Blade Tension Climbing

[ncsawyer]

I was cutting SYP over the weekend and things were going very well.  As it warmed up from about 40 degrees that AM to about 75 that afternoon, I kept bumping the blade tension down as the hydraulic fluid warmed with the ambient temp.

Then all of the sudden as I entered a cut I watched the tension raise 500lbs over the 12ft cut.  I backed it off and made another cut and the same thing happened.  I knew I was getting sawdust under the band wheel belts...but why. 

There was sawdust exiting the sawdust chute, and I looked into housing where the blade exits the cut and carries the sawdust away and it was very clear, I could see all the way out of the sawdust chute. 

I started removing blade covers.  Idle side was clean, top cover was clean, drive side cover was clean...except for a small piece of bark right under the blade that was catching sawdust and diverting it.  It was getting caught under the drive wheel belt. Removed the bark and problem solved. 

[valley ranch]

Seeing the bark and knowing what the story was~this reminds me of a story told me by uncle Joe.

Picture this 1919, grape ranch in Yettem, California. Uncle Joe a young man at the time, looked in the sulfur room, there was a man lying on the ground his hat in the clamps that would have held the tray or grapes to pull them onto the drying rack. Uncle said: " I knew right away what happened". I answered: "No kidding?"


Glad you found the problem and glad you told us about it. thanks.

Richard