Installing DRO (Digital Read Out) Scale on the Mill | Woodland Mills HM 130 MAX sawmill
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- Опубліковано 3 бер 2022
- Today I am installing a digital read out scale on our sawmill to replace the factory log scale. We had to remove the original one because it would hit the shop ceiling when the saw head was raised all the way up. I found the DRO on Amazon. made by iGaging. I needed the 36" version for the HM 130 Max. After we got it installed we sawed a w 2 inch slab off of the huge oak log that we loaded last week.
I guess that oak is good wood, but I don't necessarily understand/agree to using it with a DRO that is a precission measuring tool. Thinking of humidity and such. But if it works, it works 👍🏼!
Then that DRO only gives a measurment relative to a zero. I guess that one could put zero at the pith, but then there is anyways the kerf that has to be calculated in?
When it comes to milling the quarter/production scale is handy. Counts from the bottom and in every cut the kerf is included. For example Swedish Logosol have a nice scale...
Thanks for your comment. I have not had any issues with the oak. I suppose if I was dealing with thousandths of an inch it might matter. And yes I can and will set zero at pith and then go up say 2 , 4 or more inches to start my flitch cut, then down in increments until I hit say 2 inches in order to leave enough for a 4x beam or post. Also I don't worry about the kerf. If a 2x6 comes out a little less than 2x6, its okay. Thanks for watching.
Great Video. I have a HM130MAX also and I have been looking at this DRO unit. I do not have the same overhead limitation that you have. I have one question. Does the bracket at the bottom not stop you from going down to a 1 inch cut from the top of the bed sections the wood is setting on? It looked to me like it would not allow your saw head to go down to the minimum 1 inch cut. Thank you.
Glad it was helpful! We are able to lower the blade to 1 inch above the bunk. The only issue I had was the adjustable blade guide on the operator side of the sawhead will not go in all the way. I need to cut the handle on that about an inch so that it will bypass the vertical wood piece that the DRO track is attached to. But it has not been a problem yet so I have yet to do that.
I have installed 2 of these exact same models on my sawmill and they both are trash. Neither will hold a dimension and have messed up many boards trying to figure it out. Once I just let the sawmill sit there and I actually took pictures of the DRO dimension changing as it was just sitting there. And I don't mean a fraction, the readout moved up to an inch and I had NOT moved the sawmill at all. Both of mine turned out to be totally worthless. Too late to return the first one, but hope to contact iGaging on the 2nd, but I hear their customer service is horrible.
Bummer! It could be the connection of the wire from the sender to the body of the readout. I have had to adjust mine several times when it became loose. Otherwise mine has worked great.Good luck, I hope you get some results.