Useful sawmill mods

[Peter Drouin]

I think ti's a good idea and add 4 to 6" to the arm too. 
I'm going to bed now, have 3 truck load to scale in the morning.
Good luck with the mill MM.

[Dave Shepard]

Some European Wood-Mizers have that area plated from the factory. I'm thinking about eliminating the swinging sections and replacing with modified bed sections from the bed extension.

[Magicman]

Jake beefed up the underside of his movable bed rails to prevent the adjustment stud from punching through.  Mine looked OK.

I'll get to try the mod out today with ERC pecker poles first.  ;D

[Magicman]

The beefed up frame and dead on exact movable bed rails are and will be a solid modification for the sawmill.  8)

[trimguy]

You should just go ahead and paint the rest of it now.😁

[Magicman]

 

 
These two 2' sections of pipe are not a direct modification to the sawmill but they are the "cat's meow" for turning large logs and these 4 cants to keep them from spilling over the top of the side support. 

[TimW]

Lynn,
         I like that.  Numerous times I am sawing 4x4s or 4x6s from a huge log and have to remove a 4 inch thick "cant" to make the turn or put it over the side supports.  Again, I like it and gotta get my own "orange glow sticks".  There you go.............Magicman glow sticks!
     hugs,  Brandi

[Machinebuilder]

i did similar for my LT15



 

I used some rectangular tubing that slides over the stops

[Ljohnsaw]

Did you hide your dog's toy in it? :D

[Machinebuilder]

 :D :D :D

to Sox everything is a toy. He may have been looking at a piece of bark.

[fluidpowerpro]

Just made some of the same for my mill. I found that when turning large logs or cants they sometimes would ride up on top of my swing up backstops. I made mine angled so there is a little more room for the log when the turner is raised.
I also made some flat, slip in "pads" for my dogs. My dogs have a small spike in them to dig into the log. They work good for thick bark. I've also found I can sometimes tear the bark off of a log buy inserting them slightly into the bark, then lowering the dog. The downside to the spikes is that because they dig in a bit, when I clamp into a can't , because my dog assys tilt a little when clamping, it wanted to slightly raise the can't up off the bed. Because I like the spikes for some things, and didn't want to get rid of

 

 

 

 

 

 them completely, I made some flat pad adapters that slip into the top of the dog. When then dog is fully lowered, they stick up about 3/4" above the bed. I'm hoping these will work better when clamping cants and that because they are smooth, won't want to raise the can't.

[WV Sawmiller]

 

 

I have complained for 7 years now about not having a good grip on my LT35 when I go to load it on the ball on my truck. I picked up a $1 barn door pull and used my last 2 self-tapping 2" screws to put it on today. I don't know why WM does not include them. Maybe they will see this post, add them and send me some money for the idea. :D A  double handle size would be nice but this is light years better. What is it they say - it is better to light a single candle than to curse the darkness.

  So simple, so cheap, so easy. I should have done this years ago.  

[terrifictimbersllc]

I leave my 78" Logrite up against the mill, to be loaded last. As long as the customer doesn't make a "helpful" move to put it in the truck, it is there to move the sawmill onto the hitch if I don't get the truck ball perfect.

[WV Sawmiller]

   Not really a sawmill mod but here are 2 tools I bought yesterday for use with my mill.


 I had about a 1' rip in a seam on my vinyl mill cover so I bought this at a local JoAnn's Fabric store. There is a bobbin in the handle and the thread comes through a hole in the handle then through one of the 2 big needles that came with it. You first poke a hole through both pieces of material, pull a thread the length of the repair plus a few inches, pull back, move over and poke a new hole, pull the thread through the loop and repeat till done then tie it off. It took some time but worked great to make the repair.

  When I went to ring it up in the store it was nearly double the price on the peg so we went back to check. I found several more priced as rung up on a different peg so apparently someone just put them back in the wrong spot. I was ready to pay the full price but the manager said no, I could have them at the price I thought they were originally which I thought was danged decent of him.


The next tool is a simple combination square. I observed the WM service loop team when they were checking/servicing my mill and they used a tool like this to check the height of the band from the mill bed rail to the blade to adjust the blade or bed height as needed. I had typically used a tape measure but I find this is much easier to use and read. I just set the base on the bed rail and the ruler against the back of the band. I measured to center of the band to make my 1/16" difference between idler and drive sides. I know the WM team measured to the bottom of the tooth on the front side but it is easier for me to measure to the center of the band on the back side and just adjust the pointer on my scale. When I adjust the pointer I just saw a flat side, flip the cant 180 degrees, kiss the end of the cant with the running blade then measure that and set my pointer to that mark and I'm golden. That way I can set my pointer to read top, bottom or middle based on personal preference.

[barbender]

I made this setup block from instructions in my Grizzly 15" planer manual, quite a few years ago. Great for planer set up, but it also works great for several steps you need to do during a mill alignment. It stands on its own on top of a bed rail so it frees up your hands. The Lombardini engine torn apart in the background is a story for another day 😊

[Magicman]

The Lombardini engine torn apart in the background is a story for another day

Hopefully a day soon.   ???

[Magicman]

This is a bit of repair/maintenance as well as a sorta mod:


 
During setup and shutdown, my battery box started dragging when it passed the axle assembly so I crawled under to take a look.


 
This does not look good so I jacked the sawmill up and removed the axle assembly.


 
Completely broken and allowing the sawmill to sag lower when the outriggers were not down.  Since I did not have any angle iron, etc. I hauled it to the welding shop.


 
After welding the square tubing, he used angle iron and boxed both of the square tubing pieces that the sawmill rest on.


 
The loader side.



The side support side that was broken.


 
A closer view of the sawmill bolted back to the repaired axle assembly.  This raised the sawmill bed ¼" which should be a non-issue.

I'll finish installing the Hydraulic 4 Side Support Kit tomorrow.

[jpassardi]

After years of trailering impact, I guess ya gotta expect some fatigue. Should eb good to go for quite some time now.

[Crossroads]

Those speedy stitch tools are down right handy. I couldn't find the one I've had for 20 years, so I bought a new one a couple weeks ago. 

[Crossroads]

No pictures, but I use the flat above the up/down drum switch to write my start points on with a pencil if the cut list is out of the ordinary. A couple weeks ago I masked it off and painted that flat white. Now it's much easier to read. Between that and the magnetic cup holder on the left side of the control box, life is more better. 

[Ljohnsaw]

MM,
Looking stout.  But, really, the welder didn't take the time to pop the slag off the welds to check his work? :-\

[Magicman]

MIG doesn't make slag.

[Ljohnsaw]

Interesting.  It looks like my stick slag.  When I pop the slag I see a nice, shinny weld with pretty ripples.

[doc henderson]

I think it was good and hot so kind of blued.

[Magicman]

Welp, da Hydraulic 4 Side Support Kit is installed and the job complete.  It's nothing different from what many of you guys have but different from what I had.


 
There was not too much in da box.  Two side supports, three linkages, and a package of bolts.


 
Installing the side supports was nothing more than removing the old and using the same hardware, installing the new side supports.  The Horizontal tilt was perfect because nothing changed there and adjusting the Vertical tilt was a breeze.


 
Next I adjusted the lengths on the linkages to put all 4 side supports in sync.


 
I spent more time adjusting the linkage lengths than the actual installation but I was a bit fussy (anal) about getting them as perfect as possible.


 
They either dress the sawmill up a bit or make it look really bad.