LT-70 feed works tripping off

[backwoods sawyer]

Friday we finished up milling a WRC job that took longer then it should have.
The days started off good for the first half hour or so and then the feed would trip off so I would slow down until it was just crawling thru and tripping off several times in the cut.
The logs were big so a good many were full 24" cuts.
Kept sharp saws on thru out the job changing 5-6 saws a day

Had talked with WM Indy branch earlier this week, they were wanting to start by changing out Circuit boards. Been down that road of changing out good component after good component and had a spare that I swapped out with no change and wanted get to the root cause and get it resolved while I have a couple days off to sharpen saws and get ready for a couple road trips so dug into it over the weekend.

The brushes looked good.
All track rollers are new and the head rolls up and down the track freely with the feed chain removed.

The forward syliniod was getting hot so ordered a fresh one as it has been in use for several years.

pulled the feed motor and gear box off, and found some slop in that area so replaced the key stock and set screws, drive sprocket was well worn so ordered one, gear box was low topped it off and found it has a bad seal added that to the list. The bearings in both chain idler sprockets had sloppy bearing added that to the list and got the online order sent off this morning.

Not sure if I have solved the problem but I am hoping the issue was the idler sprocket bearing putting drag on the head.
Parts should be here Tuesday will find out if this solves the issue. 

[furu]

Hopefully you found the root cause of the problem.  It seems that you went through it thoroughly and identified the likely culprits.  Let us know when the parts get in and are installed if the problem disappears.

[xlogger]

Hi Backwoods, hope you get it figure out and good to see names here I seen around.

[mountainlake]

 Welcome Backwoods
  You can tell the thruth and what you think over here, over there you can say anything so long as it's praising WM.   Steve

[Kirk Allen]

I know on my LT40 my up/down breaker kept popping after about the 4th cut cycle.  Spent hours troubleshooting and after an hour on the phone was assured there is NO other cause than the motor. 

Several hundred dollars later, same problem!   

Back on the phone with the electrical experts and in a matter of minutes they isolated it to a worn out breaker and offered not only a solution but an added fuse system to make sure it could be isolated faster in the future. 

Changed the breaker and put an inline fuse and all is good ever sense.

I got a credit of the difference between their cost and what they charged for the motor. Now I have a spare. 

I was not happy with the first diagnosis.  Was happy with getting it fixed thanks to the electrical wizards I spoke with.

[John B]

I hope you found the problem.
I know very little about WM, and I'm sure you already checked this, but the first thing that came to mind is it sounds like a bad ground.

[Kirk Allen]

It was the breaker causing the problem. Once they pop they go down hill from there.  It has not popped since replacing it.

[4x4American]

Thanks for the followup, Kirk

[backwoods sawyer]

Got it all back together and gave it a test run.

I ran a ground wire from the frame thru the aguss track to the battery after having several bad ground issues. also added a second hot wire from battery to alternator.


have some over sized logs coming up that will give it a good test.

[backwoods sawyer]

Milled up a batch of good sized cedar and gave the feed works a good work out and the problem seems to be solved, plenty of power to push the saw 

Today's milling site was well off the beaten path, when we arrived at the meet point at the end of a gravel road a diesel 4x4 with trailer met us to take us thru maze of goat trails, at first glance the driver seemed "Young"
After winding thru mountains for a mile or so we arrived at the milling site. When the driver hopped out he seemed a bit "Short" but was always at a distance all morning as he took the tractor off and returned with logs, took the four wheeler and returned with the wood splitter ect ect. Busy little guy. When he stopped long enough for a sandwich we found he was a whopping 8 years old. I think he out worked the two 20 yr old's I had with me
 

[furu]

Now that is a pretty good worker.  Sounds like he has some good training behind him.

[mountainlake]

 
 It's good to have it up and running, nothing more frustrating than a mill that doesn't work and you don't know why.  Steve

[backwoods sawyer]

Started an oak timber frame home and bridge milling job today sure was good to have full throttle back.

