iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

I am back to making lumber

Started by MRowsh, August 19, 2015, 07:38:17 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

MRowsh

Hello and good morning to you,
It has been a long time for me to post anything here due to the fact that my LogMaster LM2 with Kohler engine did not last more than 3.5 hours of sawing with the first engine and after Kohler replaced the CH-1000 command pro with a new one, it lasted 1.5 hours and that was it.
It took about 6 months to go through the whole dealing with Kohler. They concluded after sending a field agent export that the engine should have been used for this size sawmill.  They found out that both time when I was cutting big white oak, when the blade cut through the nuts, the RPM dropped and caused excessive pressure inside the combustion chamber and the over pressure caused the engine failure.
Anyway, Kholer settled with me and I decided on buying a used Kubota V1305 4 cylinder engine and convert the sawmill from gas to Diesel engine.
Considering my shoulder, wrist, knee and other health issues and without any help from anyone, it took me longer than I thought because I had to relocate the radiator in order to use additional stub shaft to power the hydraulic motor, but I got it done.  And thanks God All mighty for that too.  Very happy with the results. With an old and not so sharp blade just for testing and seeing what this engine can do I cut some white oak and then a pine log.  WOW!!  I am very happy. The water temp did not get higher than 190F after putting a lot of pressure on the engine.



 
LogMaster LM2 with Kubota V1305 Diesel conversion.
There is a price for everything in life!!!  No free lunches!
Retired US Army.

thecfarm

Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

kelLOGg

Wow! What a hassle - but you prevailed.
Bob
Cook's MP-32, 20HP, 20' (modified w/ power feed, up/down, loader/turner)
DH kiln, CatClaw setter and sharpener, tandem trailer, log arch, tractor, thumb tacks

Magicman

Nice modification and welcome back home.   :)
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

pine


fishfighter

Glad you got going. DanG Kohler motors. >:(

MRowsh

There was nothing wrong with the Kohler engines. Possibly a sales and marketing guy had approved the use of Kohler CH-1000 Command pro for the sawmill without any calculations and/or consideration of required power to not only do the sawing, but also the hydraulic power requirement for cutting white oak and other hard wood logs.
There was no issues cutting pine and other logs, the white oak sure did a number on it though!
LogMaster LM2 with Kubota V1305 Diesel conversion.
There is a price for everything in life!!!  No free lunches!
Retired US Army.

drobertson

Fantastic!  and as one who fights two knees, and spinal issues my hats off to you and with you, it is a struggle every morning, and anything to help get it done, is about all we can do.  Nice to hear of a nice come back story,
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,

MRowsh

A Question about alternator connection.
The alternator on the Kubota is not charging any more. I have connected the activation wire directly to the ignition switch. 

The heavy gauge wire directly to the battery. Then the activation wire to ignition switch and the voltmeter wire to voltmeter.  I read on line that some people put a resistor between the activation wire connction to the ignition switch. If I do not place the resistor, does it cause the alternator to fail?
It was charging for a week, but not now.

Any helpful information  would be appreciated.
Thanks
MR
LogMaster LM2 with Kubota V1305 Diesel conversion.
There is a price for everything in life!!!  No free lunches!
Retired US Army.

slider

We had a similar problem on our chipper and converted to a one wire alternator.
al glenn

Kbeitz

The one wire alternator sells on ebay real cheap...
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

MRowsh

Thanks for the information about one wire alternator.  I had made a mistake connecting wires. I did not know that the third wire is remote sense. After I read what you said, I search the internet and found my mistake. Thanks again Slider.
Here is more info on it.

http://bob_skelly.home.comcast.net/~bob_skelly/alternator_conversion/wiring_alternator1.html
LogMaster LM2 with Kubota V1305 Diesel conversion.
There is a price for everything in life!!!  No free lunches!
Retired US Army.

Ljohnsaw

Quote from: MRowsh on August 29, 2015, 07:42:39 AM
Thanks for the information about one wire alternator.  I had made a mistake connecting wires. I did not know that the third wire is remote sense. After I read what you said, I search the internet and found my mistake. Thanks again Slider.
Here is more info on it.

http://bob_skelly.home.comcast.net/~bob_skelly/alternator_conversion/wiring_alternator1.html

Thanks for the link - I learned something new.  My Davis Little Monster backhoe had a generator that was shot.  Rebuilding was not an option and a replacement was a LOT of money ($200+ IIRC).  My Brother-in-law, a long-time mechanic, recommended a single wire alt.  I forgot most of what he was saying but it worked out for me.  The link above stated that a single wire was more money than a traditional 3-wire.  I found the opposite to be true.  The single wire was 10 to 20% less.  However I did not know that there was a minimum speed to get the alt to start charging.  From now on, I will "blip" my throttle after starting my backhoe.  Typically, I just run it at a low idle on the 18hp Wisconsin engine.
John Sawicky

Just North-East of Sacramento...

