Wow, where to start? You're at the bottom of a learning curve, I'm gonna try to help boost you up that hill a little.
First off, key is a sharp and properly set blade. We'll assume for the moment you've got that, but if you don't, you may as well stay in the truck.
I don't know how old your 30 is, but if you've got 12 VDC feed motor, the drive pulley, not the one on the motor, small, but the larger one, driven, try pinching that with your hand to the guard to slow your speed to a crawl till your blade starts to enter the log, then slowly release your grip to let it come up to speed, should help with the dive.
It's hard to tell the difference between a dull and sharp blade by running your hand on the teeth, but as soon as you start to sharpen a blade, you can tell how dull it was by how much material you have to remove to get an edge on a tooth. While milling, if you have to reduce feed rate, or are getting a wavy cut, particularly when hitting knots, you're blade is dull, change it out.
Watch your set on the teeth, the outer set teeth will lose their set quicker than the inner set teeth.
Like I said, I don't know how old your mill is. But your T handle that you set tension with, there's a spring there that looks like a valve spring. There's a small piece of metal right beside it that the spring, when tensioned, should be even with the end of that piece, no more, no less.
If your mill has a few years on it, and it does, you should order a new spring, they loose their tension over time and your blade isn't as tight as it should be, and you don't know it. Never leave a blade on your machine when you're not milling, like overnight, never leave a blade on the machine and leave it under tension. When you start up your mill, warm it up a bit, tension the blade, bring the blade up to speed without cutting anything, take an old wire brush and 'lightly' touch your wheels to get the dust off them, idle down and check your tension. Make one cut, and recheck your tension.
I don't know how much milling you're planning to do, but buy about 10 blades, at least, at a time. You only get an hour or 2 out of a blade while milling till they need sharpened. If you have a bunch with you, just throw a new one on and when you're done milling for the day, now you can go home and sharpen blades.
Keep in mind, the real enemy of a sharp blade, is bark, and the dirt that's in there. Try to make your cuts so you're cutting into a milled surface, and not the bark. For the first few cuts, might want to get an old drawshave, or fab one up, to take some bark off where the blade will run for the first few cuts.
Happy milling, you're got youself in excellent machine. Once you figure out what you're doing a little, it's great satisfaction, till then, it can be a little frustating.
Good luck.:msp_thumbup:
