Not really been up to much lately what with work etc and in reality with the fact I literally parked up the new mill after the first few times using it. To say it was a pain in the arse would be an understatement. First of I’ll just say those who are getting along fine with electric Trakmets 👍if you are happy “great”, mine was bought to cut large hardwoods not softwood. Blade speed was ridiculous, running at 1800m/min, combine that with the supplied x cuts which I detest and the result was very very poor cuts bordering on useless in fact, blade diving and losing tension ie heating up, just no consistency at all. On my old Trakmet I could turn the engine RPM down to suit, not ideal as you went out the peak torque curve but it did allow some flexibility. Ended up fitting a VFD with potentiometer ( which in my opinion they should be fitted with as standard) cost including fitting was nearly 4K on top of machine price, and let’s face it Trakmet are not cheap mills anymore. Spent last couple of days testing on DF, Elm and Ash and so far the difference is night and day, I’ve swapped to Woodmizer double hard blades in 4, 7 and 10 degrees. Cut all day today and had zero build up on the blade, no diving or loss of tension etc just consistent repeat cuts. Still a ways to go and hopefully getting down to Triggers to get into some big Oak and Ash which should give it the test I want. If anyone is looking at buying and plans hitting the big hardwoods I’d seriously recommend the VFD option. I mounted the box myself but had a proper sparky wire it in, way above my 3 pin plug skill level.
Little update, got a piece of Ash on the mill today not the biggest at 600 mm max but still a decent log and plenty of moisture, had mill turned down to 1300m/min and using a 4 degree double hard, cut lovely with no hassle at all, nice coarse saw dust, wasn’t pushing it hard at all but very pleased with how it just chewed through 👍