Board thickness with woodmizer lt-40

[terrifictimbersllc]

This is based on a common principle for all mechanical systems -- adjust against the dominant force (which happens to be gravity with a sawhead). If you lower the head to the final height, friction between the head and the mast may keep it from sinking all the way down. That leaves a little slack in the support system, whether it's a chain, screws, or even a cylinder. When the sawblade hits the wood,the vibration will slowly take up slack and the head will sink slightly.

Is this why Accuset 2, in the auto-down or set-to-bed modes, always comes back up a bit to the final position?

[bandmiller2]

There are probibly a hundred ways to modify this system but an easy to read scale and fine pointer close to each outher is plenty good. Just remember to have your eye close to the pointer level.Keep it simple.Frank C.

[Chuck White]

I went out a little while ago and removed the bottom screw from the pointer on my mill rigged up a short piece of wire and reinstalled the screw with the wire in place and then bent the wire so that it parallels the pointer and it seems to work pretty good.  Can't wait till Spring to give it a try while sawing.

The wire parallels the pointer and is in front of it 1/2 inch.

I really do think that this system will greatly enhance sawing accuracy without the expense of electronics on these older sawmills!

[Brucer]

Is this why Accuset 2, in the auto-down or set-to-bed modes, always comes back up a bit to the final position?

I expect so. It doesn't make sense to have an automatic system that can set the head to within 1/32" while at the same time leaving slack in the physical equipment that can let the head creep down 1/16" or more.

[terrifictimbersllc]

Is this why Accuset 2, in the auto-down or set-to-bed modes, always comes back up a bit to the final position?

I expect so. It doesn't make sense to have an automatic system that can set the head to within 1/32" while at the same time leaving slack in the physical equipment that can let the head creep down 1/16" or more.

This is great, thanks, I have probably been calibrating the head ("set to bed 12"") using a mixture of both coming down to 12 and coming up to 12", which may explain why my vertical height can be off a bit (1/16' or less). 

[Magicman]

I always come "down" to the mark because that is what my SetWorks does.  That way, my thicknesses are consistent.

I do understand the bump up theory though since that is what AccuSet II does.   ;)

[Bandmill Bandit]

Well this thread has me doing another minor mod to my LT40.
I have a laser that I picked up ata garage sale for 10 bucks. Dewalt DW7187. The switch part is garbage for this mod but the laser is perfect.  I will attach it to the mount I installed for the LED light that lights the ruler in the dark and run it off the same circuit and power supply that the LED is running on now. Not sure if I will still need the LED with the laser installed or not but will find out when install is complete. Pic to follow when I have it done.

Not sure what it would be worth to buy new but the following link will show you the parts i am working with.


http://www.dewalt.com/tools/miter-saw-lasers-dw7187.aspx   

[zopi]

Cool! Let us know how it works out!

[Bandmill Bandit]

Well the temp test mounting worked out great. That little laser has all the adjustment you could ever want built right into the housing so it is a very good unit to use on the ruler and allows simple adjustments on 3 plains to get it synchronized with the other mill measuring systems.

Will run the mill in the shop and do permanent mount over the week end.

Pics are of temp mount taken just before lunch on a pretty bright sunny day. 



Temp mount no power connection.



Power connected.



My setting/checking stick that I keep handy to check/set the GREEN Laser site on my mill. Little tweaking to do once it mounted permanent but it pretty close fro a temp mount.   


Success!!! I can now upload and post pics with ease. THANKYOU  Jeff!!!

Now we just need to get WoodMizer to get that laser as an option so it would be in an orange housing instead of yellow.

[Chuck White]

Good show there, Bandit!

[Stephen1]

I was wondering how it would work, I reallly need to see something physical, thanks BB I see how it would work. But if the head is at the top would it not be the same when you are looking at it from the standing position. I have a block of wood to stand on to keep my line of site at the same angle.
Brucer, I found that it was better to lift the head into position, now I know why. :-[

Where is Marty on this one, someone should send him a link on this post. I would like to WM weigh in on this.

[Bandmill Bandit]

With the laser line directly on the ruler the margin of error on where your eye level sees that line from is so negligible that you would have a very hard time noticing it in the lumber. I doubt you would even be able to measure for with a caliper.

As you can see in my pic the 2 lasers are off about a 1/16th and that did not change at any point in the travel of the head top to bottom. Also the red laser is not quite square in the pic as it only has one screw holding it on close to the ruller side.

When I am done with it will be square and solid and it will be covered with an ORANGE shield to keep the weather out as much as possible. Might paint that shield black. Have to see how it looks.

Also have to incorporate the LED light as the red laser does not provide enough light for night operation.

Maybe Wood mizer would like to weigh in on the color since I have the "proto type" pretty much done for them. 8) 

When I have the mill in the shop I will take pics of the lighting system I installed.
If it is possible to upload a video on the new sysytem I will do a short video to show how I did it all.   

[MartyParsons]

Hello,
I have been reading the post. I think you guys have covered it all.  8)  If you have the plexiglass pointer. You can change to the metal pointer. I change them often during a service. the part # would be 017778. I think they are $ 6.00. I always go past the mark and bring it back up. If you go down and stop, jerk the saw head and you will see it settle. Ever so slightly but it moves.
Accuset 2 is the best but will not work in all applications.

