Useful sawmill mods

WH_Conley · June 28, 2007, 08:26:05 PM

After some inventive language one time trying to align my blade guides, now once a year, need it or not I take all of the adjusting bolts out, one at a time and coat everything with anti-seize.

Faron · June 28, 2007, 09:36:04 PM

I made a strip for 1/2 and 3/4 material sometime ago. I just had the local machine shop shear off a piece of aluminum. I marked it off with a pencil, then etched it a little bit with a dremel tool. Works fine.

Tom Sawyer · June 29, 2007, 09:01:23 PM

I've had 2 of those bolts break off in the first 100 hours of my brand new Lt40 Super. I am pretty sure that mine has the bigger bolts too. The first time I had to get it drilled out. The second time I managed to get it to turn out. It seems that there is a lot of stress on those bolts. A friend of mine had the same thing just before my first one broke. Hmm... maybe a different design is needed???

Jim H · July 01, 2007, 10:53:10 PM

When I need a scale for 1/2, 5/8 and 3/4 I turn the Woodmizer scale over to the grade side and make a mark half way between their marks. The extra 1/8 inch on this side makes it work out just right. Plus, it's one less thing to keep track of.

DR Buck · July 14, 2007, 07:36:35 PM

OK, here's a mod I've been sitting on for a while, working out a few technical glitches.

Last summer (July 2006) I milled just over 11,000 bf for a customer. It was all done in the direct sun and I almost got my brain fried

(There are those that will confirm I did) ;D

After that job, I mentioned to my wife that I need to figure out some way of having portable shade while out doing custom jobs. That evening during a trip to the local Walmart, she found part of a picnic table umbrella on the clearance shelf. $5 later she had it home and asked me if it would work.

After a quick look at mounting options, I settled for a couple u-bolts mounted on the side of the accuset box. Now I'm no dummy :

Before drilling into the box, I opened the front panel to make sure I didn't drill into anything. After deciding on the exact drilling location I drilled two pairs of holes for installoing double nutted u-bolts on a slight offset so the umbrella would tilt and the bottom would rest on top of the Lubmizer box. Note the two pairs of bolt heads in the photo below plugging those holes. :

Everything worked great untill I tried to close the cover. The u-bolts were in the way of the hinge. :D :D

My second (and final) attempt worked much better. In this photo you will notice only one u-bolt and it is mounted in the lower front corner of the accuset box. I added a stud (1/2" bolt ) sticking up through the bottom flange to sit the umbrella pole down over to keep it in place since there was no easy way to add a u-bolt to the bottom control box.

In the next picture, similar as the 1st you can see the pole installed. The hitch pin through the pole is to keep the wind from lifting the whole thing up and carring it away.

The remaining pictures show the umbrella installed for use. The particular one that I used can be tilted 45° or used straight. The photos show both configurations. When it is tilted, I can rotate the pole to block the sun from just about any angle. If you look close, you will see that I had to extend the pole about 1ft so that it will not hang up on the water lube jug and manual scale when I use it in the "straight" configuration.

jpgreen · July 15, 2007, 01:10:40 AM

Looks good. I've been wanting to do the same thing.. 8)

WH_Conley · July 15, 2007, 07:30:50 AM

Get you one of those 12 volt fans and you wont want to stop sawing. Course your offbearer might not be happy. ;D

Qweaver · July 15, 2007, 07:33:12 AM

Quote from: Bibbyman on June 28, 2007, 12:05:41 PM
Here is a sawmill mod I didn't want to do but kind of got pushed into it.

I took the assembly off and drilled a hole deep in the broken off set screw. No problem. Mary had bought a new set of easyouts a couple of years ago and we hadn't used them yet. So I screwed in the 1/4" easyout and tried turning out the screw with the power of an open end wrench. I couldn't get it to budge. I then found a 1/2" drive socket and ratchet that would give me MORE POWER. Still not enough. I went and found my 18" breaker bar and that did it. Yep, broke the easyout in the hole. I found out after about a half hour of working on it that easyouts are not easy to get out!

