Thread: Milling with a twist

Are your rails still parallel?

yep, rails are parallel and the end frames are sitting on the ends directly under the uprights, not in the middle of the crossmember. New tips, freshly sharpened. I'll check with dudley in the morning if he doesn't see this. It might have got knocked somehow, but I can't see how.

The Lucas I use does that on every cut, pain in the ear

have you still got a criss cross pattern ? maybe some how something moved and the blade is slightly tilted forward ,when cutting horizontal]causing it to dig in gradually deeper as you move along the log and similarly on the vertical tilted slightly to the side?

good luck , if you find out what it is it would be good to know the cause for future reference .

You could have the greaseable bearing on the way out & its deflecting away from the force being applied on each cut, ie down pushing & to the right pulling.
regards inter

Thanks for the responses folks. I suspect it may be related to the teeth in some way. inter, the bearing was my first thought, but it's as tight as a dru- no slop at all. I'll check the adjustments today and call lucas if I still have problems. Will keep you all posted.

Well, it seems I've found the problems - there were two. the first is the right rear engine carriage roller, which adjusts the steering of the vertical cut. it was missing the circlip and was consequently flopping around a bit. I've replaced the circlip, but I'll be in touch with Lucas for a new roller, as the groove is a bit knackered.

the other problem, which may be somehow related, but I can't work out how, is that the horizontal adjustment was way out, by nearly 2 turns too high at the front. I think the blade was being "cupped by the pressure, causing the front to be flexed down, which was why it was dragging so much and why it was gradually steering itself downwards.

I'll confirm all this tonight after a day's milling.

Sometimes I will find a really hard log & the saw wants to follow the grain, around limbs, knots & just at sapwood layer, I just slow the rate of cut or cut too & fro 100mm at a time, or shallower passes. Just do a check cut on the end of the log to see if your cuts are lining up, that will take the blade out of the mystery
regards inter

So how'd ya go Craig?

Bit of a mixed bag. The horizontal cut is the best I've ever had it. It's smooth, very straight and I can go as fast as I like with no change to that.

The vertical cut is a different kettle of fish. It cuts straight and true and everything is spot-on if I go slowly, but as soon as I start to put any pressure on it starts to drift to the right. It's not as bad as it was, but it still drifts enough to fail to join the cuts by the time it gets to the end of the vertical. The clearances are all spot on, as far as I can tell and I've tried adjusting it to "steer" both ways with no significant improvement. I've sent Lucas an email, so we'll see what they come up with.

One thing I'm a bit concerned with is that I've had to adjust the left-hand side-shift roller, which is meant to be a fixed item, just to get the blade even close to parallel with the main rails. With the right-hand roller, which is meant to be the adjustment point, screwed in as far as it can go, the blade is still angled to the right on the vertical.

It's getting very frustrating, especially since this happened with no apparent cause, other than the missing circlip in the roller.

Have you got your new roller from Lucas yet? If not, I'd be inclined to hold off adjusting things too much or stressing about it. Depending on how long you'd been missing the clip, the roller may be worn around the bearing and this may be why you can't get the adjustment.

Great to hear the horizontal is good!

I know it's a silly question, but are your tips exactly the proportions in the manual? I know my local saw doctor has a habit of putting the tips almost flush on the inside edge of the blade (in vert) which obviously puts the force of the tips cutting off centre compared to the blade. For me I've found the greater majority of my problems have always come from blades.

It is funny that 'all of a sudden' the adjustments are 'out' I've adjusted my mill once when I replaced the carriage rollers first time and didn't take notice of how they where when I took them off since then never adjusted it again...

Yeah, the tips are all good. As you know, we do our own tipping and I check the jig each time. I have them exactly centred, as best I can do by eye and I've changed the blades a couple of times, just to be sure it's not a warped plate, although they're all straight.

You could be right about the roller. It's possible that pulling back is letting the whole right side of the engine assembly to move forward, steering the blade to the right. There is a little slop in there. I might try shimming it a little, just to see. Thanks for the suggestion.

craig, any chance of a few pics so i can follow ? cheers

Originally Posted by Exador

You could be right about the roller. It's possible that pulling back is letting the whole right side of the engine assembly to move forward, steering the blade to the right. There is a little slop in there. I might try shimming it a little, just to see. Thanks for the suggestion.

Because of the distance between the blade and the roller any small amount of movement out of square at the roller is going to be amplified at the blade. Here is hoping that is where your problems lie.