My Woodland Mills sawmill order

[Rene S]

I thought I would share my recent experience buying a sawmill, in case that helps anyone.

I order a Woodland Mills HM130 Max on May 7. When I ordered it, their website said deliveries in 4 to 12 weeks. When I checked back a week ago, it said deliveries in 6 to 12 weeks.

Yesterday evening (June 2), out of the blue, I received a text that I had a delivery from Woodland Mills scheduled for June 3, between 10 and 2. I mention that because Woodland Mills had said that they would contact me when my order was complete and ready for shipment, and I had not been contacted yet. So while I was glad to be getting the mill sooner rather than later, I was a bit surprised by how things went.

To add to my confusion, on May 8, I had ordered a cant hook. Since the text did not provide any details regarding the shipment, I wanted to make sure it was the mill and not the cant hook. Yeah, I know, it was most likely the mill, but I have to take time off from work and drive for an hour to meet this delivery, so I wanted to make sure.

Woodland Mills was closed when I called around 6:30 PM from New York state. But luckily, I got someone at the carrier. While they didn't have many details, they could tell me that the shipment weighed 1,000. So at that point, I was fairly sure it was the mill and not the cant hook. (Just kidding)

Even better, I called the carrier this morning and they narrowed down the delivery time to between 11 and 1. Since the crate was on the truck, they knew what order the delivery was going to be made in. That's real nice, since to meet the delivery, I will be sitting in my truck at the end of a road in the middle of nowhere.

Not sure if this will help someone, but I have been lurking for a while and have gotten some very helpful information here, so I wanted to chip something in. As many of you have said, this forum is very helpful, and I appreciate it.

Oh, and full disclosure, while I did say yes to the question about being a human or not, that was only because there was no other viable option. Odd duck might have been more accurate...

PS I created my account this morning and waited quite a while to get approved. Since I have to get going soon, I finally decided to try logging in with the user ID and pw I had created when I registered. Lo and behold, I got in. 

[Nebraska]

Welcome and best of luck.

[Jeff]

Gmail puts our email in spam.

[Rene S]

I checked my spam folder a bunch, and again just now. Nothing in there from you guys.

No biggie. Just thought you might want to know. 

[trimguy]

Welcome a board.😁 We like pictures.

[B.C.C. Lapp]

Hello and welcome. Good luck with the new mill. Keep us posted when you get sawing.

[rusticretreater]

I had a similar experience with Woodland Mills.  They have great customer service.

Today is the day you said it arrives!

I would suggest that you make sure that you have a battery powered impact driver and a good fitting large adjustable wrench.  There are a ton of bolts and nylon lock nuts.  Tightening those by hand will wear you out.  There are some bolts/nuts that are 20mm and larger, so you might need to buy a few sockets to get it all together.

[DanMc]

Rene:   Very nice for a first post.  Now take lots of pics and put the best ones here.  Welcome to the forum.  The only dumb question is the one you don't ask.  

[Rene S]

Thanks guys. Will do. Been pretty busy with just leveling, straightening, and squaring up the rails. Today, I'm assembling the saw head.

Luckily, i looked at the tool list and filled in the gaps. This morning I'm going to look for an adapter for my drill driver. Maybe get a cordless impact wrench...

It's an adventure, but I'm liking it.

[Rene S]

 

 

 

 

These are in reverse order (of course)...

[Rene S]

One more. Love this tractor...




 

[Rene S]

A couple of comments on assembly, in case they help anyone...

It was suggested above that I use an impact wrench and I bought a DeWalt this morning before heading back out. What a difference it made.  It was $200 without any batteries, but I have plenty of batteries, so that was fine. It was money well spent. (And also...ahem... hi, my name is Rene, and I am a toolaholic...)

A friend helped me today. I thought I could do this myself and just wanted the work to go faster, but I was wrong. There are some heavy parts on the saw head that would be incredibly hard (for me) to hold and bolt at the same time. I brought a few clamps, and they helped, but having someone to insert the bolts on the heavy pieces was a godsend. 

Unless someone has no one who can help, I would suggest getting help when putting together the saw head, even if the person just inserts the bolts. Some of the assembly requires you to hold in place fairly large pieces that weigh 15-20 pounds, with nothing to rest the piece on. If someone has to do it alone, it would be good to have at least four trigger clamps and maybe some other methods of holding parts in place.

The manual suggests assembling everything before placing the saw head on the rails. We were running out of time, so I took the risk of not doing certain steps, like the push handles and the latches for the saw housing doors, figuring I could do those with the saw head on the rails. If I was wrong, I will update this thread. But we looked through the manual several times and saw no reason to not put the saw head on the rails when we did.

Lastly, hoisting the saw head with the tractor was a big help, but I was glad my friend was there to guide the saw head. Even though I was going very slowly, it tended to swing from the slightest movement. And having a guy on the ground made it much easier to get the saw head aligned with the rails. I might have pulled it off alone, but it could have been very frustrating and potentially could have resulted in the rails getting knocked out of alignment.  

[rusticretreater]

Glad you got it all put together without any major problems.  I was able to assemble mine by myself and I did use quick clamps as you mentioned.  My lil Kubota BX-25 was just strong enough to get the mill head on the rails.  I wouldn't have been able to get it in place on a raised bed or trailer.

The next thing you might need to do is dig out trenches under the bed to give you more room for your log clamps.  Also, the lube feed can be problematic.  Basically, the fitting on the tank moves around too easily so folks make some kind of modification for flow.  I leave the valve full open and pinch the line between the meter block and the lube discharge fitting.

Also, check the docs on the Woodland Mills website.  They have a few bulletins on adjusting the blades and such.  It will be under Blades & Maintenance, Technical Resources.

https://woodlandmills.com/blades-blade-maintenance/technical-resources/blade-tension-guide/
https://woodlandmills.com/blades-blade-maintenance/technical-resources/blade-tracking-guide/

Let the fun continue!