Easyouts rarely work on bolts that are tight in the hole. As you torque down on the easyout it tends to explan the bolt in the hole making it even harder to turn. I've removed hundreds of broken bolts by using a TIG welder to weld a knot on the top of the broken bolt using SS filler rod. The welding process heats up the bolt and that helps loosen any corrosion. When the knot is big enough, I use vice grips or a small pipe wrench to turn the bolt out. I've even been able to reach down into the hole for bolts that are broken off below the surface and just keep adding filler until I get it above the surface where I can get a grip on it. Works everytime unless someone has drilled it out so far trying to use an easyout that there is nothing to weld to. Also cast in bolts with a spur on the bottom are a problem...I can usually get them out but it will destroy the threads in the process. In this case jut retap oversize.
One caution note here. Don't try this using plain steel filler rods because you will almost certainly weld the bolt into the hole and then you really will have to drill and retap.
Quinton

Bibbyman · December 17, 2007, 10:23:01 AM

When we bought our mill in some six years ago we got everything we wanted. The only options available we didn't get were the LubeMizer and laser site. Since then we've considered adding the LubeMizer but for one reason or the other never really got the decision made.

We've made a number of mods and improvements to the mill and have it about the way we want it. One area we thought could stand improving is the lube system. Water is cheap and easy for us to come by with our livestock watering tank catching rainwater from the roof of the shed. But sometimes we have to run a lot of it to cut the sap buildup on some woods. That tends to get messy and does not always work as well as we'd like.

So anyway, week before last we got a LubeMizer retrofit kit. I worked on installing it early last week. It took much longer than it should have because of the nasty, cold weather. Also, the manual and instructions that come with the kit covered off how to install it on different model mill and different revision levels. I exchanged a couple of E-mails with Sparks and he got me on the right path. Thank you Sparks!

The LubeMizer is installed on the power box on the sawhead on our model mill. Newer models with Command Control have it mounted on the control box. This added a little to the initial confusing but made the installation simpler. It was mostly a plug and play installation – requiring only three holes be drilled. The hole and mounting provisions for the LubeMizer controls (pre-wired on a plate) were already there. The wiring plugged right into where the old water shut off valve was wired. I only had to cut off one ring terminal and crimp on one spade connector. The connector was provided as well as wire ties, nuts and bolts, etc. I had a bag of hardware left over.

Because our mill was older, I had to drill two holes in the pan the water tank sets on to mount the hose and filter. Another hole was drilled in the back of the blade housing shield to mount a retainer to hold the tube in place.

The weather broke for the better on Friday and we got to saw for a couple of hours. It looks like the LubeMizer is going to do a lot better job of keeping the blade clean of sap off both sides.

I noted we hardly used any water/lube and far less was on the mill and lumber. As we have to run at least one gallon of windshield washer fluid to a tank of water, this should save us some money as well as time.

Bibbyman · December 19, 2007, 10:30:40 AM

We've got a few hours of sawing in using the LubeMizer and it's working well.

I got some questions for people with experience with the LubeMizer...

1) We tend to want to pull the water jug off the mill at night and take it in the house to keep warm rather than keep enough windshield washer fluid in it to keep it from freezing. Then we may not start sawing again until its above freezing the next day.
How do you purge the LubeMizer system to assure it won't freeze over night with the water/lube/windshield washer fluid that's in it?

I've been disconnecting the hose from the tank and turning on the pump until it pumps dry and then dribbling some straight windshield washer fluid back in the line for a bit to flush out any of the old mix.

