Thread: Remote Throttle MS660

Check out Bob's setup for his 880

Some other remote throttles (RT) for CS milling

My first one - 076 RT on the 076 BIL Mill cross bar.



Unless they are well padded, RT's that act on the trigger itself eventually will wear the trigger away - and I do mean completely wear it away. RTs that attach to the carby or linkages will last longer. The padding on the trigger was not enough to prevent wear and eventually I had to pad the actuator with some hydraulic hose to stop it wearing away the trigger.
Full thread here

Then I moved the RT to the wrap handle - more comfy especially with the soft mountain bike handlebar grip handle. I've used this set up for over 18 months - still works well.



Other Ideas I have seen and heard about - mainly on the Arboristsite.

Use a brush cutter remote -bit hard on the old thumb for long term use - also it pushes not pulls!


Fixed mill - sorry no pic of actual RT.


Here's one from Harry Grey from Arboriste site - probably a bit hard to use but - it links direct to the carby and does not interfere with the trigger.


Here's one from a TS760 cut off saw.

This would be too insensitive for my liking.

I consider a well located RT one of the most useful ergonomic improvements for CS milling. Strategically located it brings the operators arms closer together and allows the operate to stand more upright just like a lucas miller () and significantly reduces operator fatigue. The 880 RT has throttle lock and kill switch built in as well.

DJ and Bob,
Thanks very much for the pics and explanations. Its all so simple now that I've seen the pics.

Cheers

You may wish to answer my latest post as well. Trouble keeping blade sharp?

On my 660 i just have a zip tie around the handle and slide it up when i start in the log.

It is easy to slide down near the end of the log, i find pressure on the feed rate keeps the revs at about the desired level.

This way i can hold the mill whereever i feel comfortable and dont need to worry about throttle at all.

Cheers

I have used a zip tie on several mills including my own but what I have found is that continually operating at WOT leads to a slightly poorer finish on smaller slabs whenever I pause cutting mid-slab. For example chain grabs or placing wedges into the kerf,

In this photo I deliberately simulated this by locking my throttle pulling back from the cut and then went back into the cut on WOT.



The line across the slab is where the cut has been restarted on WOT. The chain has little or no sawdust to impede its progress so it takes a bigger top and sideway grab out of the kerf which produces these lines. The rest of the cut has been made with full manual control easing into cuts with the thottle on 3/4 or other suitable speed.

OK it's nothing that an extra pass on a planer thicknesser can't fix but that can be a bit of a pain on wider slabs that don't fit my planer. This also seems to be more of a problem with the 880 (a bit more grunt?) than the 076.

The other aspect is having a remote throttle with a killswitch right next to my thumb is a far safer setup than a cable tie. A lot can happen in the time it takes to drop a hand and find the kill switch especially given that it is the left hand being used (so unless the operator is left handed) it is not as dextrous as the right hand.