Useful sawmill mods

[MartyParsons]

Hello from Pennsylvania Wood-Mizer!

We have been changing the power feed system to a much better and easier module to diagnose when you have a issue. Part number 073547.
Some real early mills you may need to add a breaker 30 amp and a switch to stop power. Later mills have the key switch for the accessory terminal. 
Hope this helps. 
Thanks Marty








 



Remove this!. 
 

 

[Peter Drouin]

Wood Mizer did a good job cleaning that up. Now customers can upgrade if they want. 
Thanks for all the info on all the  WM mills out there,
Mr Parsons.

The head gasket you sent me for my 50-horse cat is working perfectly. 

[Ljohnsaw]

Looks like someone let the magic smoke out of a couple wires!

[Southside]

Naa - that's the pre-heater for the circuit board.  :D

[SawyerTed]

Fabrication isn't something I do much of, so I need to see things before I can come up with a solution.   

Now I'm getting used to the board return. I need a board outfeed table(s).

Some things to be considered are 

Light enough to be portable 
Quick attachment/detachment
Relatively simple build
Durable enough
Lowest possible expense 

A Lifetime brand plastic folding table is the right height but not durable enough.  A scrap sheet of standing seam metal was cheap enough (leftover) but required a piece of plywood backing.  The roofing wasn't wide enough and standing seam edges stopped boards occasionally. A Plywood/ wood table needed a quick attachment method and stand.  

So I tried a wire pallet rack shelf and support leg with ratchet straps to secure it as a proof of concept.  

It worked well while cutting white oak 2x6x8. 

It needs some refining but it has promise. 



 

I'm thinking a second stand alone one can be placed in line with this one with space for me to walk between the two would help for longer boards.  A couple of I-beam sawhorses could be legs. 

[Southside]

Nice!  Is that a Post Oak or Oak Post outrigger supplemental support?  ;D

[SawyerTed]

It's a cedar quick deployment outrigger with a precision chainsaw cut adjustment option.  :D

[caveman]

I know several of you prefer an outfeed table, but we have a roller that is set about 1/8" above the bunks.  It may limit us to 20' logs while using the roller, but it makes moving boards much easier.  Yesterday, my 5yo grandson was able to offload and stack a 16' 1x6 using the rollers. 

Another small mod.  On the drive side roller guide, I stripped out the threads on the top adjustment.  On a previous one that stripped, I tapped it out to 3/8" but that necessitated using another wrench to adjust.  This time I welded a nut on and added another nut and a longer bolt.  Both work.   

 

 

 

[caveman]

Have any of you ever cut an Lt-30, 40, or 50 and extended it to an extra wide?  I am intrigued with the idea of cutting and splicing in a telescopic piece that would allow it to run 158" blades and extend to run 184" blades.  There is a guy on YT who had done this by machining a block of aluminum.  I'd prefer to make an insert out of steel tubing.  Anyway, right now we are just kicking around the idea.  We had something follow us home today.

I'd appreciate any advice, guidance or pointing me in the right direction to see how others have done this.  No need to reinvent anything here.  Thank you.

[trimguy]

Okay, I have to ask, was it a log to big for your mill, or another mill ?

[caveman]

We have been looking for a while for a mill that would cut wider than our standard width lt-50.  We have tried to buy a Lucas or two and we have also been looking for a reasonably priced mill that we could modify.  We brought one home yesterday.  We worked on it or shopped for bolts, tubes and valves most of the day today.  It is a better mill than it was this morning.  We want to get it in perfect sawing condition prior to cutting it in two.  We will either cut our losses and sell it or go all in and cut it in two and widen it. 

