Useful sawmill mods

[coyotebait]

Hello
I was reading your easyout problems.
If you buy some left hand drillbits,alot of the time the broke bolt will come out as
you are drilling. if not then stick in a easyout.

[Magicman]

coyotebait.....Welcome to The Forestry Forum.  There are many post/threads concerning home built mills on here.  Good luck.

[Engineer]

So far, in this thread and many others, I wonder why nobody has replaced all of their mill supports with crank-style trailer jacks, the heavy-duty Bulldog ones that support a few thousand pounds.  For the cost of replacement, you can fine-tune the mill height and never have anything sticking up above the mill bed?   If I had kept my WM, I would have replaced all of them.  Plus they are almost completely removable with the through-pin, so you could place extra mounts if needed for support on soft ground.

[fishpharmer]

Engineer, outstanding idea.  That is something I considered when building my mill.  Now that it is ten feet wide, decided not to try portable (yet ;) )

[Engineer]

Part of the reason I mention it, is because there's been several times in the past few years that one of two things have happened when I've gone to set up my mill:

1.  All of the mill legs are stable, but there's a hump in the ground or something and one leg sticks up above the mill bed, so all of them have to be lowered one more notch and it gets the wheels up off the ground, or:

2.  One or more legs are just plain loose, so the mill is wobbly and is really only supported by some of the legs, not all.

Rarely you get both.  Most often I got #2.  Using the trailer jacks could have both tires on the ground and just enough downward force on each leveler to make the mill perfectly stable.  I've never had a chance to see the fine adjustment legs which are an option on newer woodmizers, but with the old style legs, it seems like you'll always have at least one that isn't quite touching the ground. 

[Brucer]

Wood-Mizer's original fine-adjust legs were basically the drop-down legs with a crank that would adjust the leg over one notch of adjustment. You weren't supposed to adjust them while loaded, either ??? ???.

The new ones are completely different. Nothing sticks up above the bed and you can crank away to your hearts content.

[Magicman]

Milling on level ground  ???  Say what  ???

It's a very rare occasion when I don't have to "dig in" at least one stabilizer jack.  Also, I carry a supply of 1" and 2" blocks to  take care of low spots.  A couple of 2'- 2X12's to pull a wheel on to level the mill.  One side of the loader almost always has to be "dug in", and sometimes both sides.

With soggy ground, I usually have to readjust the stabilizers after the first couple of logs.

[Dan_Shade]

after I learned "how" to level my LT40 by running the head back and forth to take weight off of the jacks, I can do it pretty quickly.

I'd be afraid of the mill being "wobbly" using the bulldog style trailer jacks.  The mill is very stable with the woodmizer jacks.

[BAR]

Milling on level ground  ???  Say what  ???

It's a very rare occasion when I don't have to "dig in" at least one stabilizer jack.  Also, I carry a supply of 1" and 2" blocks to  take care of low spots.  A couple of 2'- 2X12's to pull a wheel on to level the mill.  One side of the loader almost always has to be "dug in", and sometimes both sides.

With soggy ground, I usually have to readjust the stabilizers after the first couple of logs.

[BAR]

Sorry for the above ommission, ment to add......

I do as above, but I also made a batch of wedges about 12 in long tapering from 1/8 in to 2 in thick and 4in wide.  Works well for equalizing the load on each support but doesn't do much for keeping all the post tops below the bed.

[pnyberg]

I want to be able to bring my LogRite Fetching arch with me to customer sites. It's too wide to fit inside the bed of my Toyota Tacoma pickup.  It could perch on the tailgate, but this arrangement would be suboptimal for several reasons.  I've noodled over trying to carry the arch on the mill, but couldn't figure out how to do it, until it occurred to me last week that the arch has this big space between the wheels that might allow it to go over the command console.

My tape measure said it would work, so I cobbled together a quick prototype to test the theory, and by golly it did work, slick as a whistle. 

I scratched my head a little more to come up with the final design, and now we have the Log Arch Mill Deck, Mark I.



I flip the log tongs up onto the arch's back for loading and unloading.  They swing free during transport.

I can't quite manage to push the arch up the ramps without a bit of a running start.  Maybe if I made longer ramps...



The deck is cantilevered over the track side of the mill, but the center of gravity is on the loader side of the rail, though not by much.  There's a bungee cord that you might be able to make out near the closer tire.  That's to hold the mill track up, not to hold the arch down.  It's in lieu of the track support gizmo that came with the mill, which no longer fits. 



A ratchet strap holds the arch down and pulls it back against the screwed down chocks.  The strap passes under the mill's forward-most fixed bunk, so it helps keep everything firmly attached.



The rear cross piece wraps under the bunk to prevent tipping.  Cleats on the underside of the fore/aft runners prevent the cross piece from moving towards the rear.  This outrigger dictated the left/right positioning of the arch deck.

Initially, I had the arch deck all screwed together as one large cumbersome unit.  I added cleats to the runners and cross pieces, so it will break down without tools into four easily managed pieces.

I took this setup on the 140 mile round trip to my first customer this past weekend.  I stopped to check on it four times on the way down, and found it still quite secure each time.  I only stopped to check it once on the way home. 

