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New Member with a T.A. Schmidt Mill

Started by frankg, February 05, 2015, 07:46:34 PM

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frankg

Greetings everyone, a couple of evenings ago I was trying to get contact info for Tom Schmidt to ask a question about parts for my mill & stumbled across this forum where it appears Tom is a member. In just a couple of visits to the forum I've gained lots of knowledge about saw-milling & lumber in general & I'm anxious to learn more. I bought my mill from Tom at the North Carolina Farm Show in either 1997 or 1998, so it's had 20 or almost 20 years of heavy hobby use, no wonder I'm starting to need some replacement parts. My greatest need now are replacement roller blade guides, these are 2"OD with a 3/8" ID for the bolt/bearing. I've tried Cook Sawmill and they don't have this exact size. Does anyone know of a good source? It appears that I may also need new 19" drive & Idle wheels sometime soon. My original wheels have a tight belt fitted around the wheel and the drive wheel appears to have somehow  become untrue & I'm having trouble with the blade coming off. Thinking about going to metal wheels (without belts) but they are expensive for a hobby mill. Any thoughts about pros & cons? How about sources for band saw wheels other than Cooks? Well more than enough for my first post, I'll stay tuned for any replies. Thanks, Frank

Dave Shepard

Welcome to the Forum! I can't help you with the roller guides, sorry. I wonder why the bandwheel would be out of true, if it has belts? Are the belts in good condition?
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

drobertson

sorry no help on this end, but happy to see you getting in gear,
only have a few chain saws I'm not suppose to use, but will at times, one dog Dolly, pretty good dog, just not sure what for yet,  working on getting the gardening back in order, and kinda thinking on maybe a small bbq bizz,  thinking about it,

Sixacresand

"Sometimes you can make more hay with less equipment if you just use your head."  Tom, Forestry Forum.  Tenth year with a LT40 Woodmizer,

thecfarm

I replaced a guide on my thomas mill. I brought one from them and did some searching and they was all about the same price. I have no idea about 2 inches,but seem like I remember 3/8.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Chuck White

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, frankg.

My BIL has a T.A. Schmidt Mill that he bought around the same timeframe as you!

If I run into him, I'll try to find out where he gets parts!
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

bandmiller2

Welcome Frank, you don't have to have the exact size guides, you can adapt the Cooks. If I recall most of the guides use a 5/8" or mayby 1/2" bolt, you could just put a bushing in the larger hole down to 3/8. A better solution would be to go to the larger bolt size. Tom made a good rugged mill I'am sure most was made from off the shelf parts. Are you sure its not the wheel bearings that are causing the problem, that's what it sounds like to me. Frank C.
A man armed with common sense is packing a big piece

47sawdust

frankg,
Linn lumber,Sweet Home,Oregon,sells components for bandmills.They may be worth a look.
Mick
Mick
1997 WM Lt30 1999 WM twin blade edger Kubota L3750 Tajfun winchGood Health Work is my hobby.

4x4American

When is the last time you replaced the belts on your wheels?
Boy, back in my day..

pineywoods

I'm with bandmiller, sounds like wheel bearings. On most mills, there's 2 bearings in each bandwheel. If one goes bad and the other doesn't, your mill will do strange things. Don't ask how I know  ::) If they get bad enough, guide rollers can cause blades to jump off as well.
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

frankg

Thanks for all the replies. I have checked on-line with Linn & Thomas & neither has the guides I need. I'm going to go ahead & order the standard roller guides from Cooks, pretty sure I can make the slots where they bolt on 1/2" without too much trouble. I have been buying my blades from Cooks for the past few years & have had great customer service & excellent blades. The wheel that is in question is the drive wheel and it rotates through a billow block bearing on each side of the frame, are these the bearings that could be defective? The wheel is solid on the axle so don't think there are any bearing internal to the wheel but since I've never had that apart I could be wrong. The belts on both wheels have been on approximately 5-6 years but they appear to be in good shape. No cuts or breaks on either. How about the split bushing that locks the wheel to the axle, can they go bad & cause the wheel to appear out of true? Well it's warmed up some this afternoon so guess I'll just go & take it apart & see what I can find out. Chuck if you do run into your friend that has the Schmid mill I would really appreciate any parts info he could provide. Thanks again to all,
Frank

