# Broke my mill



## sprucegum (Mar 16, 2016)

Just got into my third day of milling 15,000 feet of white pine for a large post & beam building and one of my band wheel shafts snapped. I called Hudson Forest Equipment (mfg. of the mill) the part is in stock and covered by a 6 year warrantee. The shaft runs in pillow block bearings and took a fair amount of pounding with a brass punch to remove so I opted to order new bearings just because. I explained my logic to the parts guy (Wayne) and although the bearings are also warrantied they are not bad but he offered a substantial discount on them. I placed my order around 10 AM and expect to see my parts tomorrow afternoon. I never like when things go bang on a perfect day for milling but, as I have said before Hudson is a standup company and you can talk to a real person and not be given the run around and left on hold for hours. On the bright side we had plenty of time to catch up on some lumber stacking and slab cleanup, should be good to go again bright and early Friday morning.

Reactions: Like 5 | +Karma 1


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## Schroedc (Mar 16, 2016)

Wow, How the heck do you shear off one of the shafts????? 

Glad to hear about Hudson's customer service. I have one of their little mills and while no issues yet good to know they'll be decent should I have a problem.


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## sprucegum (Mar 16, 2016)

Schroedc said:


> Wow, How the heck do you shear off one of the shafts?????
> 
> Glad to hear about Hudson's customer service. I have one of their little mills and while no issues yet good to know they'll be decent should I have a problem.



When I purchased the mill from a local dealer he told me that they had had some issues with the band wheel shafts but had corrected the problem with better steel. I know my mill was a holdover from the previous year so I am thinking it had one of the lower quality shafts. I sure hope the other one does not let go. I suppose I could have over tensioned the blade at some point but have used a torque wrench to set the blade tension for the past 2 years.


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## justallan (Mar 17, 2016)

When I had my Hudson mill I had called them a couple times and you are 100% correct on talking with a person, and right now too, no sitting on hold.

Reactions: Like 1


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## sprucegum (Mar 18, 2016)

So we got her going again today, went through 1500' without a hitch. Just when I thought I was gaining the trucker stopped and said he would be bringing another 75 logs in the morning if it freezes hard enough to hold a wheeler tonight. Mud season in Vermont you either wait till May or work when the mud freezes. logs are all white pine that will be used to build a 6400 sq. ft. pavilion. Have to make some 18' 8 x 12's so I bought another section of track, now I can cut up to 24' logs.

Reactions: Like 3 | Way Cool 6


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## woodtickgreg (Mar 18, 2016)

Wow, really cool and beautiful scenery too! It looks like you have your mill set up at an angle, is that to help with the feed? I try and do that with my chainsaw mill, it really helps with that.

Reactions: Like 1


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## sprucegum (Mar 18, 2016)

woodtickgreg said:


> Wow, really cool and beautiful scenery too! It looks like you have your mill set up at an angle, is that to help with the feed? I try and do that with my chainsaw mill, it really helps with that.


Optical illusion, the ground slopes the mill is dead level. It rolls so easy it would be trying to roll over us when we are turning logs, even the wind bothers about pushing it when I don't want it to move. Frost is going out of the ground so I have to check it for level every morning, takes less than 5 minuets to go around it with a 4' level and tweak the jacks a little.

Reactions: Like 1


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## justallan (Mar 18, 2016)

Very cool. I love the scenery for darned sure.

Reactions: Like 1 | Agree 2


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## ripjack13 (Mar 18, 2016)

I love the smell of fresh cut pine in the morning....

Reactions: Agree 3


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## sprucegum (Mar 19, 2016)

ripjack13 said:


> I love the smell of fresh cut pine in the morning....


With a hint of mud

Reactions: Like 1


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## Mandolin (Apr 21, 2016)

I have a Hud-Son mill I bought back in 2008. I have cut 1000's of board feet and never had a major problem Hud-son's staff are a great bunch of people. I finally poured a slab and mounted my mill permanently and added a overhead log turner and steel log deck. My brother, who is welder and blacksmith helped me this week and we added a homemade blade tracker for the bandwheels. Just sawed up 800 bd ft of quartersawed red oak for my cabinets in my new post and beam house, which, by the way, I sawed every stick of lumber in the house. It is a great mill!

Reactions: Like 3 | Agree 1 | Way Cool 5


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## HomeBody (Apr 22, 2016)

I get inspired when I see a set-up like you have. I mill smaller stuff with a chain saw mill. Seeing a nice bandsaw with a huge pile of BIG and LONG stuff makes me think I'll be there someday. Great pics. Gary


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## sprucegum (Apr 22, 2016)

HomeBody said:


> Seeing a nice bandsaw with a huge pile of BIG and LONG stuff makes me think I'll be there someday. Great pics. Gary



Tall timber is definitely more fun to saw, quite a few of the bigger ones were 18' 6". When we put the first really big log on my helper said " it will take forever to saw that thing" to which I replied " yes but if we saw 4 of them in a day we will have a good showing for the day". That is one place the four post sectional track mills shine because you can just keep adding track to infinity. If I ever get around to building my new house I plan on sawing some 26' timbers for a couple of timber trusses that will be in my living room.

