Manual › Log Master › Machine setup
Machine setup
Your mill, described once. Every solution Log Master produces afterwards is cut to this machine rather than a generic one, so it is worth twenty minutes and a tape measure.
Machine Setup — Setup › Machine Setup from the optimizer menu
Data sets. The picker at the top holds more than one mill. Set up each machine once, give it a name, and switch between them rather than editing numbers back and forth. The one shipped with the app is locked so it stays a reliable reference — duplicate it to get an editable copy.
Mill
The blade and how finely you can position it.
Mill
Mill type
Horizontal Bandmill
Which class of sawmill you run. This decides which of the parameters below apply at all — a swing mill and a bandmill do not share the same mechanics.
Kerf
0.087 in
How much wood the blade turns into sawdust on every pass. Measure a cut rather than trusting the blade spec; kerf error compounds across every board in the log.
Sawhead resolution
1/64 in
The smallest increment your setworks can actually be set to. Saw heights in the cut sequence are rounded to this, so the number you read is a number you can dial in.
Scale resolution
0.25 in
The increment your height scale is marked in, if you set heights by eye against a rule rather than by setworks.
Bunk locations
not defined
Where the bunks sit along the bed, measured from tape zero. Leave them undefined and the bunk-aware features stay off; define them and Log Master can check the butt is seated and warn you when it is not.
Capacity
The limits of the machine. Anything you leave blank is treated as no limit, so only fill in what actually constrains you.
Capacity
Max log length
16.83 ft
The longest log your bed takes. Logs longer than this are still measured, but will not be solved as a single piece.
Max cant width
no limit
The widest cant your mill can handle. Leave blank if nothing constrains it.
Max cant height
no limit
The tallest cant you can stand up and saw.
Min saw height above bunk
1 in
How close the blade may come to the bunks. This is the setting that stops the optimizer proposing a cut into your own steel.
Max saw height above bunk
no limit
The highest the sawhead travels.
Min log diameter
no limit
Logs below this are not worth putting on the mill.
Max log diameter
28 in
The largest log that fits between the guides.
Handling
How the log can be moved once it is on the bed. These settings decide which cut sequences are physically possible on your mill.
Handling
Toe board
enabled
Whether you have a toe board to lift one end. With it on, the optimizer may raise the small end to line the taper up rather than sawing parallel to the bed.
Toe-board increment
0.062 in
The smallest lift your toe board can make. Lift figures in the cut sequence are rounded to it.
Rotation
Full
How far you can turn the log. Full means any angle; restricted mills only index in fixed steps.
Turn direction
Any
Whether you can turn both ways. Set it to match your mill and the cut sequence will never ask for a turn you cannot make.
First scanned end
Near (carriage) end first
Which end of the log you started the scan from. This is how Log Master knows which end of the drawing is the end in front of you at the mill — get it wrong and every instruction is mirrored.
Measure the kerf, do not look it up. Saw a board, measure what you have left, and work back. A blade thinner or thicker than its spec throws off every board position in the log, and the error grows with each cut.