Even with an 80 mile drive to the site, setting up the mill on soft ground which meant digging down to solid ground and getting the site set up so logs were coming in and timbers, braces, flooring and bridge components were all going out in different sorts, we still put out 3,000 bft. with 6 hrs of run time.

Only piece of equipment on site is a D-9 with grapples, so all the big stuff was unloaded with man power and a beam roller.


   

[4x4American]

Wow that is great production for what you were working with!

[backwoods sawyer]

This project is a pair of two story 28x36 Japanese style timber frame homes, all Oak 8x8 8'-20' has been in the works for some time as I have already milled Mirtlewood knee braces, Maple for cabinets and cedar for decks at three sites in three counties.
We took the mill over four passes on the way to the milling site which is an 80 archer logged hill side. The road was a freshly worked red clay logging road that was about 2' deep in dust last summer.
The first week started with the customers new truck loosing the transmission, his chainsaw was stolen out of his truck when he stopped at a store in town on the way to the milling site, he parked his other truck on semi level ground and gravity took over as his truck picked up speed and bounced off several trees on it's way to the bottom of the draw and part way up the other side.
The milling had been smooth and we out ran his ability to provide logs and empty trailers as we were filling three and four trailers a day so we took a long weekend to let him get caught up. We had milled all the saw logs on the point where we were set up and he still needed to rework the road and create a second milling site in the next draw over where there was a good supply of oak logs.
We got into a batch of good logs that was producing two FHC 8x8x timbers and two quarter sawn 3x8 knee braces. About half are single timber logs.
Largest piece for the project was a 18' 8"x18" beam, nice piece.
Second week finished up the project and we are headed 200 miles north next.
Having trouble finding a editing program for this new computer that will get the pictures small enough.

[furu]

Having trouble finding a editing program for this new computer that will get the pictures small enough.

Try IrfanView  current version is 4.38 I am still on 4.28 but will allow you to save at whatever size you want.

http://www.now-download-free.com/d/irfanview?did=11389&pid=bing&cveid=irfanview%20free%20download&cmpid=irfanview-search-us&ppd=search,6889374695,irfanview%20free%20download,e,,c,0,,,&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=irfanview1%20-%20search%20-%20us&utm_term=irfanview%20free%20download

[John B]

Backwoods, It sounds like you have been busy. 

I wish I could get to my mill. It, and everything else around here is still burried in snow. 

[4x4American]

Sounds like a good time, BS! 

Hey what do you mean by FHC? fixed heart center is the only guess ive got!

[backwoods sawyer]

Free of hart center

The target for the timbers was either center the hart or no hart, with a fall back to bridge timbers for those wandering harts.

The Spring like weather following a low moister winter has everything turning green.
Already had to mow the lawn twice, and turn neighbors cows in to mow the field down so I don't have to.

We are keeping a tight schedule as the good weather may not last.

[4x4American]

Ahh icic thanks.  Wish we had your weather!  Still been cold.  Warmed up a bit today.  Been in the 0-20 range at night this past week

[backwoods sawyer]

Thanks for the link to the photo editor, first time around I did not get all the plug ins but now I may have this picture thing figured out
 

[xlogger]

hope you have a debarker

[backwoods sawyer]

Debarker would help
I got a new debarker motor assembly, upper and lower arms just hanging out on the front of the mill not being used. I need to rebuild the in out mechanism, (after market hydraulic) it spits hydraulic fluid out thru the vent among other issues with movement at the mount point that allows the whole unit to twist so the blade will not hit the same mark twice.

We gave them a quick scraping with hand tools as they were loaded and rotated. Still cut lot of mud that was packed into the bark.

[backwoods sawyer]

Milled some more Oak for a pair of timber frame homes. They were short on quarter sawn 3x8 Knee bracing. Most of the logs were not big enough to pull from all for quarters, so targeted the best two side, most were producing 6. The least I got was 4 and the most from one log was 9 braces.
On the last day the third trailer was a no show until the end of the day as they are hauling it 50 miles to unload. So had to handle the flooring wood twice
And my WHITE dog turned Orange on this site

[4x4American]

vedy nice...I like the colors of the mill