Thread: lucas mill

G'day Natural Edge,
In 1995 I built a "Lucas" style mill with an upgraded Honda engine and a 210 mm depth of cut (I think, before Lucas introduced their 8" model). I fitted a 12V motor, driven off the saw battery, with reduction drive to move the carriage back and forward. The motor has a speed contoller and I have fitted movable stops on the rails. This made single man operation a lot easier because while the saw was on one cut I could be off stacking the previous board.
I have thought about automating the swing mechanism but haven't got to it yet.
The unit is still operating well despite sitting out in the paddock for many years.
If you want any info just PM me.
Regards.
Bill.

Natural edge, I was a guinea pig for Lucas when they where developing a side shift winder which moved the cutting head across and also swung the blade over. It was still manual, but the idea was the blade could be swung over without having to move the hands to different levers and thus save time.

As for a drive to power the blade along the tracks, my interpretation of license laws regarding sawmills from the DPI&F or EPA (can't remeber which) is that you have to have a license if the sawblade is powererd through the log or if the log moves through the sawblade. In this way the Lucas does not require a license, but the ASM does, I asked Peterson about it and quoted the relavent legislation at the time the ASM was introduced, they replied but didn't address the specific issue concerning license laws applying to the ASM.

ANYWAY... regardless of all that, I set up the mill site so I don't have to pull back the vertical cut, it rolls back using the weight of the mill, this allows me to tail out myself and the mill still cuts while I stack - no need for a power feed. I stack my logs so the butt ends are all at one end or I raise the log suport at the far end so this gets a slope on the rails, thus automatic vertical cuts.

I feel a power feed is okay, but it's one more thing to go wrong, especially if you are operating in regions like New Guinea, Solomon Islands etc, yeah I know we aren't in those regions, but part of the success with Lucas is it is rugged and suited to just about anywhere

Just an addition to the automated side of things. I got a look at an ASM yesterday. Was sitting in a yard doing nothing, apparently hadn't done anything for months. $50,000 just sitting there doing nothing???

Well after a bit of a chat, I had a look over it, chains all over the place to drive all the adjustments - big ugly looking thing, the welds all seemed to be 'tacked' instead of continuous welds, just looked like it was chucked together in a hurry. The fella who owned the land (not the ASM owner) said the owner had had people from Peterson out quite a few times (sort of expected with a new machine) but apparently the manufacture was not done in a servicing friendly manner, supposedly there was heaps of problems getting to things to undo bolts etc. quite a bit of stuff had to be removed piece by piece before getting to the required part which needed attention.

I know it's basically hearsay, but from my point of view, it was just ugly and that's not sour grapes 'cause I have to push my Lucas, or 'cause I don't have $50,000 to leave it in the paddock doing nothing, I just reckon it was ugly!!

I second the coments on the ASM. I saw it at the WWW show a couple of years back and was very unimpressed. In fact, it was a very big factor in choosing not to go Peterson, even though I would have been looking at a WPF or ATM rather than the ASM. The build quality and the design just looked poor. Ditto with Ecosaw. It's all well and good to have ideas, but ideas that are poorly implemented aren't worth much.

i agrre with craig.

the ecosaw are not worth the stainless steel there made off. and there in lyes ther biggest problem.

a amte has a wpf and it is verry complicated with chains and handles everyware. it to just sits idle in his padock with and old tarp over the motor. seem a lot of mopney to have lying round.

the lucas seem the best constructed of the lot. thats what you expect form an ausie company.

Carl and Craig, I haven't seen an ecosaw in person, seen the website pics, read the 'claims' but what's so unremarkeable about them?

where do i start.....

when cutting a 4x1 in grey ironbark the blade was just about jumping out of the horasontal cut (4") the rails were flexing that mutch.

the rails are a manufactured series of triangulated bits of stainless steel. when it flexes sideways it also twists one rail up and one down making eh whole thig out of alighnment.

when i was at malaney author himself said that one bloke spent 2 hour getting a cris cross pattern on the cut. if it takes that mutch adjustment after moveing its pretty mutch useless.

the whole thing is stainless steel. everybody knows that stainless welds cannot take any vibartion or flex they just crack up. there would be more time spent fixing cacked melds than milling.

stainless steel is well known as being verry heavy.

the powerhead is not on wheels meaning one person will find it verry hard to set it up especialy if you cant get a vehicle to the log.

what more can i say. if it cn go wrong it will. or already has.

i have nothing against author but he knows nothig about milling/timber and needs to employ some decent desighners and engeneers or at least talk to someone that has an unbyased opinion.

he also said that the mill in combination with the log lathe you could cut 200 slit posts in a day.

now i cut posts verry often free hand and i am verry disapointed if i dont cut 300 in a day. we had a blok on here for a wile that could cut 200 by lunch. he loved using the 170 and 14" bar. boy he flew threw them out.

my first mill was done on a lewis saw , now eco saw , made in W.A wisey you are right there is some flex in the frame which has now been beefed up when going the lucas (which i use now) and eco will flex about the same . have a look at the lewis at the red shed it has deen set up in the weather and used for over 12 years with no cracks in the frame my lucas frame is 18 months old and dont like the wear and tear on a new mill in such a short time . You mill inside a lucas and out side a eco a safer position and set up of the eco is more a 2 man job or forklift to position the motor . all three mills have good and bad points i would happly use any of the three brands

I can get through 200 quarter-split posts without trying with the Lucas. It's just 4 cuts and I use a couple of bearers with V-shaped notches out of them. Takes no more than a couple of minutes a log for the milling and another couple for the setup each time. It's much less work than using a chainsaw. The hardest part is finding someone able to keep up with the tailing out.

What price are you getting for split posts, Weisy?

On the Eco saw: the original Lewis saw was made of galvanised steel and the rails were square in section. As Carl says, Arthur has changed to SS and a triangular section, which is prone to twist and I suspect is also prone to fatigue cracking. I don't much like the end frames design, which is an original Lewis feature either, since it means that tailing out always involves either leaning over the rails or ducking under, which has to be a PITA. The general assembly quality isn't inspiring either. I do wish Arthur well with it, but I have to say I reckon he'd be better focussing on trying to produce one really good product than a whole bunch of half-developed ones.

gday

it is not esay cutting splits with a chainsaw. but i dont see how you could cut splits from a 600mm log with a lucas unless you had some sort of indexing system. witch i gues would not be hard to make i gues.

wehn we have to buy split posts (if i odnt have time to cut them) we pay about $10 each bu we charge them out at $15 as this is what the customer would have to pay if buying retail. we have done jobs where 1000 posts were needed . to mutch for me to do on my own.

i think the plainlands hardware is now charging $15 - $18 each for them. i did not know they had a lewis at the big red shed. i will have to go see jackie and have a look at it.

I cut splits out of 300 diameter logs and sometimes also cut them from the flitches of larger logs that I'm opening up. I never cut them from the main part of larger logs as it would be a complete waste.

If you need any, let me know.

we cut them from what ever logs we can get. we did a bluey that was 1m diamiter. ended up with a bloudy lot of posts from that log.

3 decks right round about 20 posts from the outside deck.

Craig, when you're cutting splits, do you just turn the log in the supporting 'v' then do the next side of the split? I wouldn't mind seeing a series of pics on your split post cutting. I admit that cutting them by chainsaw is much harder than milling, but if by hand you rip out 200 a day, that's $2,000 a day. A great days wage for a great days work, but if they work out viable on the Lucas, than that's even better