Today's milling

[Johnsond]

10 hours ago, Watercourse management said:

If you are getting packed sawdust in the kerf this could be spillage out of the gullet of the band caused by to much set.

Yeah I’ve considered that but blades are not running much set at all, defo no more than factory  settings, 4800mm long blade and sometimes using the the full width 1100mm of the throat it’s just a lot of dust to shift depending on age/condition of log. Some days it’s a doddle others it can be frustrating as hell. I find blade cleanliness is a huge factor with this mill, “ possibly due to the fact it doesn’t have a huge excess of HP”currently in process of putting together a few mods to fit additional cleaning systems including possibly a 12v widescreen type pump and a couple of spray nozzles to help with heavy build up, I’ll see how that goes. I think like most mills there’s always something that you want or think you want to make it suit your particular needs. Those oddball woodmizer blades did actually leave the board much cleaner but I hit steel on the second cut so dropped back to the tipped x  cuts in case there was more, which unfortunately there was. 

[Watercourse management]

I’m running 5 meter 1”1/4 1.1 tpi Hakansson Silco bands at 5000 feet per minute using diesel as a band lube, this works well but I do find that on the wide cuts the band will wander a bit depending on the grain and internal stress of the wood 

that big lump of poplar I milled the other month was a nightmare, I think if I would probably go to wider bands if I was milling wide slabs all the time.

[Johnsond]

13 minutes ago, Watercourse management said:

I’m running 5 meter 1”1/4 1.1 tpi Hakansson Silco bands at 5000 feet per minute using diesel as a band lube, this works well but I do find that on the wide cuts the band will wander a bit depending on the grain and internal stress of the wood 

that big lump of poplar I milled the other month was a nightmare, I think if I would probably go to wider bands if I was milling wide slabs all the time.

38mm /1”1/2wide I’m using, I’d have liked to try diesel for sure if I had solid wheels but the ones on there are belted. Which mill is it you are using??. I checked all the blade speed settings as the factory recommended ones were in my opinion too fast and resulted in ultra fine dust, I’ve come down a bit on the speed and the results are better. I guess it’s a never ending learning curve. 

[Watercourse management]

I built my own mill after a lot of research on American mills focusing on the cooks brand, cherry picking the best ideas to incorporate on my build, there you tube channel is a gold mine of information.

my mill has banded wheels the diesel doesn’t seem to effect them , the lube system like the cooks mill wipes the band so no excess dripping off

after I fit the debarker I would like to fit a set of ground band wheels but as I don’t get any band vibration it’s probably not necessary "

[Johnsond]

2 hours ago, Watercourse management said:

I built my own mill after a lot of research on American mills focusing on the cooks brand, cherry picking the best ideas to incorporate on my build, there you tube channel is a gold mine of information.

my mill has banded wheels the diesel doesn’t seem to effect them , the lube system like the cooks mill wipes the band so no excess dripping off

after I fit the debarker I would like to fit a set of ground band wheels but as I don’t get any band vibration it’s probably not necessary "

Hats off to you bud, I’ve read a few bits about the diesel wrecking the rubber hence stayed clear of it, but might still go for it to work on outside of band via a felt pad and drip system, I watch the cooks videos a lot and yeah very knowledgeable god fearing southerners 👍. 
The cleaning systems I’m looking at are a combination of cooks and the pulse spray lube mizer set up etc. The components including high density felt etc are all here it’s just seems there’s never enough time to get it all sorted. 

[Watercourse management]

I use a felt pad with a oil dripper of a slurry tanker vacuum pump running on the inside of the band , it seams to put a light film on the band with no major transfer to the band wheels, I set the dripper at roughly one drip a second.

[Johnsond]

2 hours ago, Watercourse management said:

I use a felt pad with a oil dripper of a slurry tanker vacuum pump running on the inside of the band , it seams to put a light film on the band with no major transfer to the band wheels, I set the dripper at roughly one drip a second.

👍 got two of exactly the same sitting waiting, just need the time to sort it all out. 

[Macpherson]

13 hours ago, Watercourse management said:

using diesel as a band lube

Just curious, does this not leave the timber smelling a bit ?

[Watercourse management]

No you’re not soaking it just a thin film on the band so nothing sticks to it.

[Macpherson]

1 hour ago, Watercourse management said:

No you’re not soaking it just a thin film on the band so nothing sticks to it.

I had in the past thought of using engineering lathe type coolant or white water as an alternative on my mates Norwood for the same reason, but never got round to it and he didn't take the idea onboard as him being the ' rough and ready ' type and not that bothered about a poor finish  of cut, cheers.