2) Are there any spare parts I should keep on hand? For example, I cleaned the settling bowl and was concerned about loosing the o-ring or damaging the screen. Also, do you ever have to replace the flow control valves in the lines?

jpgreen · December 19, 2007, 10:43:13 AM

Bibby you could take an air nozzle to it and blow it out I would imagine. That's the first California Hillbilly thought that comes to mind.. ;D

Bibbyman · December 19, 2007, 11:23:54 AM

Quote from: jpgreen on December 19, 2007, 10:43:13 AM
Bibby you could take an air nozzle to it and blow it out I would imagine. That's the first California Hillbilly thought that comes to mind.. ;D

That would work with the gravity flow system but I wouldn't want to do it with a pump and directional flow valves in this system. It just may blow something out!

ShowMeSawyer · December 19, 2007, 11:59:22 AM

Quote from: Bibbyman on December 19, 2007, 10:30:40 AM

How do you purge the LubeMizer system to assure it won't freeze over night with the water/lube/windshield washer fluid that's in it?

Bibby, I flush the lines with windshield washer fluid. Take a 8-10 oz cup and fill it with washer fluid, take the disconnected line and immerse the end in the cup and turn on on the lubemizer on full flow to suck the fluid out of the cup until empty. Make sure you have the feed control knob on the remote station turned all the way to the left and the forward/return feed lever turned on (forward) to activate the Lubemizer.

SMS

pigman · December 19, 2007, 04:43:58 PM

I do about like ShowMeSawyer execpt I just stick the disconected hose in a gallon jug and let the pump suck the full strength windshield fluid into the system.

Bibbyman · December 19, 2007, 05:08:30 PM

Good info. Thanks guys. I thought about trying to find a smaller bottle that would screw onto the hose coupling just to up windshield washer fluid in. But you're ideas are easier to deal with.

How about spare parts? As nobody come up with any, maybe I won't really need to worry about stocking any.

DR Buck · December 19, 2007, 05:35:02 PM

Bibby,

I keep my tank on the mill all the time. Most of the time I use 1 gal of washer fluid to 4 gal of water. When it gets really cold, January around here, I use 2 gal of washer fluid. Of course here in VA it's not as cold as long as it is there. ;D

As far as spare parts go, go to lowes and get a couple of the 1/4" plastic tubing splices. Also keep one of the plastic 'T's used on the output side of the pump as a spare. The one time I didn't get enough washer fluid in the water, the 'T' froze and broke. The splices are for when you catch a cant on the line and break it in two. ;D Chances of this can be minimized if you use a longer tube and route it around the far side of the blade guide motor and then back to the spray nozzles. Tie-wrap the tube to the blade guide arm up close to the nozzle and the tubing will move in and out with the blade guide arm keeping it up out of the way of the cants. I'll see if I can get a picture and post it for you.

Bibbyman · December 19, 2007, 05:49:53 PM

One thing I really like about the LubeMizer system is how the plastic hose connects to the fittings on the blade guide. On our system, the hose was softer and fit over the end of the fitting. It wouldn't be long when the hose lost it's memory and would fall off. If you cut a bit off to get it to fit tight again, it was hard to get onto the fitting. We fought with this about every day.

BTW, I just came in from pulling the tank and letting the LubeMizer "snarf" up some straight windshield washer fluid from the jug. We should be good to stay the night.

DR Buck · December 19, 2007, 06:03:49 PM

Here's a picture of the longer tubing showing how I have it currently routed. (Note, the 90° splice is all I had around the last time I snaged and broke the line.) You can see that I run the tubing thru the clamp for the blade guide motor wiring harness to keep it up out of the way of the cants. There is a tie-wrap with a big loop in it just above the pressure gauge. The tubing 'slides' back and forth thru this loop as the blade guide moves in and out.

gmmills · December 19, 2007, 10:01:46 PM

I purchased a second 5 gal water bottle from WM. I keep straight windshield washer fluid in it. At the end of the day just exchange the bottle on the mill with the mix of fluid and water with the bottle with straight fluid. Then flush the system while cleaning the last blade of the day before taking it off the mill.

The only spare parts I keep for the lube-mizer is an extra length of 1/4' tubing

Dave Shepard · December 21, 2007, 10:15:46 PM

I put a standard shop air nipple on the tank, and a quick coupler on the hose. Makes it really easy to take the tank off.

I must not have the sappy logs everyone else has. I have been sawing for a year on this mill, and I have only used about 7-8 gallons of diesel fuel. I only run lube when I see pitch on the blade. I now WM doesn't recommend the diesel, but it is all this mill has seen in ten years.

I have probably sawn at least 35mbf of pine so far.

Dave

Bibbyman · March 24, 2008, 07:05:54 PM

I try to keep Mary happy. She said she needed something to help her move the lumber from the milll to the stack and flitches from the mill to the edger. We talked about all kinds of mods. I got ideas from her as to what she was thinking. While she wasn't looking, I nailed up this table top. It's not hooked directly to the mill. It can be lifted off to get to the HD box that now hides the battery.

I decided to put a cherry on top by adding a roller on the end. I remembered I had an assortment of gate hinge straps. I found this small pair and thought they just may work. I thought about the axle assembly and went to the hardware store and bought a couple of pipe bases for 3/8" pipe. I also got a 3/8" pipe nipple about 5" long. This I cut in two. I found a 1/2" bolt would just slide through the 3/8" pipe and the 1/2" bolt was just the right size for the hinge. I assemble with washers and tack welded the bolt to the pipe. I didn't feel the strap was long enough so I cut a couple of 1/4" x 1-1/4" by 12" bar stock to help support it.

The roller is a section cedar we had turned on our Lathe-Mizer. I didn't do the best job of squaring the ends or getting the bores centered and straight but it works. Note, I drilled four new screw holes in the pipe base flange an counter sunk the holes for the four wood screws.

Its kind of a prototype design. We've not tried this setup yet.

Bibbyman · March 26, 2008, 08:59:09 AM

Update...

Mary and I sawed yesterday despite 20mph - gusting to 30 winds. The new table worked Ok sometimes, and better other times. With 8' stuff, it was as I expected. Mary had to reach across the table to get the board. She wanted to make the table even wider than I made it. I wanted it narrower. But with the one 12' log we sawed, the boards came right out over the roller and she could pull them right onto the stack. They happen to be light cedar 5/8"x6"s but you could tell it would really help with heavy oak stuff.

One thing is clear, we really need some kind of dragback guide. Even with the much bigger target, some boards wanted to miss to the left and one fell on the floor to the right.

We're not ready to give up yet.

StorminN · March 26, 2008, 01:51:20 PM

Bibbyman, does your mill not have the fingers or chains that other dragback band mills have?

-N.

ronwood · March 26, 2008, 01:53:41 PM

LT40 Super does not have any guides to direct the board. LT70 has them.

Ron

Bibbyman · March 26, 2008, 03:15:35 PM

Quote from: StorminN on March 26, 2008, 01:51:20 PM
Bibbyman, does your mill not have the fingers or chains that other dragback band mills have?

-N.

Yea, like Ron says. LT40s no, LT70 yes. I guess the deal is.. when they first started putting dragbacks on the LT40s, they were all walk-along or ride-along mills. With either, you don't need guides as the sawyer can just rest a hand on the board to keep it on top of the cant. But with command control, you have to depend on the offbearer to grab the end and keep it running straight. Problem is, often times they're off doing something else.

They had gained experience with the LT300 mill before they brought out the LT70 and borrowed some of that design and put in a better dragback system and guides.

Update on the update. We're sawing 10'rs today (until the thunderstorm came up) and I figured that I could square out the cant, move it towards the hitch end until the end is on the first swing bunk. Then saw it down and drag back the boards. The boards ended up 2' past the end of the table and roller. Mary could just pull and roll them right off onto the stack. She looked a little impatient waiting for the next board. I told her it was a problem as she had nothing to do half the time. She gave me one of those looks every married man knows.