It is a really nice machine with only about 300 hours on it.  I doubt the previous owner ever adjusted much on it.  We pulled the drive chain and changed a bearing in the drive apparatus today.  It does not bind up now.  Many of the bent guards and the fenders were massaged back into conformity.  The engine purrs like a kitten and the up and down motor is smooth and should be easy to hit the mark when sawing with the manual scale.  We made a lube tank out of a lawnmower's fuel tank I had stashed away and added a new tube to the idle side roller guide.  Bolts and screws that were missing were replaced.  We checked the drive belt tension, and it was good.  We may do a complete alignment tomorrow if we have time. 

I have a lot of cooking to do tomorrow night and early Monday (19 pork butts, 18 slabs of ribs and 40 lbs of potatoes).  If any of you are in the neighborhood, stop by.   

[Crusarius]

I sure would love to stop by. the commute is a little excessive though.

Cutting the sawmill in half will not be very hard at all. the hardest part is getting is straight when you put it back together. I built mine with no previous knowledge of sawmills and it was pretty easy. if you have any reasonable fab skills I don't think you will have any issues.

and since you mentioned on this forum you are now required to do a build thread with pictures. Not just in here.

[trimguy]

Congratulations on the second mill. I hope it works out that you can modify it.

[Old Greenhorn]

Crusarius, if you change you mind and decide to 'drop by', just give me a holler and pick me up on the way. Seeing Caveman fishing photos while wearing shorts is kind of killing me about now. :D ;D

Caveman, I think you should have no problems widening that mill, just keep in mind you have to keep the bandwheel centerlines parallel in the longitudinal axis, actually in all axis's. That might be the tough part unless it is hard welded.

I am curious because you have clearly avoided telling us 'what' this mill is. You know you will get a better discussion if folks know what you are working with. Is it a manual machine or hydraulic? If you won't tell us the manufacturer or show a photo, could you at least tell us what color it is? ;D
I think this is going to work out fine for you guys, you are sharp and resourceful so there is little doubt.

[caveman]

Thanks for the encouragement fellows.  It is a 2000 WM LT-30.  It is the short bed version of the LT-40.  This is a manual mill, so the drive motor is much smaller than what we have on the 50 and the feed arrangement is different for the carriage.  There is only one sprocket, a bearing and the chain.  The chain was "crunchy".  After pulling it off, soaking in a mixture of hydraulic fluid and diesel and massaging it a few times, it was reinstalled.  We mounted the chain on opposite ends of the mill from what it was so the chain's twist was oriented towards the mast, not the mill and changed the bearing.  The carriage moved much smoother down the rail and the chain and sprocket did not rub on the mill after doing this.

The drive motor tested out good but there is a bit of a problem with the feed.  We are not sure if it is the speed potentiometer or something else.  We probably should have brought out two tables based on all of the tools we had out at the end of the day.  As soon as John left, I had to clean fish that had been in a cooler in the back of my truck since Thursday night.

 

 
I think that if we ever build a shop, it will have lights and a big enough door to get equipment in so that we can work on it regardless of the weather.

[slider]

Build the shop taller and bigger than you need now.

[Hilltop366]

Building it.......thats the easy part, the hard part is not filling it up so you can actually get the mill in it.

[caveman]

The shop is in the background.  The side with all of the tools is full of so much stuff that we can't get anything in there to work on.  When my Dad decided to build that shop in 1991, that was the determining factor of where we would build our house- next door.  It has worked out well for my folks and my family over the years being close by.   

We did roll the LT-30 inside another door where my mother usually parks her car while we were working on it today.  We did a complete alignment today.  The blade guide rollers adjust quite a bit different than those on the newer WM.  After getting everything adjusted and the tools put away, we sawed one pine log into 1x8's.  It cut flat and very well.  I'm not sure the 25 Kohler will have the ponies to pull a blade through a really wide (up to 38") cut in hardwood.  We have some decisions to make.

Hilltop, you are right about the filling it up part.  My wife used to roller blade in there and I could take a 25 yard archery shot.  Now it is filled with a plethora of junk and treasures.  It's almost like people want to help you fill up the space and also stuff has a propensity to follow me home. 