--Peter

[pineywoods]

 smiley_clapping   smiley_clapping. Deserves a Bibby award.....

[fishpharmer]

pnyberg, that must be some of that "yankee ingenuity" coming out.  Great idea and work. 8) 8)

[stonebroke]

Slick, I bet having the arch around helps when you are milling?

Stonebroke

[coastlogger]

Looks like a great idea.Is there some way you could use the mill hydraulics etc to help it up the ramp? Maybe attach it to the head and activate feed?Longer ramps will definitely help for manual operation.

[Jeff]

Be aware, that in a state like Michigan, as soon as you do that you are required to have a trailer plate on the mill, because now it is a trailer.  If you are only hauling the mill down the road, then it does not require a plate.

But I like it!

[pineywoods]

Be aware, that in a state like Michigan, as soon as you do that you are required to have a trailer plate on the mill, because now it is a trailer.  If you are only hauling the mill down the road, then it does not require a plate.

But I like it!

Paint it all orange..Then It's part of the mill   :

[Jeff]

I bet that would work.

[pnyberg]

In Connecticut the mill needs to be registered as a trailer regardless.  It has a plate.

[Magicman]

I would use 2" straps and a separate one for each tiedown.  That way, if one malfunctions the other two would keep the arch secure.  With any bounce, I have seen 1" straps break.... :'(

Looks good.....

[pnyberg]

Redundant tie-down straps definitely sounds like a good idea.

[sgschwend]

Some mills use a hydraulic motor to feed the saw.  The hydraulic motor uses the sawmill hydraulic system but the speed control may be a hand turned manual valve which is often inconvenient to operate.

Recently folks had suggested a hydrostatic pump for this purpose.  Sounds like a very clever idea but the cost of this solution would be high ($600). 

It is also possible to use a Proportional hydraulic valves but those prices are in the 5-6 thousand dollar range, not at all practical.

This solution uses a 12V DC gear motor (150:1) reduction, that turns the manual valve knob.  A simple momentary on switch is used to control the motor.  I purchased all the parts I needed from Grainer for less than $50 (motor, DPST switch/cap, and coupling).

A simple cable was added to remote the switch to my sawmill remote.  The speed control is operate it by jogging the switch up for faster and down for slower. 

DC motor, shaft coupled to the manual valve:



Sawmill remote with speed switch added at the top:

[fishpharmer]

SG, nice setup.  Very clever of you.  Now I need a hydraulic mill to apply it ;) :D ;D

[pa_of_6]

Hello All

I have been reading the forum for quite awhile now but have not posted....until now anyways.

I have thought about the hydaulic mods that ole bibby did, but I do not have grid power where I saw.
By the way I have a Woodmizer LT70 with a 62 hp Cat.
I did run # 2 welding cable down the wiring track to the hydraulic pumps to get rid of them dam power strips....that was a huge improvement! It also allows for the longer lasting of the 12 volt hydraulic pump motors. The brushes burn up on them more because of the lack of good grounding than the lack of a good positive from the power strip.

So the mod I want to do is to add a hydraulic pump on the motor and then get the feed system using hydraulics instead of 12 volt electric.
I find that the 12 volt motor just does not cut it when it comes to the drag back of big flinches. By big I mean 3 inches thick by as wide as the throat of the mill is...24 inches.

I upgraded to a 1 hp from the 3/4 that came with the mill....and by the way, Woodmizer puts the 1 hp on all of the 70s now, but it still doesnt have the poop required.

For the mod....
There is a port just below the fuel injection pump on the Cat engine that you can install a hydraulic pump that runs off the crank gear....it is designed for that purpose.

I will then mount a orbit motor to drive the feed/return.

I can get a hydraulic valve that uses pulse modulation for the control of the flow to the orbit motor.
Pulse Modulation is what woodmizer uses to control the speed of the 12 volt power feed motor.

My problems and kunudrums are
1- I need more info on the pulse modulation that woodmizer uses to be able to get the  proper valve. I can then hook the two leads off the 12 volt power feed motor and use the same control system for the hydraulic flow.....It could be that easy.

Although I really like that electric actuator that thae fellow about 5 posts prior used....looks like it would work great.

2- Should I drive thru the gear box with a high speed orbit motor or drive directly with a high torque low speed orbit motor...I am swaying for the latter.

3- I am also thinking of running hoses down the wiring track to the hydraulic control valves and elimanate the 2 12 volt hydraulic pumps. My only concern is that the weight added to the cutting head may be too much....the hydraulic tank  needs to be about 10-15 gallons. I can put on a hydraulic oil cooler and mount it on the front of the rad to lower the volume of the hydraulic oil tank.

So anyone have any comments or thoughts????

I figure this mod will cost me about 5-6000$

I just want to be sure I have it well thought out before I break open the piggy bank.

[Bibbyman]

Welcome to the Forum!  Glade you made it!

If you put the pump on the engine and run the hoses down the cable track, then you could pull the heavy cables that you had running to the 12v pumps - right?  Looks like it'd about equal out.  The copper cables are pretty heavy.