LT15 and MP150 Questions

[Coon]

  I have been talking with a guy I have known several years, who wants to build a lodge and several cabins at a remote lake where he guides mainly for fishing but also a few hunts a year.  Up till now they have been using outfitter tents which gets old awefully fast especially if the weather is bad.... Last summer he cleared his building site and decked his logs up off the ground.  He has lodgepole pine and spruce logs that he will be using for his building purposes and will finish out the cabins using white birch, tamarack and, aspen for flooring cabinets and such....  He has quite the plans in place....

Anyhow more to the point of this topic.  Being the nice guy he is and knowing that I am looking for work right now he has asked if I would like to join his team as his builder and such.  We have been talking about the Woodmizer LT15 and the MP150 Moulder as "D" style log is preferred...  Does anyone here on the forum own or have any experience with the moulder??  How much would be involved in converting the moulder over to run off a gas engine rather than electricity?   The only electricity on site currently is solar and smaller gas generators.    Brad.

[Coon]

Seriously.... Nobody has used or purchased an MP150 Moulder for their LT15???? One would think with a crowd of mill owners  as large as this here, that someone would have taken the plunge and purchased one.  I guess I will have to get in contact with Woodmizer and see what they can tell me.... Guess the LT15 is not as popular I thought..... ???  ???

[Magicman]

Brad, It must be Saturday or something because I thought that someone would jump on this by now.   :-\

You are correct that WM only offers the moulder with a 7.5 hp electric motor.  At full load that should pull about 22 amps which puts you at ~5kw.  A 7.5 kw class generator should pull it with no sweat.  I would think that would be your best option since I would not want to even think about retrofitting a gasoline engine.

Someone else may have other thoughts.   

[21incher]

Magicman I tried starting my 5 hp 220 compressor with a 8000 watt generator and it would not. The startup current was momentarily over 50 amps I wound up getting a 14 kw 22 kw surge unit to start it so you may need a much larger gen. I would contact the manufacturer and have them recommend what size generator would be needed to start it.

[Coon]

That may make sense to use a generator for the most part but you have to remember that it would be another piece of equipment to haul in via boat float plane or by atv.  I guess once a person had it there we could eliminate some of the usage of the smaller generators by using the larger one on a regular basis. 

How large of gas engine would be needed to efficiently run the moulder?  This moulder and mill would be used in a few different remote locations to build other camps in the future as well.... Not trying to put the horse before the applecart or anything here but when you can eliminate a piece of equipment to move about in these above remote conditions I think it could be wise move.  :P   There are plans to build as many as a dozen cabins and the main lodge over the next several years. Some of these cabins will be on other lakes that are a few miles away.


















 

[Magicman]

21incher,  Your answer is why I suggested that someone else may have other thoughts.  Contacting WM is good advice because they should know the starting amps.

Your compressor probably has a capacitor start motor,  I do not know how that may compare with the moulder motor but any electric motor draws heavier on startup.

[losttheplot]

The logosol LM410 comes with a gas engine and I think you can run it on most two rail mills.

They also make one that is powered by a chainsaw.

They are a forum sponsor.

[Coon]

Well now.... we have talked about going other routes and other brands but figure The LT15 and MP150 is the way to go for us. we would be sawing other lumber with this mill too, not just for the cabins.  ;)

I am going to have another look at the LM410 as suggested and compare specs to the MP150 maybe that will give me a better idea of the engine sizing.

[Knute]

I was once told that if you go from electric to gas you should double the HP which would be 15 HP in this case.

[schmism]

consider a large inverter for its use.   If you have a decent size battery bank for the solar it should be no problem.  You can then run a smaller 5kw genset to recharge the bats over a longer period of time.

if you dont have a decent size battery bank then consider hauling up extra bats for that application as you could always use the extra capacity in the future.

[Ianab]

I see the Logosol comes with either a 6.5hp electric or 13hp gas engine. So that goes along with what Knute was saying about 2X the HP.

Logosol say their machine is designed to work just fine with LT10-15 mills and has adjustable wheels to fit different mill rails.

Seems buying one that's already fitted with a gas engine (and will work fine with your mill) would make sense, rather than retro fitting things.

Ian

[Coon]

When  looked at the Logosol on Baileys site I read that it came with and 8hp engine.   I have a 13hp Honda and a 15hp Kohler Command Pro both with low hours that could be retrofitted, if we choose to go with the Woodmizer model. 

I have noticed there is a considerable price difference between the Woodmizer and Logosol.  The LM410 is $5800 versus the MP100 at $4825. (old WM price list from 2011)

As for battery bank up there.... they have only a few small panels with four gel cell batteries..  More panels will be coming in this summer via float plane.

   

[MotorSeven]

Here is my .02. Forget the moulder and the D-log. Keep it simple and mill your logs flat on 4 sides. Then decide if you want to route out a spline for insulation/air seal between the logs. If your logs are pretty well air dried and you air dry the milled cants properly, shrinkage will be kept to a minimum. Then you can use what I used between each log...Sill Sealer. It's cheap, quick and does a good job providing your logs are milled accurately to within 1/8" on an inch in height...width is not that important.

My house(see avatar) is all square milled cedar(6x6 cants), 350ish logs and I only had to caulk two of them because height difference created a gap the Sill Sealer could not fill.

Sill Sealer:
http://findnsave.the-leader.com/offer/Reflectix-Sill-Sealer/26488426/

For ideas, here is my build thread(I warn you it's 114 pages long):
http://www.tractorbynet.com/forums/projects/156451-log-house-project-begins.html

[Coon]

The owner is pretty much set on wanting D style logs to my understanding. If that's what he wants I guess that is what he will get whether its me that works on it or someone else.  These logs wont be too dry as of yet but I am sure they dried down a bit as they are decked so the wind can flow over and through the piles.

I have relayed all of my info here to him and we will be making the decisions shortly.  Have basically made the decision for the LT15 but as to which other equipment will be purchased it's still up in the air.  It does not really matter to me as there will be some learning curve either way.  I have owned a mill in the past just not an LT15 so the basic sawing and whatnot is not new to me.

[pineywoods]

D logs with splines, go here. I cut and notched the logs on a manual wm lt40, milled the notches for splines with a big router..

https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,20922.msg298008.html#msg298008