First Ever Demo Day at Logosol

Well, we had a big time at Logosol on a recent weekend in October. We demonstrated our planer/moulder line outside the Logosol building in Madison, MS. It was a beautiful fall day and we had some great visitors to show up for training and demonstrations on the Logosol PH260 planer/moulder. We also demonstrated the SH230 planer/moulder, and the Log House Moulder. We had chips flying as we cut the cant for the Log House Moulder demonstration with the M7 sawmill.

All the wrong things

During the demonstration, I showed the class how to try and use the moulder with the knives in backwards, and later I tried to run a board through with one of the heads in backwards! Guess I was doing more talking than demonstrating and not paying attention. But, I used the situation to get the class to figure out what was wrong, and after much head scratching, someone actually figured it out. Anyway, it was a good opportunity to show how you can put heads in wrong, but when you do, it's not the end of the road. We simply made the correction and kept on planing. The moulder did a great job, in spite of its absentminded operator.

At the end of the day, several visitors brought out some boards they had brought with them for test running through the planer. Of course, they brought some of the hardest material available to see how the moulder would do - Kiln dried white oak, hickory, and maple. One person also had some cedar, and that made a nice planing piece. The maple turned out to be spalted, and really showed some figure after planing.

All in all, it was a great day! Dave Boyt was there taking pictures and doing a writeup for our upcoming issue of Fresh Cut. Everybody left with a Logosol hat and some new knowledge about our equipment, and some free issues of Sawmill and Woodlot magazine. We met some great people and made some new friends.

If you missed this one, look for upcoming demo days. This is something we plan to work into our calendar throughout the year, so you can always find a day to come by for some training and fun. Be sure and get on our mailing list in order to be notified of the next one. We are also planning a demo day in the northern part of the U.S. in the near future at one of our customers locations. We did have people come from as far away as Missouri to learn about this planer.

Hope to see you at the next Logosol Demo Day!

Logosol Hosts Demonstration Day in Madison

We are having a Planer Demonstration Day at Logosol! For the first time ever we are having a full day of Planer and Log House Moulder Demonstrations for our prospects and customers. We have invited our recent prospects and customers in Mississippi and neighboring states to visit us Saturday October 20th here at the Logosol U.S. Headquarters for a day of demonstrations and fun. We will be making mouldings with the PH260 and also demonstrating the DH410 and the SH230 Soloplaner. Also, we will have some logs available to show the use of the Electric Log House Moulder.

If you've been wanting to see the Planer first hand, this is your chance. We will be making mouldings all day, and changing from one pattern to the other on these machines so you can see how to set up for various types of mouldings. We will also be putting the new machines to work making mouldings as well.

We will have some free items available to all who show up, including back issues of Independent Sawmill and Woodlot Management, and stylish Logosol Caps, as well as a grilled hamburger lunch! Some representatives of the Sawmill and Woodlot will be here on that day, so it will be a great time to meet them and learn what else is happening in the milling world.

And, for those wanting to purchase, we will have coupons available that will be worth far more than the cost of the trip to come see us(unless you are coming from California).

Hope you can make it to the Demo day!

Making a Ramp for the Big Mill

I heard from an owner of a Big Mill Basic the other day about his use of the Big Mill. Gary, from New Jersey has been cutting up logs from trees in his neighborhood in New Jersey that have come down and is loving using the Big Mill to mill these logs into lumber. He included in his email a picture of his setup in a recent email. He told me in his email:

" I love the fact that I can get my hands on wood with out spending money that I don't really have. Right now I'm finishing up some walnut that a tree guy dropped off for me, it's really a joy to see the grains come alive after you make your cut."

From his picture you can see that he has built a ramp for logs to rest on so he can then take them apart with his Big Mill. Building this ramp makes it easier to operate the Big Mill since it puts the work at the right height. You can work the Big Mill standing up, rather then bending over to work the saw. This can make a big difference if you are doing more than one log occasionally. The ramp allows you to take the log up in steps, rather than having to roll the log up a steep incline without resting. You just take it up one step using a cant hook, and then can rest, roll it to the next step and then take it up to the next level.

The plans for this ramp are on the website: http://www.logosol.info/media/_pdf/US/big_mill_system_log_ladder_gb_060120.pdf

Just click on that link to get the plans and build your own. Thanks Gary for sharing this picture with us!

