Sawing problems with LUcas 8-30

Started by Old Forester, February 20, 2017, 03:12:46 PM

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Old Forester

Have an 8-30 Lucas Mill.  Bought it in new in 2006 and it has worked great over the years, although I have not used it a lot. Now it seems to take almost constant adjusting every time I use it, and needs adjustment to get it to saw, and the it doesn't saw uniform boards.  Boards thicker on right side than on left, dips in depth of sawing, horizontal cuts don't always match vertical and more.  Is there a trouble shooting manual, video, or place to get trouble shooting help.  Use to use Bailey's, but have not had any luck with them since the got/took back the dealership awhile back.

Amy thoughts of where to get help would be appreciated.

Seaman

Tell us where you are.
I ran a Lucas 8/30 for a few years.

All these problems with the same blade?
Mark the adjustments to see if nuts/bolts are moving.
Do you sharpen your own blades?

My money is on the blade, given the info.
Lucas dedicated slabber
Woodmizer LT40HD
John Deere 5310 W/ FEL
Semper Fi

Dakota

I agree with Seaman.  Every time I've had a problem sawing, it turned out to be a blade issue.  I'd also go through your set up again and make sure the tracks(rails) are parallel.
Dave Rinker

Lucas_USA

Quote from: Old Forester on February 20, 2017, 03:12:46 PM
Have an 8-30 Lucas Mill.  Bought it in new in 2006 and it has worked great over the years, although I have not used it a lot. Now it seems to take almost constant adjusting every time I use it, and needs adjustment to get it to saw, and the it doesn't saw uniform boards.  Boards thicker on right side than on left, dips in depth of sawing, horizontal cuts don't always match vertical and more.  Is there a trouble shooting manual, video, or place to get trouble shooting help.  Use to use Bailey's, but have not had any luck with them since the got/took back the dealership awhile back.

Amy thoughts of where to get help would be appreciated.

Hi Old Forester,

Do you have any play in your gearbox? Have you got a new/different blade you can try? In your owners manual there is a chapter on saw blade adjustment.



Old Forester

Thanks for you advice so far.  I have changed blades, and I am in the process of checking all of the alignments and blade adjustments.

The problems I have been having, with more detail are:

When sawing 5/4 lumber 8" wide, the left side of the board is on target, 1 1/4" and the right side is somewhere in the 1 1/2" to 1 7/8".

At times the horizontal cut and the vertical cut do not meet, but it is not consistently off across the whole board.  At some places the cut misses  matching by about a 1/16' to 1/8", although on portions of the board the cuts match.  In addition some time the vertical cut is deeper than the horizontal by about 1/8", and this may occur on either end of the board or it may be only in the center of the board.  The log is not flexing as we are sawing ~20" white oak logs and less than 1/2 of the log is still remaining to be sawn.  I also can not find any flexing or movement in the sawmill tracks. 

I have put on a different blade and it did not make much difference, and in addition re-tipped another blade, and yes I resharpen the blades myself when the need sharpening. 

There are time I can adjust the blade alignment to get some resolution, but the next time I saw I need to go through some adjustment again.  I never seem to be able to start sawing another day without doing some adjustment.

The mill is located in an old cattle barn and has an open exposure to the south.  We have had a really variable weather this year with some below zero weather followed by warning trends and today it will probably hit 70 degrees.  So soil temps have been somewhat variable.  I don't know if the mill is moving as the ground under it freezes and thaws.  I have not had problems in previous winters.  The mill set on a crushed limestone pad 3 to 4 inches thick, but who knows if is moving or how much.  Setting up on frozen ground has never a problem in the past.

Again, thanks for your thoughts so far, and any additional thoughts you may have  be greatly appreciated.


Ianab

I'm not familiar with the Lucas mechanism, but with my old mill, occasionally a wood chip would fly up and end up sitting on the horizontal adjustment stop. When you flipped to horizontal, it acted as a shim, the blade wasn't quite horizontal, and you get tapered boards. Then it would fall off next cut, and leave you wondering what went wrong....
Weekend warrior, Peterson JP test pilot, Dolmar 7900 and Stihl MS310 saws and  the usual collection of power tools :)

barbender

Well, I am not a swing mill sawyer, but I have been around them a fair amount, and I see 2 potential problems in what you wrote- 1 is the temperatures swinging either side of freezing. Partially frozen logs can give fits, no matter what kind of sawmill, band or circle. 2.White oak, I watched a friend's swing mill that had sawed other species without a problem fall on it's face on a white oak. I don't doubt that we could have made adjustments and got it to saw, the Aussies and Kiwis cut way more difficult woods and that's where these mills were developed. We didn't have time for it that day. I have witnessed these saws being sensitive to blade lead adjustment.
Too many irons in the fire

barbender

Also, did you try a NEW blade? Sometimes a resharpened one may need retensioned etc.
Too many irons in the fire

Seaman

Barbender has a point. You may have changed to a different blade, which has been sharpened and retipped same as the first, which does not eliminate the blades as the culprit.
Tell us where you are and we can help you find someone who can hammer and retip for you. It took me several tries to find the right guy.
Has it done the same with other logs, or just this white oak?
 
Lucas dedicated slabber
Woodmizer LT40HD
John Deere 5310 W/ FEL
Semper Fi

Dakota

I still think you have blade issues.  I've put on, newly professionally sharpened blades, and they wouldn't cut a lick (old saying).  There is one other thing that can give you problems, even if every thing else is ok, and that is stress in the log.  If you encounter stress, and it heats up your blade, that can change the dynamics of the blade, and how it saws.
Dave Rinker

Old Forester

Thanks for all of you thoughts and help.  As to where I am at, I am in north central Iowa, so if anyone know of a saw shop close, I would appreciate any information or ideas of where to go.  (Don't know why I have not been able to up date my profile).

The gear box seems fine with no play.  I am going to send the day re-aligning the mill and checking everything again today.  I will order a new blade and try that.

Thanks again, will keep you posted on any improvements.

barbender

Maybe I missed it, but did you check the lead on your blade? My swingmill buddy would use different lead adjustment for different species sometimes. Most of the sawing problems he experienced were due to either improper lead, or the blade not being tensioned properly for the rpm it was spinning. Both cause a heated blade that wanders all over. One time, when using a batch of improperly tensioned blades, we were able to adjust the engine rpms down to where the blade straightened out, and then sawed at that rpm. Worked fine. It seems that a few saw doctors that are used to big circle blades have a hard time getting the smaller swingmill blades tensioned correctly.
Too many irons in the fire