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Woodland Mill 126 Cooks Guide addition

Started by DannyLand, October 26, 2016, 01:20:06 PM

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DannyLand

 

 

A few fellow HM126 owners have been asking me for details of how I modified my 2014 with a set of cooks guides so here it is.   
    Purchased a set of 1-1/4" cooks guides with the adjustment tubes from their website.   Purchased a 12" length of 1-1/4" key stock from McMastercarr.   If you can find something 1-3/16 or 1-1/8" you can save yourself a lot of time and effort.   
    I took the grinder and as carefully as I could, removed 3/32 off two sides, cut two pieces of it 4" long and rounded the edges so it would slide in the current down tubes the existing guides are mounted through.  I had to groove the side where the tube weld was to allow it to slide in easy.   

 
I had to remove an additional section of the bar to allow for the right depth off the back of the roller guide to line up with the location of the down tubes.  Unfortunately I dont have a good photo of that, but it makes the bottom profile of the bar 1-3/32" x 1" for approximately 1" up.   This is to allow for the height adjustment bolt on the cooks guide.   Weld the adjustment tube provided by cooks to the bar so the 1" side is flush with the end of the adjustment tube.  The Cooks guide should now be able to slide into the adjustment tube with the 1/4" notch sitting over the top of the height adjustment bolt. You can sort of see it here.  The 1/4" is overhanging the black block of the guide.   The green down tube is hiding it but you get the idea.   
 
I then cut the existing down tubes in length to allow the guides to sit at the correct height.   Now each persons saw may be different, but I cut mine at 5" down off their welded location.


The crappy part is removing a small section of the down tube to allow for the cooks height adjustment bolt.   Im sure you can just cut the down tube shorter but I want as much support as possible from them so I notched the blade side of the tube out by 1" square. 

I drilled and tapped a new hole on the rear of the down tube to hold the new bar in place.  So far they work, Im sure I could have done things a little cleaner and nicer but its limited under there with what I can work with.   If I had the right material, I would have removed the factory down tubes and welded on new ones in a better location.   For example, if I was willing to spend the money on a length of 1-1/2" 3/16 wall tube and 2" 3/16 wall I could have just made new down tubes out of the 2" and welded the 1-1/4 onto the cooks guides.   But the steel distributer in my area only stocks 24' lengths with each stick of 1-1/4" costing $100 with a minimum of $150 order.  I just couldnt justify it but it will work for anyone of you willing to do so.   Removing the old tubes completely is a little more difficult than just grinding them off due to a few other things in the way so I took the easy way out.    Please let me know if you guys have any questions that I might be able to answer for you.  Right now I have the water line zip tied to the tube but it works, dont mind the ice off the end of it, its just a reminder I need to start draining the tank every night or start adding something to it to prevent freezing.  I'll make a more permanent mount later.   
Woodland Mills HM126, Hudson debarker, Jonsered 2171, New Holland skid steer, 1955 International Harvester Dump 132

fishfighter

Thanks. So, do you see any improvements? Are you adjusting the guides to were they are 1/4" below plane?

DannyLand

Sadly Ive only had the chance to run a few boards off since adding them but the first cut was with a dull blade in an attempt to see any difference between a dull blade on stock guides and then the very next cut using the cooks.  Big improvement!  I know when the blade is dull it needs to be changed, but if I can get a little more consistent cuts when the blade is only starting to dull, I'll be happy.  My testing was done on a particularly frustrating spruce that was giving wavy cuts on a new blade with the old guides so I feel confident it will cut nicer on cleaner logs like ash, maple and oak.
   I altered the mill so at dead zero on all adjustments, the rollers have no down pressure.  From there I moved my new pins down 1/8" and then got the extra 1/8" using the cooks adjustments and dialed them in to be true to the blade cutting flat.    It will need a little more adjustment with time but for now its good.   
   I also made 6 new dog sockets using heavier wall tube.   Sadly the steel yard only sells 2" square tube 3/16 wall in 24 foot lengths so I have 20' of stock to use for other projects now.  I drilled a hole in the corner of each 6" piece, welded a 3/8 nut onto it and short sections of rod to the ends of some 1-1/2 long bolts to clamp the dogs with.  They are super strong (much better than the stock ones), fit the stock dogs perfectly and now I have enough to put them on each bed rail.  The stock ones quickly bent out in the back when larger logs have bumped up against them. Ive been as gentile as possible loading them but a little nudge with a 2000 pound log is a lot of pressure.   Especially when rolling it over after the fist slab has been removed and it crashes down onto its new flat spot.  I am adding more because  Ive found myself limited when I want to cut something really small or large enough where things start to move too much in the middle of a cut.  I ripped down some basic 1-1/2" stock using maple to act as sacrificial dogs when I just need a little additional support.   Im adding them to the rails with two on the clamp side to help prevent logs from falling off the mill when rolling them.    The material ends up costing about $4 per foot so if anyone else is looking for some, let me know and we can work something out.   ;)
Woodland Mills HM126, Hudson debarker, Jonsered 2171, New Holland skid steer, 1955 International Harvester Dump 132

fishfighter

Thanks again. I got to wait till I do the swap. Got way to many irons in the fire right now. :D

DanMc

Cooks guides will be one of the highest priority updates for my HM 126.   Thanks for posting!!!!!  Gives me an excellent starting point!
LT35HDG25
JD 4600, JD2210, JD332 tractors.
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