strip and oil with ATF about every 6-8 hrs.
To get board thickness, are you setting for kerf in pattern mode, i.e. set for 1 1/8" for 1" boards or is kerf thickness programmed in the Accuset? Usually for me the last board thick or thin is caused by stress released in log.
I hope some of this will help you, don't give up, you CAN cut square cants.

Willie

[drobertson]

A great chat with Tony from wmz, apparently converting from Accuset 1 to 2 there are some harnesses that cause intermittent issues,  pulled the by pass and back to running, for now,  as to square cants, I would have to see it, bark can be an issue, when flipping you can feel the solid hit or not, I have many times cut fuzz cuts to square them up.  Rest assured that our rough cuts are in most cases better the allot of finish cuts from others.  Contacts, voltage are critical for these machines, but when all is right, they are hard to beat for consistent quality board thickness and width.  I love it, just hate the fight when they come around. Atf is the mills best friend, next to a good battery and connections,    david

[Bibbyman]

If you flip a cant 180,  the blade should be parallel to the top.   If it's not then suspect the blade guides.   Maybe something worked loose or things just breaking in.  Most often it's the outer guide.   It seems to get bumped about 100 times to one on the inside. 



 

[Peter Drouin]

and take that felt thing and chuck it , the thing gets all bung up , mine has been out for years and no problem. :D

[YellowHammer]

Thing to look for:
Lube up and clean the top and bottom rails. It also sounds like the forward/reverse drive belt is loose and slipping under load.  I check mine every 50 hours, and replace it once a year.

Check parallelism and alignment as Bibbyman suggests.  Adjust the backstops only after that is dead on.

Adjust the blade to the reference 12 inch height with a ruler, then saw notches directly over a bed rail in a reference board or cant and measuring it to make sure it is dead on.  From then on, if your bottom board is the wrong, its probably due to stress, or a band issue, as has been mentioned.  I never use the manual slider scale anymore, except to clear the head on the return jog. It is adjustable, however.

Once the blade starts to get dull, it rides up in the first few inches of cut

If you are absolutely sure the blade is aligned parallel to the bed, you will probably need to adjust both the main drive belt tension as well as the up/down chain tension.

Good Luck,
YH

[barbender]

The first place I would look is using too much pressure on the clamp (in regards to square cuts). What about pitch build up on the blade? Your head sounds like it has some sort of mechanical bind, check that out good you don't want to fry an H-bridge $$$. You should be able to push it down the rails without too much pressure. I have the older Accuset so I can't help you on that one. Also, like YH says, check your main drive belt tension I believe they are supposed to be checked at 50 hours.

[rmack]

40 hours it should cut true. Did it ever cut true? Have you bumped it,hit it with a tractor,truck?

the mill has never been hit hard by a machine or a log. as ugly as it is, that old patrick forklift can be very gentle.  ;)

I think I'll have a closer look at that outer blade guide, I have run it into the end of a log more than once... not very hard mind you, but who knows...

the accuset should be the latest version, given it is 2012 model, still don't understand how to get the ruler on the same page... unless the bed is supposed to be set to the ruler first and then accuset after?

I was using the ruler fairly often and would like to have both it and the computer reading the same values. when the sun comes around behind me near the end of the day, it gets very hard to read the computer screen.

[jcbrotz]

You will not loose a 1/8 inch unless something changes. I speak from experience when I say you can make the scale move to match but do not do it till you go through a full alignment otherwise you will be moving it back when you do. Take a day and do the alignment you will not regret it I once did it wrong and I was cursing up and down my blades were dull out of the box, they were not but I had lost my some of the down pressure I was susposed to have on the blade guides and did not know it. This made me think the blade was dull when it was not.

OH and check your grounds on the accuset they may be loose. If it is only acting up them moist outside then you have a connection problem of some sort.

[Bibbyman]

Last board thickness can get screwed up if you have a buildup of sawdust and debris on top of the battery box.  It normally will require cleaning off before the last couple of cuts when sawing down to the deck.

The rule on the post is totally ignored on our mill.

[GDinMaine]

Don't forget to clean your cant when you flip it over.  If there is fine sawdust stuck between the bed rails and the cant it will cause an error as well.  Also if you clamp the cant too hard the clamp will lift it off the bed by a very significant amount.  I try to clamp gently. When the cant is secure I move the lever that pulls the clamp down just a touch.  Often I can see the cant go back down to the bed about 1/8-3/32". 

[rmack]

Last board thickness can get screwed up if you have a buildup of sawdust and debris on top of the battery box.  It normally will require cleaning off before the last couple of cuts when sawing down to the deck.

The rule on the post is totally ignored on our mill.

the battery box gets regular wiping off, as I pass by it on every board.  :D

and I am only cutting 2" and thicker, so that is less likely to be an issue. nice day for cutting, gotta go.  ;D

[drobertson]

Not sure if you have adjusted the drive belt on the band wheel, but I'm thinking 40-50 hrs is in the range for a lil tweaking,  hp loss at the blade can cause a multitude of issues,  plus you might check the cam followers, this is not a hard adjustment, just a little time, to get the +1/16" with the guides wide open,  then re set the head to 12",    if you have not done this yet,    david

[pnyberg]

If I'm cutting boards, I usually don't get too concerned if the cant is a bit out of square.  If the edge of the board isn't exactly 90° from the face, well, it's rough sawn lumber.

But if I'm cutting a beam then generally I want to make life as easy as possible for the customer by getting it as square as I can.  To do this I rotate the log 180° after the first cut.  If your alignment is not out of whack, the second cut will be parallel to the first.  Then rotate 90° and use a square to make sure that the vertical face is 90° from a bed rail.  Rotate 180° again, and make the 4th side. 

I didn't figure this out on my own, I learned it here on the Forestry Forum.

--Peter

[drobertson]

I've seen this done before, lots of time lost, but works for sure, an alignment is in order if a square cant, can not be sawn with the back stops, jmo.    david

[JustinW_NZ]

I'm with Peter.

If I really want it square I use a builders square to get boards/cants bang on square.
Partly because I'm always knocking my backstops out of alignment with big logs or big log and too much clamp pressure.  :D

I figure for a nice beam or worthwhile timber the extra minute of checking is worth it..

Cheers
Justin

[drobertson]

Yep, big logs can cause havoc, but stopping to square two cuts is counter productive when not necessary.  It takes two sets of hands,  I  believe a good set up with back stops that are square and a properly aligned mill should give it without delay,    david

[Brucer]

First thing I'd do is call Gary at MW Canada West. He'll talk you through the troubleshooting and through any alignment issues as well.

[petefrom bearswamp]

I'm with Peter and Bibbyman on flipping 180.
i have very few probs with squareness this way.
I also clean the bed rails once the cant is squared, especially with Hemlock which seems to leave chunks of bark on the rails often.
I agree that you can hear the solid clunk when turning the cant if the rails are clean.