I once had an owner come out with dial cailpers after I did a service and check the thickness of the lumber.    He said it is .010 thin on one side. I would adjust take two cuts and he said said dead on.  :
At 47 I have a time seeing 1/32" let alone .010.
Marty

[trapper]

marty
would 017778. be the right part for a 87 lt 30 also?

[Bandmill Bandit]

I once had an owner come out with dial cailpers after I did a service and check the thickness of the lumber.    He said it is .010 thin on one side. I would adjust take two cuts and he said said dead on.  :
At 47 I have a time seeing 1/32" let alone .010.
Marty

Did he say which side was the thinner side?? top or bottom?? :D

That sounds a lot like my son!

Mill is in the shop so should get to finishing the laser mods tomorrow.

[Bandmill Bandit]

All I have left to do is tidy and tie every thing up and put the covers back in place.


Ruler laser installed and operational with 2 LEDs to light the ruler in the dark as well. Hard to get a realistic picture with my little camera. Will get my son to do one with his SLR. The line is very visible and the lights actually make the laser line better defined but the picture whites it out.


This pic shows the 2 black power supplies that run the LEDs and Lasers about the middle of the box and the re-trigger-able on/off time adjustable relay that controls the green laser site for automatic shutoff for so that laser can not be left on accidentally. Currently set for 20 seconds. Will adjust as required but I think 20 seconds is pretty close.


Back of the trigger switch.


Trigger switch located close to saw head lift/lower control lever.


You can see the back of the row of the 5 LEDs that light the control panel in the dark


Console in place, lights on.


1 of 3 x 55 watt tractor lamps, magnetic base.


2 of 3 x 55 watt lamps. Solid mount.


3 of 3 55 watt lamps. magnetic base on this one too.

5 amp switch circuit to a 40 amp relay wired direct to battery on number 10 copper



   
  HDR of ruler laser. didnt make to much difference.




HDR of console lighting.

   

[zopi]

Slick...laser guided sawmill....

[Bandmill Bandit]

I guess i didnt finish the posting on this mod whne it was finished. H vae to find some of the pics and get them in here.

Here are 2 that I thought I had added but only got them in my gallery



 


 

[Journeys]

First day in the forum and glad to see so much great knowledge...  I just started milling with an LT40 super and have lots of questions.  However, the biggest challenge I'm currently facing is getting consistent board thickness.  Most of this is my own impatience getting the blade set at just the right height due to the sporadic and inconsistent movement of the head.  Its a whole lot of up, down, up, down, down, up, down, up, up,.... arg... close enough!!  you get the idea... frustrating and time consuming to say the least.  I've tried lubricating the guides thinking it was binding or something but that doesn't seem to do the trick.  Any thoughts on how to resolve?

[terrifictimbersllc]

Need to know more about your mill, what year is it and what kind of setworks do you have?   Good to put this in your profile (see mine for example).  Welcome.

[Journeys]

Thanks for the tip.  I will get my profile updated.  In the mean time, I have a 2001 WM super hydraulic.  When I bought the machine used, the setworks component attached never worked correctly so we just used the manual adjustment.  We actually just ran into an issue where we had to bypass the setworks component completely due to an issue where the setworks computer would interfere with the manual adjustment which prevented the head from moving at all (we never really knew what was going on with the computer because the digital screen was broken).  However, the machine works more or less the same with respect to it being a challenge with setting the board thickness now with the computer disconnected vs. connected and not used.

[Chuck White]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum, Journeys.

The cheapest, quickest & least expensive would be to do what I did (IMHO).

Read my posts, 6 & 27 in this thread!

I later ordered 2 metal scale pointers from Wood-Mizer and installed both of them with a nut on the bolts in between the 2 pointers in order to maintain a little distance for alignment purposes!

[Nomad]

      Welcome, Journeys.  I think the first thing I'd do is get on the horn in the morning with WoodMizer and  try talking through your up/down issue with a tech.

[Bandmill Bandit]

The single most stress reducing group of upgrades I did to my mill are the 2 Lasers and the simple set
With those 3 systems all coordinated and working together its pretty much a set and forget once you have the log opened and I am 99% sure that Set Works would even enhance what I have.

The laser on the ruler stick is as accurate as you can get it regardless of your eye level/angle. the green High power laser site for the log takes a LOT of the guess work out of the mental log reading.

Once set, simple set hits your desired setting most of the time. The only time I notice any deviation is on a large cant where I can lose about a 32nd on 10 or more cuts to finish the cant but that is getting really picky. We are cutting rough lumber after all.

My personal pet peave is wavy lumber. I work extra hard to keep that from occurring.     

[drobertson]

reading a scale is just a pain, even with accuset, I've tried to compare,, hats off to you guys that go by scale, not interested in going there,,  I have ideas but,,, why not just get a set works and do away with it,, saw the same every time,,  or rely on the planer, which by the way is not that uncommon with setworks,, stress and bow can and will cause issues with thickness,