Forestor Sawmaster rebuild May 2017

23rd May 2017 update in the Forestor Sawmaster sawmill rebuild - from a £2000 40 year old heap of scrap to almost good as new! and a video to go along with it today :) pretty much everything is now working and nicely painted, all moving parts beautifully lubricated, with a blade on, all tensioned & tracked and newly fitted and aligned blade lube pads and chako blocks in the guides. The video shows me checking that the newly replaced and adjusted chain yanks on a handle as it reaches near bottom to automatically cut out the drive to the up and down mechanism just before it touches the deck, and cuts out at the top by pushing the lever against a stop. Its rather slow to go up and down but as it is for cutting huge big logs only from time to time I dont see it as a problem. I think I will just need to make some adjustment to the control gear for lowering the sawhead as it doesnt seem to be that clever - see the part towards the end of the video when I use my foot on the lever! In the up position the lever clunks nicely into position but going down it has to be constantly pressed - dont know if that was intentional for safety reasons or what, but it is not easy to do if standing in the proper control place behind the engine. It may be I need to strip the gearbox and check how it works in case it is not working properly. Anybody out there with sawmaster operational experience, all tips gratefully received! I have the manual but it is basic to say the least. I got the 5 foot long rule fitted as a scale this afternoon - had already removed the forestor dial gauge system which I dont like, prefer the absolute simplicity of a rule scale (old tip from Forestor expert Jim Sharp), which will be used in conjunction with a basic saw-mounted battery calculator. The rule is one intended for measuring & cutting rolls of fabric!Next to do are some essential guards, partly for safety but mainly to stop blade lube dripping all over the new V-belts. Most of the guards present with the machine are either non-original and poorly designed or all bent and mangled or rotten with rust, so there's a fair bit of work to do there, but I hope to do some trial cuts as soon as the essential guards are complete. www.thewoodplace.com

Posted by The Wood Place on Tuesday, 23 May 2017