Phase Converter 101

Confused about phase converters? You are not alone. A lot of people, including qualified electricians, are confused also. But, Phase Converters can be a great thing for your shop. It can bring you the ability to utilize more efficient and compact 3-phase motors for your equipment. 3 Phase motors are smaller, and can pack a lot more horsepower into a smaller space. But, I don't need to tell you about the advantages of 3 phase power, I'm sure. Of course, many of the Logosol products are available in 3 Phase, although some are now available in single phase.

Logosol has recently begun offering a high quality Rotary Phase Converter to our customers at a low price, just so they will be more apt to take advantage of 3 Phase power. So, now it's more incentive than ever to move up to 3 Phase power in your shop.

But, before you order that phase converter, here are a few things to consider. First, do you have enough power available in your shop to run a converter? For our discussion, I will be discussing phase converters sized to run our 3 Phase Planer/Moulder and Chip Extractor, which is a 20 HP Rotary Phase Converter. To install this converter, you need to insure that you have two major things:

1. A Electrical Service Panel Rated at least at 200 Amps


2. A transformer on the electric pole outside your shop rated at 25 KVA(ask your electric company what the transformer feeding your shop is rated)

If you don't have both of these conditions, then you will not get the full use of your phase converter. It will run, but you will not get full power out of your equipment in certain operations. So, if you do not have these criteria met, you will be better off with single phase equipment.

If you have the above two items, you will need to add a 100 amp circuit breaker for the phase converter. This will power the phase converter. Then your three phase wiring will come out of the phase converter and be distributed to the appropriate equipment. One way to do this is to feed a three phase electrical panel box from the phase converter and put breakers in this box for each piece of equipment. I've include in this section a picture of one of our phase converters installed in the Wichern woodworking shop in Missourri. They had an electrician do a great job of installation for their shop. This is what a good installation should look like. The box to the left is the 100 Amp Circuit Breaker. Not shown is the main electrical panel that feeds this breaker. At the bottom of the photo is the phase converter, and then the top right box is the 3 phase electrical panel. Notice the conduit connecting the 3 phase box with the 100 amp circuit breaker. Two legs for the 3 phase box are coming from the breaker, and one leg from the phase converter. You can see a diagram for this on Smith Electric's website.

You can read more about phase converters there. But, overall, phase converters are simple to install. Just make sure you have adequate power to your facility. Find a good electrician who understands 3 phase power, and you should have no trouble getting your converter installed. Be sure to follow local codes for your installation and use a qualified electrician. We are always here for consultation if you need assistance, as well as the manufacturer of the phase converter. Enjoy 3 Phase Power!

Check Rotation on Your Blowers

This seems a little silly, doesn't it? To ask to check rotation after you've been using your blower. Three phase motors can turn in either direction and by switching two of the phases you can change the direction of the motor. However, I recently had a support call from a planer owner who told me his blower had been working fine but recently had started overheating and shutting off. Before I went into troubleshooting eletrical components I told him to "let me ask a stupid question first?" He agreed and I asked him to check the rotation of the blower. He did think that was a stupic question as the blower was working fine so it "had to be blowing the right direction, right?" Well, actually, that's not right. Our chip extractor will suck chips turning either direction, however, in one direction it is more efficient at pulling chips than the other direction. He couldn't actually tell me that the blower was rotating in the direction the arrow indicated on the back of the blower, so he went and checked the rotation. Sure enough, he called back to say it was turning the wrong direction. All of a sudden he had about 30% more suction and his blower quit running hot!

This can happen to anyone. I recently heard about a similar situation at a small cross tie mill in my area where they had been spending a large amount of time unstopping their hose from their head saw. Someone finally realized the blower was turning backwards! What a difference!

So, if you don't know if your blower is definitely turning the right way, make sure! Don't be afraid to check it...you don't have to tell anyone if it's not. Just switch it around and get running with more power and efficency!

Chip Dent in Some Woods When Planing

Sometimes I get calls about excessive marking or indentions in wood being planed by the top head. This is called "chip dent" or sometimes "hammermarks". It causes a flaking appearance to the wood. This occurs more in some species of wood than others. And sometimes very old wood will do this. In particular, Larch, is a wood this can be excessive in. Sometimes, the weather, such as high humidity can enhance this, so some shops take wood prone to do this straight from the kiln to milling whenever possible to help reduce this. This is a difficult problem to solve.