frankg

Looks like Bandmiller & pineywoods nailed the problem, the pillow block bearing on the side by the drive pulley is shot. The other one looks fine but I'll install a new one & put the used one on the shelf. Also on closer inspection, in better natural daylight the belt on that wheel has seen better days so I'll change them both. The roller guides are really in bad shape, so as I mentioned before I'll order and install the 2"OD ones from Cooks and enlarge the mounting slots from 3/8" to 1/2". When I get it back together & give her a test run on some red oak that's sitting on the mill I'll post a report.
Thanks all,
Frank

47sawdust

frankg,
good luck with the rebuild.I think those are very good sawmills.Nothing like a little tlc to make the mill run good and you to feel good about it.
Mick
1997 WM Lt30 1999 WM twin blade edger Kubota L3750 Tajfun winchGood Health Work is my hobby.

Chuck White

Looks like you've found what you're looking for, frankg.

Check with them, they may have other common parts you should have on hand.


Happy Birthday 47sawdust.
~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

5quarter

Last night after I had read your post, I remembered a berry farm near me that has an old TA Schmid buried in the tall grass and shrubs/trees in the back of their property. It had a rotten log sitting on it and the blade was still tensioned; like someone had stopped sawing for a moment and never came back. I should go ask them about it this spring. It'll need some work to get sawing, but might be worth picking up if it's still there.
What is this leisure time of which you speak?
Blue Harbor Refinishing

4x4American

Quote from: 5quarter on February 06, 2015, 09:40:00 PM
Last night after I had read your post, I remembered a berry farm near me that has an old TA Schmid buried in the tall grass and shrubs/trees in the back of their property. It had a rotten log sitting on it and the blade was still tensioned; like someone had stopped sawing for a moment and never came back. I should go ask them about it this spring. It'll need some work to get sawing, but might be worth picking up if it's still there.

Isn't that funny? 

I seen the same thing from a local farmer.  He told me that he has a mill that an old engineer who worked for Baker built.  Tells me it's just like a Baker but better!  So he was telling me how great it was (this past fall)  I asked to go have a look at it.  Sure, hop in the side by side and head over the hill to it.  I get there, you can barely see it, it's got so much growth in/around it.  Blade still tensioned, log on the mill.  He told me that he's hoping to start sawing again soon and build a shed for it.  He told me that every piece of lumber in his house was sawed on that mill.  Anyways, he has a hard time getting around nowadays.  I told him I am willing to help him get it going.
Boy, back in my day..

frankg

Greetings, it's been quite a while since I posted the problem I was having with my T.A. Schmid sawmill so thought I would provide an update. The suggestion I received about the cause possibly being a bad bearing was spot on. One of the pillow block bearings on the drive axle failed and also ruined the axle. Fortunately I was able to purchase the axle material locally for $20.00 and I have a friend that has a machine shop who cut it to the required lengths for both the drive axle & the idle axle, he also cut the keyway in the drive axle. I purchased four new pillow block bearings, two new roller guides & some Super Sharp Dura Tooth blades from Cook Sawmill and put it together a couple of weeks ago. I've milled red oak & southern pine so far and it works better than new.  Thanks again to all that replied to my problem and thanks to Cooks Sawmill for quality parts at a fair price. Frank

44woody

Hey I have that kind of mill how do u tight ur blades on urs it may just be the way u are doing it

frankg

Hello Woody,
My mill has two adjustment bolts on the idle wheel, turning them clockwise moves the wheel out, tightening the blade. It takes a bit of hit & miss to get it correct. I keep tract of the number of counter clockwise turns needed to get to get an old blade off, install new blade and then re-tighten the same number of turns to keep the wheel running true. I then check the blade for tightness by trying to push down on it in the center between the two wheels, if it deflects I turn each bolt another half turn & check again, repeating that procedure until the blade is tight. Seems like there should be a better way, but after 20 years I'm OK with it. How about yours, same or different method?

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