Me too, now!

[mountainlake]

 I really think that solenoid is rated to low to handle a debarker motor especially  when it might get over worked some times.  Steve

[Stevem]

A solenoid is nothing but an electrico-mechanical switch that isolates high current via a shorting bar (ring?) from a low current switch which controls the magnet.  What generally kills solenoids is the contacts inside ark every time they engage and disengage, commonly called burning.  The carbon buildup causes resistance which causes heat buildup. Too much carbon and no current flow.  Too much heat and the contacts can fuse together. One fix is to have stronger electromagnets which pulls the shorting bar closed faster and a stronger spring to get them open faster.  Bigger contacts allow more current flow with out heat buildup.  Generally the contacts are made from copper which can somewhat conform to each other from the closing pressure allowing more surface contact but also can get "pushed" away and lose contact pressure.  Really good contacts have a pure silver surface or an alloy of silver.  You get what you pay for.

[Stevem]

Well the mill is here and up and running.

I'm in the process of trying to make every mistake possible and get them out of the way.

Zinged on of the squaring arms on the second day sawing, the third one, which was just a bit higher than the other 3.

Tried to back the blade up in the saw cut and pulled the blade off and ruined the set of two or three teeth and bent the mud saw bracket.

Still can't remember to lower the lift arms ever time so the saw just stops in mid cut and I get a real stupid feeling.

Found out you can't cut straight boards unless you tension the blade.  One of those, "well Dah" moments.  And the engine has to be up to speed or you have to cut really slow.

Band mills are a lot more complicated than the Lucas and need a lot more tools to work on.  More to buy/put in a tool box for the job sites

Seems like I use an awful lots of blades,  TK says change new blades after 1 1/2 hours of sawing and 2 hours on a resharpened blade.  My best on a Lucas blade was about 10,000 bdf  before getting it retipped for $35.  Seems like a vast difference.

Toe board is a total joke.  It's a scissor jack designed to lift a Honda or some such.  Gonna replace it with a heaver unit like from a Ford pickup.

Drive belts weren't tensioned right on delivery.  One belt rolled in the pulley and later jumped out of the groove.  TK sent new belts and a $30 tension gauge.  

Now the belts are like they should be (I hope).

Down pressure on the blade was wrong and had to move a holding bracket to get enough play to adjust it.

One of the grease zerks fell out of the blade roller, the other was loose.

Squaring arms were not square on arrival.  Delivery driver adjusted them but I had to do it again and I still don't trust them so use a carpenter square to check with.

Just petty stuff and part of a steep learning curve.  Lots of differences in sawing techniques between the two mills

I think I'm going to like the mill when I get it and me dialed in.  Lots of things it will do that the Lucas wont.  Lots of mis-adjustments on arrival but slowly working them out.

The Lucas was/is pretty much limited to a 8" wide cut (or 16" with hassle) this one can go 30" when everything is just right.  Specs say 32" but I lost 2" with the mud saw option. (things they don't tell you!!)

So far I'm impressed with tech support.

Pictures taken just a mega problem with pixel count.

[furu]

Nice update on the mill.  Glad it is working out for you and all.

[mountainlake]

  When I first got my B20 it was about the same, had to do some adjusting ( TK are you listening ) and reengineer a couple of things but after that no on going problems with over 11000 hours now. I run my blades around 2 hours, in clean easy to saw wood a little longer and in dried out white oak maybe 1 hour.  The best  thing I bought when I got my mill was a sharpener and setter, a mill just south of me bought a TK 2000 diesel and bought the sharpener TK sells for around $1000.  I've watched it sharpen and it seems to do a fine job, not as fancy as some but works.   Steve

[bandmiller2]

Steve, sounds like your paying all your dues up front, there is a learning curve with a new mill. We all hit parts of the mill once in a wile, but it makes you feel so danged dumb when you do it you quit after a wile. Take your time and develop the habit of checking before you start a cut. You have been milling a wile and just want to fast forward. Speaking of solenoids there are two types intermittent and long hold. An operation like an engine starter uses intermittent. If the device will be run for a long time you need a solenoid designed to hold continuously. Enjoy yourself mate. Frank C.

[mountainlake]

 Zinged on of the squaring arms on the second day sawing, the third one, which was just a bit higher than the other 3

 Another thing to adjust, make the first one the highest then you don't have to worry about the other 2.   Steve