These marks come from the chips being caught between the planer knives and the wood and being pressed into the wood surface. The length of the chip that the knife is making and the amount of suction you have on the top head and the grain of the wood or type of the wood can all affect this. Some owners have experimented with putting a back bevel on the planer knife so that you have more of a chisel point on the knife in order to reduce this. It has also been recommended to put compressed air on the back of the head to blow these chips off before they come around the head again. Of course, having a good vacuum system on this head is a must.

I recently talked to a PH260 owner that was able to reduce this successfully in a recent project that he did on Larch wood. Brian Williams of New York told me what he was able to resolve this problem and produce some beautiful wood on the PH260. He did say it took some experimenting to get the problem to go away. But, he finally settled on projecting the knives out a little longer (20-40/1000s) and increasing the feed speed until this marking dissappeared. The longer knives makes for a bigger fan perhaps to move those chips out and the speed helps this as well.

This is one of the hardest problems to solve when encountering this in these woods that are prone to this phenomenom and I really appreciate Brian sharing his experience with me on reducing this hammer marking when planing Larch.

If you have had this happen in your planing and have some success with reducing it, please comment here. There is a way to leave comments on this blog, so feel free to share your experiences.

New Moulders Added to the Logosol Lineup

We are now selling two new moulders that look real promising for Logosol customers. One is the DH410 - now available in single phase power, and the other is the smaller SH230.

The DH410 has one side cutter and one horizontal cutter. I just heard from one of the owners of a DH410 and he informed me they were very happy with it - and had already used it to make over 7 hardwood floors. They've only had it a few months, so they have really been using it. The reason they got the DH410 is for the low power usage. In their area of the country, they did not have a good power supply - low amps to their shop on a mountain. But the DH410, single phase was able to meet their requirements. What they had been doing with shapers and single head planers, they can now do much faster. Not as fast as the PH260, of course, but much faster than what they were used to. This is always something to consider when purchasing equipment. Can your power source provide the needed power for the equipment you are considering? If you have questions about this, give us a call. We can help you work through these questions about your power source. Here is a link to the DH410:
http://www.logosol.com/_planers/dh410/

I have also heard from an SH230 owner. They used the SH230 to make cedar siding and paneling for a new home they were building. The little planer really turned out some nice material for them. This planer is worth taking a second look at. It has a saw blade on one end of the planer head, and can also take profile knives so it can make mouldings as well as do planing. For short run mouldings, such as quarter round and baseboards, it will turn them out very quickly with easy setup. And this planer will actually mould deeper than the PH260 0r the DH410. For those jobs that need a deeper profile cutter, this moulder could be the ticket.
You can read more about the SH230 on our website:
http://www.logosol.com/_planers/sh230/

Look for more information soon on these two planers!

Downloads From the Logosol Website

Here's a tip for using the Logosol Website. Did you know you can download brochures, manuals, articles, past issues of Fresh Cut and more from the website? From the front page, just click on the tab "Manuals & Catalogues" This will take you to a page with all our downloads. This is a world of information about milling and Logosol products. Here is a direct link to this page:
http://www.logosol.com/_customerservice/downloads/index.php

Most of these files are in PDF format, which is a popular format for sharing printable information. This stands for Portable Document Format, a standard developed to provide consistent results when used and printed across a variety of computers and printers. These files should print out just like the ones we print from a print shop and mail out. If you need the file on your computer to read these downloads from Logosol, you can find it here:
http://www.adobe.com/products/reader/ Just click download reader and it will prompt you from there to install the program. This is a safe program and very much needed if you do much web browsing. Once this is installed you will be able to read our files that are available for download.

So, don't wory if you've lost that manual, you can download another! Or, if you really want to get into how the M7 goes together before you buy one, you can download the manual for our site and check it out first hand. Very few manufacturers do this on the web, but we want you to be fully informed about our products and how to use them.

Take advantage of this service from the Logosol Website. Check back there frequently for new articles, manuals, and how-to information from the Logosol experts.

Running Machines in the Heat

News from Madison, MS - It was reported this morning that a cold front was on the way! It's supposed to get down to 97 degrees by this weekend!

Well, that old joke isn't funny any more, is it? Especially when you are running machinery in this heat. This is a good time to make sure sawdust isn't piling up around your motors in the bottom of the planer. Keep that sawdust blown out so air can move to help keep your motors cooler. Don't forget to put some moving air on your machines as well as your operators.

