A little extra weight...

[terrifictimbersllc]

A little extra weight for clamping bowed boards.   Set the head on a 4x4 until the board is flat, then clamp it.  Safer than having the customer standing on the mill.



 

[Ga Mtn Man]

Now that is a great tip.  Beats having the customer stand on the cant. :laugh:

[4x4American]

Great idea, thanks for sharing!

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Good idea TT. My wife will like this.  :

[WV Sawmiller]

TT,

    Thanks for the tip. I'm still learning on my new mill and ran into the issue this afternoon just trying to saw up some stickers at the end of the job. This would have solved the problem I was having. 'preciate the idea.

[red oaks lumber]

resawing some air dried lumber are ya? the only part i don't like about that trick,it puts undo stress on your sawhead assembly which might cause sawing issues later
i'm always part of the downer crowd :D

[WV Sawmiller]

TT,

    As a follow up - how do you clamp the lumber when the head is run forward and down? Thinking more about it my mill has a safety feature such that I can't use the hydraulics (including the clamp) unless the head is at the front of the mill. Does your mill not have this same feature or is mine a more recent addition?

[terrifictimbersllc]

WV, I took off the strip and rigged 1/0 cables through the cat track from the hydraulics to the head, as others have done.   "Hydraulics anywhere" modification.

ROL, I sure wouldn't do it if there was something that might get damaged. But  I don't see what I'd be stressing, the 4x4 is butting against the board return which in turn is pressed against the heavy frame of the head.  Just enough to flatten out the bow which probably would need about 200-300 pounds in some cases, the head being about 1000 pounds.   But maybe there's something I'm not considering, please let me know.

[4x4American]

It's a heavy duty mill I say run it

[red oaks lumber]

mill heads are designed to go up and down, any forced pressure going either direction will put undo stresses on the whole assembly which over time will present problems.

[terrifictimbersllc]

OK, thanks, don't want that for sure.

[Dave Shepard]

I wouldn't worry about that at all. Part of the inspection procedure of the mast track bearings is to put something under the right hand side of the head and take the pressure off. There isn't anything that is going to be stressed by doing that. There are mast pads on both sides of the mast, and at most you would be bottoming out the stops on the bottom near the track rollers, which is no problem as long as you aren't dragging them down the track, which of course you aren't.

[fishpharmer]

Clever, thanks.

[terrifictimbersllc]

I wouldn't worry about that at all. Part of the inspection procedure of the mast track bearings is to put something under the right hand side of the head and take the pressure off. There isn't anything that is going to be stressed by doing that. There are mast pads on both sides of the mast, and at most you would be bottoming out the stops on the bottom near the track rollers, which is no problem as long as you aren't dragging them down the track, which of course you aren't.

Did seem to remember seeing a procedure involving taking the weight off of the head other than chaining it to the cross brace at top of the mast.

[red oaks lumber]

your probably ok,for me i use my equipment differantly

[4x4American]

Run it bud!
These mills were designed for burly men, not girly men.

[red oaks lumber]

taking the weight off is completly differant than forcing pressure down with it girly or manley dosen't belong here :(

[terrifictimbersllc]

It would be just the weight, the head is not being driven down.  Some weight from the head is transferred to the bed via the 4x4, and some remains on the chain.  Only thing that could possibly matter is if it torques the bottom via the bearings, somehow, or pushes at the top against the mast, via the pads, at an angle that wouldn't otherwise occur.  If I do it again I'll make sure to only transfer some weight, and then go have a look to see if the up-down chain is still tight above the head, and whether anything's going on at top and bottom. I appreciate the caution.  maybe think of some other ways it's just that this one is so easy.

[Dave Shepard]

rol, I wasn't advocating putting down pressure on it, just using some of the thousand or so pounds of the head weight. I agree, pushing down would not be desirable.

[red oaks lumber]

i think thats a fine line between free weight and forced i gotta say it's a clever idea!

[Brucer]

The carriage on a WM is held horizontal by only two sets of rollers. One set on the outside of the top rail, and one set on the inside of the bottom rail. If you lift the outside of the sawhead a little the horizontal rollers shift away from the track. No harm is done. In fact, this is exactly what happens when you lower the head onto the travel stop.

If you lift the outside of the sawhead too high, there's a set of stop blocks opposite the horizontal rollers that will contact the rail to prevent the head from moving too far away from the rails. Until these stops make contact, you aren't able to pull the head down with the up/down motor.

Your fine line is defined by the gap between the rail and the stop blocks -- about 1/32" if adjusted correctly. There are two gaps (top rail and bottom rail) so you have a total amount of movement of about 1/16" over a distance of 9" (center to center distance of the top and bottom rails).

With a heavy engine, you will probably press your board flat long before the horizontal rollers start to move away from the rails.

[terrifictimbersllc]

I think there is a damage that could be done, if the up/down motor is still driving down past the point that the head weight is off the chain.  At that point the lower part of the chain would tighten and pull up on its mount at the bottom.  Too tight and it might bend  that bracket.  This can happen if the head were set on the block with Accuset auto down or set to bed modes.  Same reason which leads to unintentionally setting the band on the wood in these modes.  Would guess that the breaker won't trip till well over the force of the usual head weight is reached.

[4x4American]

I didn't even think about putting down psi on it, because you can't do that on my mill.  If you can put down psi on your mill I wouldn't do that, just the weight of the head is all.  On my mill it is hung by sprockets/chains.  The weight of the head brings it down.

[5quarter]

Just enough to flatten out the bow which probably would need about 200-300 pounds...

Good idea TT. My wife will like this. 

;D ;D ;)

[terrifictimbersllc]

Just enough to flatten out the bow which probably would need about 200-300 pounds...

Good idea TT. My wife will like this. 

;D ;D ;)

Probably need 2-3 wives for some boards.  :