Corley sawmill help

[sawmillhelp]

I have a Corley line bar system that has a cant stop/turner & the arms keep breaking. Has anyone else had this problem? What could be causing it?

[dgdrls]

Welcome to the FF sawmillhelp.
I don't think I can help but I believe help will be here soon,

DGDrls

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, sawmillhelp.  There are several Corleys here, so help will come. 

[Ron Wenrich]

Pictures would help.  That would point to your problem, and others can offer their experience with different types of machines. 

[sawmillhelp]

This is a photo of one of the arms. It has been breaking at the shaft where the arm connects.
There are 4 arms on this machine. The first 3 from left to right have been breaking but the 4th one on the main right hasnt broken. Any ideas?



 

[beenthere]

I'll venture a guess that we are looking up under the log deck.
If so, u need to find out what is either binding that yellow arm from raising, or what is putting an overload on the shaft/arm weld.

Do the arms move free if removing the drive system (chain sprocket or whatever) and moving the shaft by hand?

Just a thought from the mental pic I have.

[Ron Wenrich]

I think beenthere is right, that you have a bind someplace.  It could be your shaft is bent, your bearings are shot, or something is out of alignment. 

The other thing is how fast things are coming into the machine.  You said they were a stop.  If things are coming in laterally, and you use the arms as a stop, it could be that you're coming in too fast and too heavy for the engineering.  If you're coming in perpendicular, as in a log deck, then you might be coming in with too big of a load and putting pressure on the arms.  Before you turn, you may have to stop the deck. 

[sawmillhelp]

Yes, the last photo was from under the log deck. This photo from above shows the log deck & the linebar system. The arms are hydraulic lifted by pressing a button to either stop or turn a cant. The arms can be moved up & down when the hydraulics are off.
Thanks for the input so far.



 

[Ron Wenrich]

I'll just throw out a couple of thoughts.  I'm trying to visualize how the machine works.  How much clearance is there between the arm in the upright position and the chain.  I was wondering if there might be a hangup there.

The other is I'm assuming it runs with a hydraulic cylinder to make the turn.  Is that the right size or could it be that it makes too long of a stroke? 

Anything ever get stuck under the arms when they come back down?

It really doesn't look like it comes under that much of a load to cause the breakage.  Especially if its the type of material you have on your merry-go-round.

[sawmillhelp]

 Will have to check the clearance of the arm and chain but here is a photo of the arm coming up out of the deck to turn a cant. It is run hydraulically. The arms shown are the ones that came on the machine. Just recently started having this problem.





 

[beenthere]

Maybe the shaft-to-arm weld is under-designed for the load (ram vs cant weight vs aggressive arm tip) being applied.

A nuisance for sure when it breaks as it is.

A larger diam. shaft and/or more robust joint at the shaft/arm is in order, as I see it.

[sawmillhelp]

Thanks for the input. It worked fine for about 7 years until recently. Thought maybe there was something I wasnt doing right.

[Ron Wenrich]

If it worked find for 7 years, then recently broke, you have to figure out if something happened about that time.  Did you make a repair before the breaks?  Did you get something jammed?  Did you put in a new piece of equipment?  Did the equipment get hit?  Whenever I would troubleshoot, I'd go through my head to figure out what was different.  Generally speaking, things don't start breaking without a reason.

You can get to the point where you have metal fatigue.  But, I don't think you're running the type of material to cause that.  What sort of daily production are you getting?