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.