HM 130 assembly

[Johnsond]

Hi 

currently in the process of assembling a woodlands 130 mill and 1 section track extension. Built up the track but came across a couple of points that concerned me. Nothing major but could be better so to speak. The M10 bolts utilised throughout the track build have way too much tolerance in regards to the size of the holes on the bunks and the reinforcement plates. Even with all bolts in and reasonably tight the amount of lateral movement is considerable obviously when tightened and set up this will reduced but I still feel that the hole sizes are excessive. I'm heading to fastening shop tomorrow to pick up some more bolts as instructions stated 16 x M10x35 and kit only came with 8 !! so other bolts I've used at these locations are not engaging the nylocks. Probs buy a good quantity of 40 mm long ones and change most of them out. Other thing I'm intending to do straight away is to clean up and reweld the box section that holds the log supports. Quite frankly whilst the finish and engineering is of a decent standard I've a 9 yr old whom can mig to a higher standard than what's used at these locations. 

[Youngstu]

I had the same concerns as you, regarding the hole size, but when fitting it all together and getting it completely straight and parallel from end to end and even side to side a bit of wiggle room was definitely useful. 

 

[Johnsond]

1 hour ago, Youngstu said:

I had the same concerns as you, regarding the hole size, but when fitting it all together and getting it completely straight and parallel from end to end and even side to side a bit of wiggle room was definitely useful. 

 

Hi 

cheers for that 

yeah a bit of tolerance is definitely useful but I think it's probs on the excessive side. End of the day it's going onto a box section ladder type frame so once  put down and levelled and trued up it should stay put. 

[gobbypunk]

Hi guys , I am thinking about getting a finance deal on a woodland mill do you rate them would they stand up to almost constant use 

Thanks Mark

[Johnsond]

5 hours ago, gobbypunk said:

Hi guys , I am thinking about getting a finance deal on a woodland mill do you rate them would they stand up to almost constant use 

Thanks Mark

Hi Mark 

Hard  for me to comment at this stage but as a product the engineering seems pretty robust. I've made the comment on some of the welding and the hole size on the connecting plates, hole  size is probs no big deal in reality and the welding will be sorted with  a couple of hrs of mig work. My initial task with the mill will be  cutting some  decent lumps of Douglas fir for a timber frame project. With this in mind I'm looking to beef up the welds mentioned earlier etc before I start work also if there's anything else I see that I think can be improved I'll try and do that as I'm progressing with the mill. I'm ordering rectangular section tomorrow to make a ladder type base to mount the mill on this will later on become the trailer chassis but in the meantime it will provide additional strength and rigidity for the type of work I plan to do with it. ( I'll put some pics of that up once I've finished it) 

Regarding the ability of it to stand up to constant use, well I guess if it's looked after and poss a few improvements specific to the type of work you plan for it then why not !!. Ok it's not a woodmizer but it's not nowhere near woodmizer money neither. I'm sure there's lads on here whom have used them extensively. There's plenty of happy users on you tube who seem to be working them right at the top end of there capabilities with no problems. End of day like trigger Andy commented when I was looking at options. If it doesn't work out they don't seem to hang around long when used ones come up for sale. 

Cheers 

[skc101fc]

Hi johnsond,
I've got the hm126 so a bit older and less power etc.
It's a durable enough little mill, capable of taking a small degree of abuse - inexperienced loader drivers slamming logs down on the bunks for instance. Regarding the sloppy oversized drillings, this can be a benefit on first and later assembly. Build it up with everything nipped up just over finger tight. Then run the carriage up and down the rails a few times and shake the head around a bit as you go. Now tighten all bed bolts up real tight and you shouldn't have any probs of the carriage binding or moving anywhere. I'm still working on putting mine on a 4" square steel box section frame and wheels, but it currently sits on a 5" square cypress timber frame which makes it light enough to hand load onto an ifor Williams trailer on my own.