For our sawmillers out there, I'm sure I don't need to tell you to be careful in the heat. August is a month where most sawmillers conveniently find something else to do - at least when possible. But if you must work in the heat, I recommend using some of that good lumber you are cutting to build you a cover for your sawmill, or at least site your mill under a good shadetree! The shade will make a big difference -not only for you, but your mill as well, either gas or electric.

Good luck with the heat, Let's hope a real cold front finds its way through here eventually.

PH260 Important Part of Great Lakes Log Laminators

Heard from one of our long time PH260 users the other day. Marty Vincent is the owner of Great Lakes Log Laminators, and he told me they have been using the PH260 to mill their 2"X12" timbers for use in their laminated logs. This was incredible! Well, I had to ask how he was doing this, since I am the technical support guy for Logosol, and advise people that this machine will do up to a 4" X 10" timber, but not 12" material. He takes out one side head and does a three sided beam that is 2" thick and 12" wide! And it isn't like he is just trying this. He has been doing this for years!

He acknowledged that he was pushing the PH260 way beyond what it was designed to do, but when he started his business, he couldn't afford the bigger planers that most businesses would get to do this. But he could afford the PH260, and that's what he has used to grow his business. He produces a laminated log, that is dry through and through, and then takes these logs to another business with a big moulder for milling. But, he uses the PH260 to get his boards sized for the lamination process. He estimates he has milled over 450,000 feet of material with this planer. And this is big material!

So, if you are wondering whether the PH260 can handle the job, this should answer the question! These guys are putting the moulder to the test in a big way! You can see their website here: www.gllam.com

Congratulations to Great Lakes Log Laminators! Marty said business is booming. I'm glad the PH260 could be an important part of this growth!

New Logosol DVD Released

No, it's not a new video by Logosol that's been released, it's a video about a Logosol product that's been released by someone who has used it so much, he had to share his tips with others. Jim Birkemeier, of Timbergreen Farms, is a certified Forester, who has developed a Log to Finished Product operation on his farm in Wisconsin. Jim has a series of DVDs which will show you how his operation works from selecting the timber, felling, bucking, transporting, milling, drying, moulding, and installing/finishing! He has written documents to go with it, and is now selling these videos and books online. You can see all his information here: www.fullvigor.com

Jim let me know today that he now has a DVD that just features the PH260 and his tips for using it to make flooring. He's got it up on his website and available for purchase. So, if you've been wanting to see this amazing planer/moulder in action, Jim can give you the raw information about it. No Logosol input into this video, we just made the machine he's talking about.

The Title of the DVD is:
DVD 61 - Lessons on Operating the Logosol PH260 Molder - 3 years of experience!

Only $10.

Our hats off to Jim for the good work he's doing up in Wisconsin.

Logosol M7 Fine Tuning Manual Available

If you've been following the development of the Logosol M7 fine tuning manual, you can now download it from the Logosol forums:
http://www.logosolusa.com/ubbthreads/showflat.php/Cat/0/Number/3545/an/0/page/0#3545

It's available as a download from the attachment on Ron Fischer's post. Ron has done a great job on this and I very much appreciate his making this available to everyone.

If your mill is out of adjustment, download this manual and get some great tips for making your sawmill cut truer than ever. Of course, you should keep a check on the forums - always something to learn in there:

http://www.logosolusa.com/ubbthreads/ubbthreads.php

Timberjig websites on the web

Did some looking around today on the web and found several good sites about the timberjig!

The first one is here
http://www.dreamscapes-design.com/RavenArch/Timberjig.htm

This guy is building a timber frame house and is using the Timberjig and the M7 in the process.

Here is his page on the M7 where he is milling a big chunk of hickory:
http://www.dreamscapes-design.com/RavenArch/MakingSawdust.htm

Also, another great site about the Timberjig can be found here:
http://www.caept.com/urbanlumberharvesting/index.html

The author has since upgraded to a Woodworkers mill, and what he has written is a well presented account of his first involvement in urban lumber harvesting and his purchases related to that over the past few years. He first saw Logosol mills at a woodworking show in Novi.

Logosol Support Blog

Welcome to the Logosol Support Blog. We are very interested in your success with a Logosol Product! Please call if you have questions about our machines or the use of our machines.

In this blog, I will attempt to point out some things that might help you use your equipment more efficiently and share tips that I have learned from other owners of Logosol machinery. Also, owners of Logosol products can post their experiences or questions here so others can benefit as well.

Charlie Griffin
601-856-1889
charlie@logosol.com