Due to some health issues over the last few years the only milling I've been doing has been with my small chainsaw mil,l but today I used the 36" bandsaw mill at my tree lopper mate's (Jeff) yard for the first time in about 4 years.
No one had been using the BSM mill for at least two years and it took some resurrecting. The fuel lines were brittle and had split so those and the battery needed replacing but worst of all someone had backed into it and the mill and rail tracks had moved off its concrete pad. I envisaged several hours with a crowbar but Jeff pulled the truck with the Hiab up alongside the pad and we lifted the mill off its tracks and then lifted the tracks back on and put the mill back on the tracks - easy enough - I wish. Someone has also dropped logs onto the cross beams between the tracks so these are slightly bent!
So lots of checking alignments and parallelisms of the tracks and mill, constantly walking the 60m back and forth from the mill to the shed to fetch and return tools. Lots of bending and standing up and over the mill, stepping over rails and logs etc. I only worked half days and it really tired me out.
Anyway - short version - 3 half days later I was ready to cut and that was this morning.
First cut I took nice and steady and it went fine.
Attachment 492890
Second cut I got a bit greedy and really pushed it and before I knew it the blade dove in the cut. This happened a number of times when we first got the mill back in 2014. This time I managed to back out of the diving cut (blade has to be moving to do this) without the blade coming off the wheels and ruining the blade. What happens is that sawdust builds up behind the blade and prevents it from being able to move it back through the kerf. I keep a long bow saw blade to stick down the kerf to drag some of the jammed sawdust
This gave me a chance to practice cut recovery and I managed to get it cutting straight in the same kerf by slowly going backwards and forwards in teh kerf just before it starts to dive
This meant the slab being cut was OK but the one under it was not as it contained the diving cut. I trimmed the diving cut off by cutting a 25 mm thick slab and took that one to the mens shed where they make can use even a butchered slo like this as the make all sorts of small things like cutting boards and boxes etc.
By taking it easy I managed to cut the next two slabs OK but the fork lift wouldn't start so I called it a (half) day because these were too thick/heavy to move by hand.
The slabs might look nice but one end has a termites nest that has been invaded by black ants and there are some slightly pukey bits in as well - it might all end up at the mens shed ye.
Attachment 492891
I really need to go back and reset the track geometry (make sure everything is parallel etc), then the mill geometry, and then the blade geometry and hopefully this will cure the diving issue.
A few weeks ago I found out can just do half days work. If I do a full day but that wipes me out from doing anything for a couple of days.
Anyway I plan to use this mill about 2-3 half days a week.