[agrimog]

hi johnsond, I run an older 126, surpriseingly mounted on the new trailer that woodlands brung out(yes it does fit, but requires some mods to the mill and trailer for the match)  I too, was a little concerend with the size of the holes whenI first built it, but was surprised that all the bolts supplied were of grade 10.9,  high quality  high tensile bolts, a bit of an enigma, but when the whole mill was assembled, including 1 extension, the oversize allowed just enough tweeking to bring everything into true alignment, coming from an engineering background I know from past experience that tight tolerance holes dont allow this fiddle factor, and have had to in the past dissasemble structures and "open" out holes, woodlands have obviously taken ths into account when designing the structure, the one other thing this allows for is should an accident occur and something heavy either falls onto the rails, or strikes the rails, they can move a little, and can then be reset with minimal tooling or damage, tight holes would not allow this, but would cause something to bend somewhere in the structure.......what would you rather do, slaken and reset, or remove and replace and then try to reset. the other thing about the mill when I bought it, i built the trailer to the drawings available, it was ok, but after seeing the company produced one and seeing various reviews, and talking to some of the users, the mill was removed and built into the new one.....in so much that the mill rails and trailer become one continuois structure, not a set of rails sitting on a trailer, this was always a worrysome piont in the original trailer/mill hybrid

 

[ucoulddoit]

Grade 10.9 bolts are used for high strength friction grip connections which work by clamping the parts together so tightly that they don't slip. Instead of 'normal' bolts which work by bearing against the sides of the holes which can cause some movement. Having said that, for the clamping action/friction to work properly, there should be bare steel on the meeting steel surfaces so if the parts are supplied painted, the non-slip action won't work as well as it could.

 

Andrew

[Johnsond]

7 hours ago, agrimog said:

hi johnsond, I run an older 126, surpriseingly mounted on the new trailer that woodlands brung out(yes it does fit, but requires some mods to the mill and trailer for the match)  I too, was a little concerend with the size of the holes whenI first built it, but was surprised that all the bolts supplied were of grade 10.9,  high quality  high tensile bolts, a bit of an enigma, but when the whole mill was assembled, including 1 extension, the oversize allowed just enough tweeking to bring everything into true alignment, coming from an engineering background I know from past experience that tight tolerance holes dont allow this fiddle factor, and have had to in the past dissasemble structures and "open" out holes, woodlands have obviously taken ths into account when designing the structure, the one other thing this allows for is should an accident occur and something heavy either falls onto the rails, or strikes the rails, they can move a little, and can then be reset with minimal tooling or damage, tight holes would not allow this, but would cause something to bend somewhere in the structure.......what would you rather do, slaken and reset, or remove and replace and then try to reset. the other thing about the mill when I bought it, i built the trailer to the drawings available, it was ok, but after seeing the company produced one and seeing various reviews, and talking to some of the users, the mill was removed and built into the new one.....in so much that the mill rails and trailer become one continuois structure, not a set of rails sitting on a trailer, this was always a worrysome piont in the original trailer/mill hybrid

 

Hi Agrimog 

cheers for the reply 

i picked up the longer bolts today and whilst there grabbed a m18 to try in the feet holes and an M12 to try in place of the supplied M10s in the track and bunks etc. M12s fitted no probs with still a bit of wiggle room. I totally get the benefit of having some built in tolerance whilst assembling a bit of kit, but also know the benefits of having stuff that goes together well with little tolerance, ( mind you at the price I do not expect it to be made with Swiss watch precision and will happily deal with a bit of mass produced error etc) whilst it may be a pain in the arse I may do a mock up with the M12s and see if it will true up once fully assembled. Regarding the swap from M16 to M18 to mount the rails to the box section I'll make my mind up once the lower frame is completed. The new woodlands trailer kit is indeed a decent looking bit of kit but at nearly 2 grand plus vat it's not an option just yet. The frame I'm building that will later on be the trailer chassis will initially serve as the base to secure the rails onto for its initial couple of jobs. I have the ability to lift and move the base and head separately and initially this will suffice. Hopefully any dings or damage that occur can be sorted insitu, looking at the rails I'm gonna knock up another extension and couple of bunks from angle and rectangular box to see how it goes as with templates to copy from that should be reasonably simple undertaking. 

[agrimog]

johnsond, good luck on your build, and have fun locating box for the bunks....lol....its a non prefered imperial size, ok in the states, but shit in europe........I know, I've had a look, it is available , but not easily, and look closely at your rail tops, again an imperial size, but they've been cut, not sure if plasma or mill, devious these canadians, as for the m16 bolts, these, as far as I could work out were just a handy size for making the leveling legs....size doesnt really matter as at that size, nearly everyhing is a 2 mm pitch