Question
Has anyone modified a Lucas 825 to do the double cut without spinning the mill and lifting and lowering the rails in the process? I am thinking about cutting off the guards on the left side of the arbor to be able to square the left side of the log and then slide over to the left and square the right side and cut a 17" wide board. I have looked into this quite a bit. I have spoken with Bailey's and they said that they have heard of people doing this, but can't recommend it, as it is modifying the original plan and removing guards.
I have over 700 hours running the mill so I do know a little about it. It also has a "double cut pivot" installed (Lucas's Product) that holds the engine/cutting apparatus to the carriage on the front side. This allows one person to make the first cut, slide the blade out of the cut, lift the carriage, slide it on top of the pre-cut log, set the flat blade on the log, lower the carriage down until the blade is supporting the carriage on the log with the rails lower than the carriage so it will spin, spin the carriage to cut on the other side and repeat the process backwards before cutting the other side to make a board wider than 8.5". This is quite time consuming. As I am usually cutting by myself it limits production quite a bit.
I am also very well aware of the pros and cons of modifying safety items. I am very capable of putting these items back on the machine to original specs once taken off if they don't work.
Has anyone done anything like this to a Lucas? I also have a slabbing attachment, but it is rather slow and still requires edging. I understand that the Petersen mill does something like this, but have not had the opportunity to see this.
Forum Responses
(Sawing and Drying Forum)
From contributor D:
Peterson's web site has a video of doing this kind of cutting. Looks like the big thing is to avoid "climb" cutting where the blade is spinning in the direction of travel. A blade with that kind of power clawing its way forward through a board would be quite a hazard. It's just a matter of paying attention.
I have heard of one fellow using a forklift as a lifting point to raise to saw and spin it and liked the idea.
Some time back there was a blurb on a Canadian swing saw dealer's site where they were going to mount a band mill on the saw rails at the same time as the regular saw and use it to cut the wide boards when needed. (Imagine 30" boards on your Lucas... cool). They were using a saw built by Linn Lumber modified in house for their purposes. I don't think they got it to fly but I really liked the idea and might try it myself.
The roof pulley is centered for spinning the carriage and dropping back to the rails with no pushing.
The come-along for lifting is in the foreground. The harness is some plastic covered steel cabling left from a dog run, but rope would work also. S hooks at the cable ends go into the eyebolts. Lift the carriage 6 inches and spin it around. No need to adjust the rails or realign the height gauges.
Another handy modification is this laser, also seen in the last picture. It points straight down and is very visible even in daylight. It is attached to the saw and where the red dot appears is where the blade will cut. This is great for aligning logs to the mill and also to setting the left-right saw position at each new layer of cuts for best yield.
I'll leave one last picture for Lucas lovers (but applicable to all millers). This is the cheap winch I use to load the logs. The cable goes down to a ground level pulley to vector the loading force correctly. I pull the cable over the log, back under, and attach it to the next pole of the pole barn. This rolls the log right up onto the cutting supports with no effort on my part. I have rolled 18 foot long 40 inch logs that are crooked, no problem. It's a 12 volt winch, so I hang my portable battery next to it (yellow block, also $45 from HF). I charge the battery every 2 weeks or when it is low, and it also runs the Lucas blade sharpener (and boosts my backhoe on cold days).
