Shifting Large Logs laterally on sawmill

[Stuart Caruk]

So I finally got around to another mod for my mill, that I have wanted to make for some time. It doesn't seem to matter what mill a person has, loading large logs is a PITA. But, they make such great lumber and beams. I posted the question of how to easily shift logs laterally when they got dumped on the mill in a less than optimal spot. There were several replies and I think it was Magicman who suggested using the stops with a chain and cant hook to slide them down. (Thanks by the way MM) That trick worked on my LT35, but doesn't work on my LX450, since I have vertical stops. I typically use the sideshift feature on my forklift, but it takes a lot of repetition and a couple moves to shift a log 3 or 4 feet.

I love the capacity of the LX 450 as far as width of cut goes, and the frame is definitely stouter than a cantilever mill, which helps with the large logs I typically saw, but I missed one key component. The blade rises to a maximum of 32.75" above the saw bed. While I can fit a 42" diameter log on the mill, and I have several times... It takes a lot of planning. I removed the standard Woodmizer log loader when I permanently mounted my mill to a concrete pad as I use a log deck to feed my mill. It worked great for the first several logs, then I tried to load my monsters. My mill has a debarker that doesn't really intrude very much into my cutting envelope above the blade. It does stick out about 3 feet in front of the frame though, and this is a serious issue. It's not possible to load a log over 32" unless you load it far enough down that it won't hit the debarker, or it's frame. This really sucks, because it means wasting 3 feet of cutting length. It's not a big deal with short boards, but when a customer wants a 42' long 10" x 14" beam, it's a huge issue as I'll run out of room. 

My wife hates it when she saws with the log positioned too far from the end of the mill, because she loves the dragback feature, and for that to work properly you really need the log loaded as close to the front of the mill as possible to minimize the span between the board coming off the mill, and onto our powered rollcase. If you load the log 3' down the mill, it's going to need to span almost 8 feet, which means shagging the board by hand. We're both to old and lazy to do that.

As it turns out, Woodmizer makes a commercial mill called a WM4000. On that mill, they make a set of powered rollers that can be installed as an option, over the standard toe boards used to level one end of a log. I did a bit of poking around and found that the standard toe rollers are common across a lot of Woodmizer mills, and the ones on the WM4000 appeared to match the ones on my LX450, so I took a gamble that they just might fit on mine. Brett and James at our local Woodmizer office were kind enough to help me with the research and ordering the proper parts. They sent me a  me a PDF drawing of their powered roller upgrade option, and I was convinced they would work, so I ordered up a set.

For reference, here's a picture of a standard toe roller in the up and down position for those who might not use a WM mill.






I ordered up a left and right hand set from WM, but ended up mounting them on opposite ends to fit my mill. I removed the pair of standard toe rollers and moved them further down onto my extension. I've ordered an extra standard roller, so I'll have 8 powered rollers on my extension. They are super handy for rolling large beams out of my way, although I've run out of valves, and am in the process of adding electric operated valves at each station so I can run them from either end of the mill.

Surprisingly, the powered rollers dropped right into place. The WM mounting method is 4 bolts and a couple plates to clamp each end of the mounting hardware to the mill. The motor side fit perfectly. ON the idler side, there is a small tab that locates the bracket on top of the cross beam. This tab interfered with my bed rail adjusting bolt. I had the option of cutting the tab off, which would have required me to fab another one and weld it in place, or grind off about 1/8" to allow it to fit. So, out with the grinder.... In retrospect next time I'd cut the tab off and move it over, and drill another pair of 1/2" bolt holes, and one of the mounting clamp bolts hits the bed rail adjuster as well. For now, I just left it off. If the bed rail needs adjusting in the future, I'll change it then.

So here's a couple pictures of the powered rollers. 










The powered roller assembly upgrade kit doesn't include the hydraulic cylinders like the standard toe roller kit does, but both use the same cylinders, so I used my old ones for the powered rollers and I'll order another pair to use on the older rollers further down the bed.

Hydraulics were a cinch. I used the existing controls to raise and lower either toe roller, and since I happened to have 2 pairs of spare hydraulic lines capped off for the log loader I removed, I plumbed them into the drive motors. A little experimenting to get the direction right, and everything works great.

Now I can raise either end of the log, or raise both and power feed it up or down the bed. This allows me to optimally position a heavy log on the bed. Additionally it gives me 2 more benefits. I can now cut even longer cants, by easily shifting over length logs after I've cut as far as possible. These rollers are slightly larger diameter, so they raise finished can'ts or logs about 5/8" higher than the standard toe rollers making it even easier to load and unload with a forklift.

All in all, it's a simple modification that only takes a couple hours. To me, it was well worth it.

[Magicman]

   Wow, that is truly a "cat's meow" !!!

If it is only a few inches I use the side supports, chain, and Magic hook, but sometimes it's much easier to unload a log, do the adjusting, and then reload. 

[pineywoods]

Neat If you ever needed to retain the loader function, just replace the toe roller control valve with a joystick control valve off a fel. Up/down/fwd/back all on one control..I don't cut much long stuff, but I did, I'd steal your idea and adapt it to my lt40

[Lawg Dawg]

Very Nice! And well done Sir!  ;D

[Southside]

Those are SWEET!!!  

[redbeard]

Great modification addition 
Very handy especially moving heavy cants and that odd knot that lands on a bunk that makes log tippy. 

[Stephen1]

That is a great modification, A person could put just 1 on the lt40 and it could help move the log back and forth. 

[YellowHammer]

Nice!  It aggravates me they don't offer them as options on all their mills.  

[PAmizerman]

Very nice. I always dreamed about adding a set to my 40 super.
I really enjoy reading you're posts. Keep them coming!!

[PAmizerman]

Stuart, have you ever done any sawing videos? That would be interesting to see!!

[Stuart Caruk]

I would suspect that these powered rollers would fit on a lot of Woodmizer mills. I believe the standard toe rollers are the same across most of the mills, and there is typically a decent sized gap in the frame on one end. If this is the case, it's simple to swap out standard rollers for toe rollers like I now have on my mill.

There are loads of things you can add to your mill. I've found that if Woodmizer makes it, they will give you decent drawings, and sell most of the components you need to upgrade yours. It would be simple to add a diverter valve to a stock machine so you can power the feed rollers from another source if you don't have a spare port.

The coolest thing to me is how they make up their "knurled" rollers. They are simple chain sprocket blanks welded to a hunk of pipe. I've been looking for 9 knurled rollers to build up a monster flitch whacker upper device to convert piles of flitches to nice neat firewood piles. I think I now have my solution.

A lot of my ideas came from looking at the Woodmizer Commercial machine brochures, so that's a great starting point. I build parts for a lot of commercial sawmills, and often find myself wandering through their plants. Since I have no need for stuff to process a unit of lumber in under a minute, a lot of it doesn't apply to me. I do appreciatte getting their cast offs though...