Reactions: Like 1


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## MEB02 (Apr 22, 2016)

Is that eastern white cedar?


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## sprucegum (Apr 22, 2016)

MEB02 said:


> Is that eastern white cedar?


White pine


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## Kevin (Apr 22, 2016)

sprucegum said:


> White pine



Eastern white pine.


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## MEB02 (Apr 22, 2016)

I do decoy carving for hunting and the preferred wood is eastern white cedar, so I thought I had found the mother load in the beam sizes you are milling. It's good looking stuff thanks


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## sprucegum (Apr 22, 2016)

MEB02 said:


> I do decoy carving for hunting and the preferred wood is eastern white cedar, so I thought I had found the mother load in the beam sizes you are milling. It's good looking stuff thanks


This is white cedar country, it normally grows in swampy areas so harvesting it in the summer is all but impossible. When it gets cold enough to freeze up the swamps is prime cedar cutting time. A few small mills saw it exclusively, I know one guy that makes his living sawing cedar on a manual woodmizer. As I am sure you know it is really lite wood which makes it ideal for a one man operation and a small mill. I have milled a little it is a joy to saw, cuts easy, smells good, and light weight.


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## sprucegum (Apr 22, 2016)

Kevin said:


> Eastern white pine.


_Pinus strobus_ In colonial times the King Of England laid claim to all of the white pines over 24" in diameter for use as masts for his ships. Since possession of a board 24" wide was proof that the pine had been stolen from the king the colonists made sure the maximum width board they cut was 23" for that reason you will rarely find a board wider than 23" in colonial era houses.

Reactions: Informative 3


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## Kevin (Apr 22, 2016)

That's interesting I love that kind of historical fact. 

Curiously I don't have any EWC as far as I know. I need to get some.


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## sprucegum (Apr 23, 2016)

Kevin said:


> That's interesting I love that kind of historical fact.
> 
> Curiously I don't have any EWC as far as I know. I need to get some.


Millions of board feet were harvested in the Connecticut river valley in NH. & VT. and driven down the river. Of course some logs were lost and eventually became waterlogged and sunk. People are still hauling the occasional virgin timber pine log from the river. The lack of oxygen preserves' the wood perfectly and the lumber is highly sought after. After the pine was all gone they went after spruce & fir. The last drive went down the river in 1915.


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## Kevin (Apr 23, 2016)

sprucegum said:


> Millions of board feet were harvested in the Connecticut river valley in NH. & VT. and driven down the river. Of course some logs were lost and eventually became waterlogged and sunk. People are still hauling the occasional virgin timber pine log from the river. The lack of oxygen preserves' the wood perfectly and the lumber is highly sought after. After the pine was all gone they went after spruce & fir. The last drive went down the river in 1915.



It's real popular in the south especially for cypress logs. It's called Deadheading.


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## sprucegum (Apr 23, 2016)

Kevin said:


> It's called Deadheading.


And for all these years I thought than meant following a certain rock band around the country, sleeping in tents at rock concerts, drugs, alcohol and free love.

Reactions: Funny 2 | +Karma 1


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## vegas urban lumber (Jun 26, 2016)

just sheered of the shaft in my hudson last week as well. had to order new bearings and shaft since i couldn't get the old one out


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## ripjack13 (Jun 26, 2016)

sprucegum said:


> I suppose I could have over tensioned the blade at some point but have used a torque wrench to set the blade tension for the past 2 years.


Have you compared your torque range against another torque wrench? There could be a variation in it....

Reactions: Agree 1


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## woodtickgreg (Jun 26, 2016)

Seems to be a flaw surfacing here...........


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## Ralph Muhs (Jun 26, 2016)

Some really big white pine (eastern white pine I guess) grows here in West Virginia. I have sawed trees that produced 2500 bd ft of lumber. Mostly I used it for framing lumber and some for exposed ceiling joists. Used it for siding on a workshop/garage/storage building.


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## JohnF (Jun 26, 2016)

Those big girls surface here now and then too. I have seen 48" white pines on mills. A couple mills will cut it up to 24' long. I buy some long lengths now and then just to use for moldings like ceiling cove, etc. Sure beats splicing. Lots of people think pine is junk wood, but EWP truly is premium stuff. It is quite stable, available in most any size you like, works easily, and takes a finish well. I built a set of cabinets for my daughter from some trees off the north shore of lake superior that were all 36-48" diameters. The trees had started to go (over 300 yrs old) so there was quite a bit of colored streaks in it. That was sure a beautiful set. Then they sold the house and moved.... lol.


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