I received a Lionel Sawmill from a friend. The sawmill kept jamming on his layout and so he no longer wanted it. I put the sawmill on my layout and experimented with varying voltages to try to get it to operate reliably. It still jammed a lot and so I took it off the layout and put it in storage.
Recently, my grandkids were coming for a visit and I set up a loop of track for them to run trains. I decided to get the sawmill out to add interest to the loop of track. Remarkably, the sawmill has been running for a couple of weeks with no jams. It even ran fine with the abusive use my two and three-year-old grandkids gave it.
The sawmill was mounted level on my friends layout and on my layout and we experienced extensive jamming. When I put it on the floor layout, I had to tilt it slightly to get it close to the track as you can see in the picture. That slight tilt eliminated the jamming. The amount of tilt in the photo is 1/4" on the front of the sawmill. I have not tried testing to find the minimum amount of tilt to get reliable operation.
Very good find on how to fix your problem. Hopefully I’ll remember it if and when I ever have that problem with a sawmill. Now, is the problem caused by the base being level when it shouldn’t be, or is something inside not level when it should be (tilting the base levels something inside)?
Rob, Thanks for the reply and a good observation. My friends layout was painted plywood. My layout is covered with a felt-like material 1/8" thick. I think that material would act similar to carpet for the low weight of the sawmill.
Actually, just the rear edge is sitting on carpet. The front edge is sitting on plywood and the middle is suspended in air. I will check out your theory when I return the accessory to my layout.
Whatever the cause of the improvement in sawmill reliability, the difference is like night and day.
Earl