Thread: What u find in the pumpkin patch!

Very nice

Wow. Well done on the salvage. Looks like blue gum to me (Forest red gum in NSW).
cheers
Steve

Fabulous stuff, nice set up, thanks for posting. It's amazing what those grey ghosts in the gardens and paddocks still have hidden in them. I'm not familiar with the east coast trees so I can't really say what it is.

I see you left the dogs on your husky, I took them off my mate Hud's 3120XP when we started to set his mill and saw up but then realized the antivibe uses the inboard dog as a part of the AV system so I had to put them back on. If the dogs weren't there husky owners could probably get another inch of cut out of the bar. I suppose a plate could be made to replace the dog if the extra inch was needed. That's what I find a bit restrictive about commercial mills, they lose about 6" of cut from most bars. I only lose 2.5" of cut with my setup and its a lot more solid and balanced with the mill bolting onto the bar bolts. It's interesting to see how often that extra inch or so really comes in handy. Here is a jarrah branch (yes its a branch!) where we had to trim a bit off the side to be able to make the cut. If we'd had my mill there we would not have had to do this.


if you put a wheel on the bottom of the inboard skid of that westford you'll find it a lot easier to roll down the side of most logs. I also note you don't have an aux oiler? I know the husky is capable of putting out a lot of oil but my experience is it that most of this is wasted when the chain goes around the nose. Have you tried the Husky out with a full width hard log?

Bob Yes I have looked at the space taken up by the dogs and I have taken the lower one off but the inner one requires a bit more thought so atm it's in the when I have time basket and it's not too often I tackle full width logs, having said that, the larger log out of the three did require the full width of the bar, about 870mm cut width and to cut anymore from it will require the longer bar or I'll have to take the side of the branch... I think I'll try the long bar, havent used it yet, must be a 60" bar or so... more pics to be posted in a couple of weeks.

As far as how it goes on a full width cut, the 3120 has enuff power, I did make a skip chain for this log/s so that may have helped, normally just use standard sequence, but I think what u might be asking is how the oiling goes, the husky does seem to spit out a lot of oil onto the nose guard specially after a refill, that has made me wonder whether there is something wrong with the oiling system, there doesnt seem to be much visible oil left after a cut tho, but I havent really looked that hard either, nothing is telling me there is a problem with lack of oil, the husky has an auxilliary oiler lever so I just give that a couple of pumps to increase oil if i'm in any doubt.

I was going to ask u about your oiler setup and whether I might need one, Do u feel it helps? Is it only supplying additional oil to the chain or is there some oil required to lube/cool the cutters as they make a cut? like the lucas guys have water on the blade?

I was also thinking of mounting a guide wheel that ran along the rail, the existing guides give me grief especially when the log shape is very rounded, the result is that the mill tends to lift off the rail on the head side it will be another mod for when I have more time.

Peter

Originally Posted by pjt

Bob Yes I have looked at the space taken up by the dogs and I have taken the lower one off but the inner one requires a bit more thought so atm it's in the when I have time basket and it's not too often I tackle full width logs, having said that, the larger log out of the three did require the full width of the bar, about 870mm cut width and to cut anymore from it will require the longer bar or I'll have to take the side of the branch... I think I'll try the long bar, havent used it yet, must be a 60" bar or so... more pics to be posted in a couple of weeks.

I learned pretty quickly that just measuring the log up and having 10mm to spare is often not enough. If the log has a slight bend in it or a branch stub to get around it's a PITA to have to stop to cut stuff off the log. Also in really hard wood the last third of the cut where the chain is going blunt means it is really helpful to be able to make short cuts on angles - (a) push the power head ahead of the outboard end of the mill, (b) then the outboard end of the mill ahead of the powerhead and then (c) the middle straight ahead for a bit - repeat a, b & c etc. This takes the strain of the engine-bar-chain. But you can't do these angled cuts with a tight fit to the log bar.

As far as how it goes on a full width cut, the 3120 has enuff power, I did make a skip chain for this log/s so that may have helped, normally just use standard sequence, but I think what u might be asking is how the oiling goes, the husky does seem to spit out a lot of oil onto the nose guard specially after a refill, that has made me wonder whether there is something wrong with the oiling system, there doesnt seem to be much visible oil left after a cut tho, but I havent really looked that hard either, nothing is telling me there is a problem with lack of oil, the husky has an auxilliary oiler lever so I just give that a couple of pumps to increase oil if i'm in any doubt.

Yeah I found that with the Husky - it can deliver 54 ml/min which is a lot more than the 880 (38 ml/min) and the 079 (19 ml/min) but what's the point if it all gets flung off at the nose?

I was going to ask u about your oiler setup and whether I might need one, Do u feel it helps?

Yes I do - I would not cut over 24" wide in green wood on my 076 without it. I haven't cut with the 880 yet but after running Huds 3120 in some dry 24" jarrah I felt we had to put an Aux oiler on it.

Is it only supplying additional oil to the chain or is there some oil required to lube/cool the cutters as they make a cut? like the lucas guys have water on the blade?

Primarily its to stop the bar and chain from overheating. I have used an infrared laser guided thermometer on the chain running the 076 and when I turn off the aux oil the chain temp goes up by 20-30 degrees

I have a 42" and 30" hardnose bar where the Aux oil is delivered into a bolt passing thru a hole in the the bar so the oil comes out in the bar groove on the cutting side of the nose (ie chain has already gone around the nose). I run this at ~20 ml min and this one works the best - there is very little wear on the bar and chain when this is working right.
I have a 42" roller nose bar (cannot drill a hole at the nose) where I drop the oil on the chain from a height of about 1/2 mm right where is bar/chain contact point is. I run this at about 25 ml/min and some oil pools on the end of the bar but as I use canola oil I don't really care. Just got to remember to turn it off when I'm done - especially before I put the CS mill back in the van!
On my 60" (roller and sprocket nose) bars I use the same method as for the 42" roller.
There is a way of delivering oil to the groove on a roller/sprocket nose bar but you lose cutting length.

I was also thinking of mounting a guide wheel that ran along the rail, the existing guides give me grief especially when the log shape is very rounded, the result is that the mill tends to lift off the rail on the head side it will be another mod for when I have more time.

Oh yeah - I know this problem real well and it is why I have gone to a 4 wheel set up for my mill (soon to be 5). One wheel is better than nothing but not enough. Also I don't always have my log rails hard up against the side of the log so a wheel running on that would not always work so I have wheels running up against the log

(A) happens when you start a log and refers to the situation you describe, so I mounted wheels permanently at the base of the mill. These are made from black poly irrigation fittings. The wheels are black poly and ride on a black poly bearing.
(B) and (C) refer to the middle and lower half of the log. The black poly wheels on the base help with (B) but can't help with (C) so I made the white (teflon) wheels that ride on brass fittings that can be repositioned on the verticals to match the cutting thickness of the slab.

Here you can see the front pair of black and white wheels - there are a similar pair on the other side of the mill.

Of all the bells and whistles I have added to my mill I would rate these wheels in the "most useful" category. You can tell I have put a lot of thought into these extras - I have to attend a lot of long boring meetings at work and when I run out of other work I sometimes work on tool or CS mill designs.

Yeah Peter I reckon shes' bluey, but as I can't taste it and I don't have one of those smellivision monitors, that'd be the best you get.

Nice set up for the 3120 - Bob has all the good oil on how to make it easier

Maybe it's a very, very thick pumpkin vine?