SkyTrak 9038, Ford 545D FEL, Davis Little Monster backhoe, Case 16+4 Trencher, Home Built 42" capacity/36" cut Bandmill up to 54' long - using it all to build a timber frame cabin.

MRowsh

Glad the web site came useful to you. I do like sharing good information I find on the net.

The Forestryforum has been very useful to me. I have learned a lot from members who were willing to share information.

May God bless all of you.
MR
LogMaster LM2 with Kubota V1305 Diesel conversion.
There is a price for everything in life!!!  No free lunches!
Retired US Army.

MRowsh

Wow, another set back. 
The coupling that connects hydraulic pump to the front shaft alignment where the radiator was ( which is not a rigid coupling)   vibrated too much and got the screws loose enough to damage itself by rubbing against the bracket nuts.  I guess my best alignment was not good enough due to additional Diesel engine vibration!
The volume of the 4 cylinder Diesel Kubota is about 4 times bigger than the Kohler's engine, and that provided me with too many challengers to configure and install the big engine where the little gas engine was.
Anyway, I am going to convert the hydraulic pump's direct coupling into belt driven one. I have to go and see if I can find the smallest V-Belt to fit everything as is instead of cutting the support frame again!
If I can get it done, I will post a picture.
LogMaster LM2 with Kubota V1305 Diesel conversion.
There is a price for everything in life!!!  No free lunches!
Retired US Army.

pineywoods

re: v belt drive..Keep in mind that most hydraulic pumps are designed for direct drive, won't tolerate the side loads imposed on the shaft by belt drive. Usually, the shaft rides in a bushing, which will wear rapidly, then the shaft seal goes west...
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

pine

Quote from: pineywoods on September 01, 2015, 10:30:01 AM
re: v belt drive..Keep in mind that most hydraulic pumps are designed for direct drive, won't tolerate the side loads imposed on the shaft by belt drive. Usually, the shaft rides in a bushing, which will wear rapidly, then the shaft seal goes west...

The Timberking mills (as they build them now) are all belt driven.  Did not know about the direct drive design issue.  I hope the ones that TK use are the exception to the design rule.

Kbeitz

What about a gearded belt drve? They dont slip and you dont need a lot of side pressure on the pump...



 


Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

scsmith42

Quote from: MRowsh on September 01, 2015, 07:35:37 AM
Wow, another set back. 
The coupling that connects hydraulic pump to the front shaft alignment where the radiator was ( which is not a rigid coupling)   vibrated too much and got the screws loose enough to damage itself by rubbing against the bracket nuts.  I guess my best alignment was not good enough due to additional Diesel engine vibration!
The volume of the 4 cylinder Diesel Kubota is about 4 times bigger than the Kohler's engine, and that provided me with too many challengers to configure and install the big engine where the little gas engine was.
Anyway, I am going to convert the hydraulic pump's direct coupling into belt driven one. I have to go and see if I can find the smallest V-Belt to fit everything as is instead of cutting the support frame again!
If I can get it done, I will post a picture.

Hi Mehdi, it's great to see you posting again!  I'm sorry to learn about all of your travails but it appears that you're getting closer to having things in order.  Replacing the engine on a sawmill with a totally different platform is no small task!

Re direct drive hydraulic systems, frequently they have what is known as a "Lovejoy coupling" or "center flexible shaft coupling" on them to address any minor misalignment issues.  McMaster sells them; simply to to their site and enter "lovejoy coupling" as the search term and it will take you to the appropriate page.

If you've already completed all of the work to direct mount the hydraulic pump, it may be easier to go the coupling route instead of modifying it to be a belt drive.

I still need to get over your way and check out your setup. 

Scott
Peterson 10" WPF with 65' of track
Smith - Gallagher dedicated slabber
Tom's 3638D Baker band mill
and a mix of log handling heavy equipment.

MRowsh

Thanks for all the good information. And I sure hope the hydraulic pump I have lasts for a while.

Scott, you are welcome to come by any time my friend;  specially now that I am fully retired. August 2014 I was number 59 who got laid off due to bad economy of all manufacturing, and with my age it was almost impossible to find another job, therefore wife and I decided that after 42 years of different types of employment, I should hang it up for good and deal with it!!
So, now I am working full time on my own so many different projects at home.

I completed the task of direct drive to v-belt drive on last Wednesday and have cut 4 logs and made some good lumber and as of now all is good.
Also what I did was,  I used a bigger pulley on the engine shaft. Therefore I turned down my RPM on engine to about 2750 RPM and the hydraulic pump now runs about 3100 RPM. So, the engine does not have to run hard at all and I believe my fuel economy should improve a lot.
It sure is unbelievable how easy it cuts now and I do not have to wear hearing protection any more. At idel RPM I can load the biggest log on the saw mill, so the idel RPM provides enough power to slowly loads them.
That CH-1000 2 cylinder Pro-Command Kholer gas engine was so loud that without hearing protection it was not possible to do anything.

LogMaster LM2 with Kubota V1305 Diesel conversion.
There is a price for everything in life!!!  No free lunches!
Retired US Army.

Thank You Sponsors!