Old School Sawmill Edger

[Brian Rupnow]

I must have done something really, really bad in one of my previous lives. I'm all set up and ready to go, and I can't get the engine to run. It ran great the last time I used it, and nothing has been changed while it sat up on the shelf.  Rest of my day will be tied up figuring out what the heck is going on with the engine.

[Brian Rupnow]

If at first you don't succeed, try a different engine. That doesn't always work though. I put the vertical hit and miss engine on as a driver this morning, and it starts and runs like a champion.--But---It doesn't have enough power to drive the edger. I tried many different tricks, but when the clutch lever is engaged, the vertical hit and miss engine just grunts and quits.  This is rather bad news as all of my engines have a 1" bore. The stroke on the vertical hit and miss is slightly different (shorter) than the first engine I tried to drive this system with. I am now going to have a closer look at the throttle governed engine and see  what is going on with it. I think it is more powerful, but only if I can get the darned thing to run. I have a couple of tricks left. I can monkey about with pulley ratios, and if that doesn't work I have my opposed twin horizontal engine which should be more powerful.

[Brian Rupnow]

I think I may have found out why my governor throttled engine wouldn't start. It may have been the result of a STUPID ATTACK!!! Having checked every possible thing I could, I decided that it must be a gummed up carburetor. So--I changed to a brand new carburetor.--And--While I was doing it I noticed that the top rocker arm on the engine operates the intake, not the exhaust. I have been bravely forging ahead with the engine valve timing set backwards. I don't have these stupid attacks often, but when I do, they're real doozies. I'm off to eat some lunch, then go for my fat mans walk, then come back and reset the timing. Gahhhhhh---

[crueby]

How did it run before with that backwards?  Whatever, glad you found it! Sometimes walking away and getting a fresh look shows things you've been staring at for hours without seeing.

[Brian Rupnow]

We're fine!!! Engine now runs excellent with proper valve timing. How did it get out of time just setting on a shelf? That is one of those questions that I have no answer for. I don't have anyone in my shop but myself, and unlike some people I could name, I don't have any shop elves. I know so much about these small engines, that when an engine refuses to run and yet I think everything is set up correctly, it makes me crazy. Now I will bolt the engine back onto it's sub base and see if it will run the edger.

[Brian Rupnow]

The throttle governed engine does run the edger. There is an awful lot of stuff in motion and it's scary as Hell, but everything is working. I have to tame the engine down a little bit and get things moving at a more sedate pace, but I think this thing is actually going to work. I will post a video of everything working and a board going thru the edger --maybe tomorrow.

[Brian Rupnow]

Three things to do tomorrow. Engine has one "loose" flywheel.---Drill out #8-32 set screw holes and retap to #10-24. Link between governor and carburetor need one end to be adjustable.--Right now there is no adjustment on it and I need it to be adjustable to set the engine rpm range. Spring loaded pressure rollers on edger have to have adjustable stops added. Right now they ride right up tight to the textured rollers. The boards I am going to be edging are 1/8" thick material, so the adjustable stops will stop the pressure rollers 3/32" away from the textured rollers. This will make it easier to get the boards into place to start them feeding thru the saws, and will keep the textured rollers from marking up the face of the pressure rollers.

[Art K]

Brian,
Glad to hear that you have the engines problems sorted out and running, with a few repairs left. I have found that I needed to set up an indicator on the i/e to determin where it's set & where it needs to go that's using the cam timing diagram.
Art

[Brian Rupnow]

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBx6j-ub6Dw" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XBx6j-ub6Dw</a>

[gerritv]

Sounds like a tough strong motor. I wish my effort at an engine were rewarded with that sound :-)

Gerrit

[Brian Rupnow]

I've played as much as I can for today. Tomorrows work will be putting swing limiters on the edger to keep the pressure rolls from riding on the face of the textured rollers.

[Brian Rupnow]

This morning I put "swing limiters" on the pressure rollers. This does two things. It prevents the spring loaded pressure rollers from being forced down on the knurled feed rollers and getting their plain faces marked up by the knurling. It also holds the gap of about 3/32" between the rollers so that it isn't so difficult to force a 1/8" thick board between the  rollers to start it self feeding thru the saws. In the picture you can see the top of four #4 threaded studs with double hex nuts on them. They extend thru clearance holes in the top frame, thru the springs for the pressure rollers, and thread into the swinging mechanism which supports the top pressure rolls. By moving the nuts up or down on the threaded studs I can adjust the roller gap.   Right now I have a 1/8" thick parallel setting between the rollers until some of the Loctite I used on the studs sets up.

[Brian Rupnow]

Today seen the first boards thru the edger. I'm a bit disappointed that none of my single cylinder engines have enough power to run it properly. I may try my twin cylinder opposed engine on it, however for now I wanted to see the edger actually do it's job. I have resorted to variable speed drill power, and although it is noisy, it gets the job done. I think that I need stronger springs on the pressure rollers to feed the boards completely through, but other than that it seems to do everything I want it to. I will get a video up either this afternoon or tomorrow morning.

[Brian Rupnow]

I'm getting a complete education on the care and feeding of edgers. I am edging boards but I have learned---The saw's should be running twice as fast, and the feed rollers should be twice as slow. I have the feed rollers both gripping the board and passing it through just fine. Only thing is that the saw isn't cutting fast enough to keep up, so about half way down the length of a board the saw blades stall, and the belts slip. Fortunately, this can all be addressed by different pulley combinations.  I have an ever increasing bunch of different sized pulleys hanging on my machine-shop wall, from all of the crazy things I have built. If I put a board thru that is narrow enough to engage only one saw blade, things actually work pretty good.

[Jasonb]

Well I did mention it in post #14

about 10:1 ratio from the photo I posted.