[Southside]

My 35 has a 25HP Kohler on it and I agree it would not perform well in 38" hardwood.

[MaineSawyer]

Been meaning to upload some photos of some of the mods to the mill we have done over the past couple years. Sure some of these are repeats but after using the mill for a few years after I got it I knew there had to be an easier way, well besides a full hydraulic!  ;D

- Increased max cut length from 16' to 24' by adding on some steel to the rear. Kiln only holds 20' but you never know!

- Rail dust scraper on the chute side - it rides on either side of both chute side carriage wheels and also rubs lightly on the wheel to knock dust off the rail and remove any that gathers from the wheel. This eliminates it gumming the wheels up which can result in warped cuts. Took us too long to figure out why we couldn't keep it true after we first started cutting. We then had to use a screw driver to knock out the packed dust. Haven't had any issues since.

- installed leveling jacks x 8 - can be leveled using the cordless drill and fine tuned by hand. He likes to level using a site line transit and the tape with it slightly tapered 1/8" per 10' or so, to the rear so the carriage rolls back on its own after cutting but doesn't roll to fast. By the time he takes the board off and piles it the carriage is returned and ready for the next cut.

- Made a removable roof for the motor assembly, we just raise it up all the way to the top and it stops 90% of the weather from getting to it. We remove it if/when it travels.

- Biggest one was making the dogs usable with a cordless drill motor. Father is 72 years young and has cut over 10,000 bd feet in the last 2 months alone with it. He has a house worth of lumber in my solar kiln now for his house he is building plus two trailers stuck air drying. This makes it so he can set the dogs by himself quicker and more accurately than the cam style dogs that were on there.

5/8" Acme threaded rod, I would go with the 1" next time to help eliminate the flex that happens when the log is set. The bearings on the outside of each side to make it easier to get grease to them. A welded nut on the threaded rod that is driven with the cordless drill that sets it into or takes it out of the log or cant. The inside section has a clamp on each side to keep the threaded rod centered inside the rails. The dog head slides between some steel that locks the dog head in with the outside log support arm. This allows one handed operation with the cordless drill

We usually take the wheels off when sawing so they aren't in the way. It is getting ready to move back to my place as I am getting ready to clear an acre or so of white pine and going to make some boards to throw in the kiln when the house comes out in the next few weeks. Shot of white lithium greese before and after cutting on all parts and it is smooth cutting.



 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[TimW]

I know several of you prefer an outfeed table, but we have a roller that is set about 1/8" above the bunks.  It may limit us to 20' logs while using the roller, but it makes moving boards much easier.  Yesterday, my 5yo grandson was able to offload and stack a 16' 1x6 using the rollers. 

Another small mod.  On the drive side roller guide, I stripped out the threads on the top adjustment.  On a previous one that stripped, I tapped it out to 3/8" but that necessitated using another wrench to adjust.  This time I welded a nut on and added another nut and a longer bolt.  Both work.   

 

 

What is the roller attached to?  Looks like a Woodmizer part.

[TimW]

Y'all in the South remember to drain your lubemizer line.

Looks like usin's down here in SE Texas will be see a hard freeze, maybe 5 nights.  I had my notes on what needed to be "winterized" for the few days and left off removing the lubemizer hose and draining it with the key on.  This worked well in the Feb. 2021 seven days of hard freeze and no electrical.  This freeze was why I got a standby Kohler generator with a 1000 gallon propane tank.  It exercised today, but think I will R&R the battery today, just in case.

[SawyerTed]

Or run some windshield washer fluid or RV antifreeze in the Lubemizer

[TimW]

Ted,
.  I almost stated........."unless you are running windshield washer fluid in it".  I just use dove soap and water.

[SawyerTed]

I do for freezing weather but usually just water and dawn.  I've been experimenting with denatured alcohol (aka active ingredient in WW fluid).   Right now I have a mixture of stuff should be good to 0.