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From: Stevieray
Categories:
Date: 02 Nov 2001
Time: 10:59:32
Remote Name: 139.142.248.228
We used to have an ols Shurman doulcle arbour rotary gang that used strob saws. This machine was the bane of my existance. When I first was hired at the mill,they didn't have anyone who could work with strob saws. I was welcomed to a pile of bent and twisted saws, over 150 of them, and had my work cut out for me. They were on a sleeve with spacers and the spacer faces were all worn causing the saws to dish when the collar was tightened and the press rolls and feed rolls ran on brash bushings instead of roller bearings and this is where most of the problems came from, worn out bushing. There is no substitute for bearings. I had the feed roll bushings changed out to roller bearings but the press rolls neede major modifications to change over so the bushing were replaced. It would run fine for a couple of months and then the bushings would start to wear and the saws would start to fail again. I reall dislike strob saws now. Yhe company decided to change out the Shurman for a Newnes double arbor rotary gang, the first one of its kind ar far as Newnws went and we were the test bed for the machine , documenting all the problems we had with it and the modifications done. The machine runs flawlessly now for the last 8 years actally, but has now been coverted to a single arbour since ther is not enough demand for 12 inch boards and the log sizes are getting smaller. We used to be an all species mill but now cut only western Red Cedar. We have also replaced our old Mainland board edger with an 8 saw climb cut Newnes edger , also the first of it kind and another test modle. It had problems too, mainly in the shifting and guidind mechanisms due to having to be so thin to accomodate the number of saws, this mahchine was designed to have only four saws in it. I do not miss the strob saw one bit but I realize that we are lucky to have "cutting edge" technology (sorry for the pun)and management thtat is willing to spend money to get it. For a small outfit they have put over 13 million into it in the 13 years I have worked there, and are still doing so inspite of the downturn in the lumber industry.