Thread: Anyone got a pump... or some motivational words???

That's a lot of water

Sounds like you'll have to strip the mill down

On the bright side, the logs won't dry out to quickly now

ok who left the hose running.

is the mill insured?

if like me and its not then im afraid its under ##### creek.

the logs will have all floated away but thats the least of your worries. hopefully no logs come floating down and hook your mill.

id say ya gunna need a new motor. depending on what is in the watter if its nice and clean it may be ok. just gotta clean it up quick smart. strip it down and dry it all and coat everything with inox.

you were gunna give it was anyhow wernt u

i got bad news for you. the rain has turned around adn is on the way back.

Sigidi

I wouldnt worry too much.

We have had no power all week with both rain and wind. Second time in 6 weeks our area has been deemed a disaster area.

I lost a set of rails under a few tons of grey gum. Fell right across the mill but missed the milling head.

Spent yesterday helping get a bobcat out of the mud. It was 6m under. Drained the engine and hydraulic oils, removed the injectors and hand cranked the engine to make sure it had no water, topped everything back up and it started first go.

Our irrigation pump is normally 10m above the river height in one of our dams. Ended up doing the same to it. 13hp petrol, drained of oil, plug out, air filter renewed, new oil drained and refilled the fuel which was full of mud and no problem starting.

Your mill will be a lot stronger than you might first think.

best of luck with it.

Could have been worse ,your ute or truck could have been parked down there next to the mill full of drills grinders ,winch ,chainsaw , etc etc

I've got an old can of WD40 I don't need ... *grin*

Seriously, best wishes for getting back on track after the flood.

and i would give my lefty for some good rain have had almost nothing since november .
i have been pumping day and night trying to keep 12 acres of pumpkins alive and growing .
with the constant wind its a battle .

Man that is some bad luck, I really hope it is insured and that the insurance company don't try and pull a dodgy on you, could be 10 inch upgrade time maybe?

Keep us posted.

Not knowing the insurance angle and whether u want to go to the extent of pulling it apart especially if it's only a couple of days b4 u can get to it but I'm with Arthur, drain all oils, fuels, (water) carby off and fuel tank cleaned of water, new air oil filter, new fuels and oils, spark plug out, cranked until nothing coming out plug hole, maybe a bit of crc or such down cylinder bit more cranking, have a look down plug hole to see if u can see any water droplets, u prolly wont get them all out, a few fine drops should be ok they will evaporate and go out the exhaust, what u definately dont want is hydraulic lock if it fires up with a heap of water in the bore, if u can crank it with plug in but lead off should be ok, might even drain oil again after cranking to see if theres any water in it, new oil or same again, fire it up let it run, might spit and fart a bit, let it get nice and hot, switch off check oil, if its milky will still have oil in it, otherwise keep an eye on it and it should be fine, our lawn mower was under water in a bit of a flood a while back I just cleaned float bowl and took plug out and pulled cord for a bit, been good since....best of luck Allan, let us know how u go.

I'll see how it goes, never know It might be a great story to add to my collection of how much I love my Lucas??? Here's hoping

Bloke, no good, I hope it all works out for you, I recon you might get away with it as there will not be enough time for any corrosion/rust to start in the bore.Last reply posted here suggested cranking motor with plugs still in, for the love of god, do not, do not dot that ever for you will really do some damage, with the plugs out, you can crank away and get most of it out. Sure all oil, fuel, filters and plugs will need a replacement, kinda goes without saying really. the bits that generate the spark (electronic ignition) might have gone, you never know, remember it is the best made mill about, would'nt be suprised if she went first time. A call to Lucas wouldn't hurt, probaly happened before to someone, given that they are sold all around the world, I'm sure it's happen somewhere tropical. there used to be a product called upper cylinder lube, you put a couple of drops in the plug holes then fire up, don't know if it's still around or be any use to ya, Lucas will know for sure. We both know how good thier after sales help is.
I wish you all the good luck in getting back to making sawdust, if you were any closer you could borrow mine till yours is back.
On lighter note, imagine how easy it will to float the logs into place.
Good luck Allan
regards John

well at least your mill has had a good wash , said with a very wry grin

I have had thousands of submerged motors & machinery that 99% of the time you can get going with a minimum of fuss Getting it out of the mud that will be left there after the water goes is the trick.
I worked as a marine mechanic for some years.

Oh while it is actually under water you are fairly cool it is after the water goes you need to get it out quickly to stop rust/corrosion as when the unit is submerged their is no oxygen around it to cause corrosion

as for cleaning etc it has been covered very well allready in this thread

best of luck love to see some pics of the ressurection work

Thanks John.

A few times with our 5.5hp fire fighter pump I have been slow in getting it up off the creek and it's gone swimming, she's still kicking, when I can get it out, I drop the oil, replace it, pull the plug out and chuck it, while the plugs out I turn it over until I can't get more water out, then hit it with compressed air to try and dry any water up - last time I got my soldering torch and put some heat in through the plug hole to make sure all was dry. Empty the fuel tank, compressed air to remove any water, clean out carby of water, chuck air filter and put everything back together.

She still runs well, fella next door is amazed at how often it's been swimming and that I can still run 8 irrigation heads at once for 3 hours on one tank of fuel (about 35 litres per minute per head)

My biggest worry is if any of the logs are stuck in or on the mill itself, next is if I still have the logs which cost me $500 of machine hire and 5.5 hours of me running crazy with chains and saw, I'd only chewed through about a fifth of the logs we scored

here is another pic from around the side looking down the track in to the mill site.

The mill is behind the trees on the left, about where the green circle is...


How many of you think the logs I harvested would have washed away? I figure they where pretty green, but ya see pics of the days floating logs down rivers to get to sawmills? so maybe they will have gone?

I had those two 350x350 posts, still waiting to be picked up, sitting next to the mill, the customer has already paid for them, but the fella contracted to put them in hadn't picked them up before it flooded. I did let him know when they where ready and they've been ready since 20/3. Where do you reckon that leaves me if they have floated away?