No mill is perfect

[boatmiser]

I sawed with a wm 40super last spring to help a friend and got the sawing fever.Put about 200 hours on that mill and liked most everything but the slow hydraulics and the debarker was in the way changing blades.So I started looking to see who had something better.Every mill I looked at had things I didn't like, I wanted hydraulics auto clutch log turner debarker idle control toe boards setworks power log dogs power log stops and a removable tongue.Well I decided to buy the Timberking 2000 and make a few changes first I tried to get an idle control but Kohler didn't offer one for the 34 hp what a bummer so I bought an  actuator and solved that problem then I cut the tongue off and welded plates on so I can replace it when I want to move it.Oh I have no desire in sawing away from home.So I sawed and built a saw shed to keep the mill out of the weather and the tongue being removed gave me 4.5 feet extra around the mill.Now for the sawdust in the building I put a 4" stand pipe on the head and hooked it to a blower in the rafters and No more walking  thru sawdust What a difference. Now the TK debarker is moved in and out with a lever pain in the butt, So I put an actuator on that and when I throw a switch it moves out and turns on.And the debarker is out of the way so blade changing is no problem. The TK has full hydraulics and The best log turner I have used.The setworks was not very consistent so Mike at TK sent me a restricter for the power up-down valve and now all lumber is within 1/32 not 1/8 like it was.Anyone trying new mills  should give timberking a try and And I hope Will Johson makes the changes to the mill I have done and than I think Tk would be the closest thing to perfect in the sawmill world.This should get the wm guys here wound up.Why don't all you different mill guys tell us what you like and don't like about your mill.unless yours is perfect!  smiley_applause Oh I bought my mill on Oct 8 2010

[weisyboy]

no machine is perfect, most far from it.

iv accepted that fact and usualy make things myself or modify to suit.

problem is most stuff is made by engineers or sompthin not a sawmiller.

the best was iv worked was a custom made bench in a mill in brissy, it was desighned by the old sawmiller and built by an engineer, everything just worked, and was easy to maintain.

[Kansas]

Seems like the devil is in the details with mills. The "other mill" that we have has had to be revamped in a lot of ways. Some serious design flaws. The woodmizer might have a few design flaws, but by and large works well. The other mill has parts mostly off the shelf. That is a plus. As far as manuals and tech support there are problems. Woodmizer has great tech support. But you can't buy anything off the shelf to speak of to fix one. Now I understand they have to pay all those tech people. And they do that by having proprietary parts. But I think they take it to the extreme, at least for those of us far from a support center. We had two E 25 motors give out within two years. Lincoln motors. The only thing that saved us was the fact we still had the old LT40. That motor is interchangable with the one on the LT 70; same motor. Being that is a proprietary motor, it has to be shipped from the factory. Only difference between that one and a regular Lincoln 25 horse motor is a slight difference in the frame. Yes, you could do some modifying and make one work. But that would void the warranty of that motor. So we really can't sell the LT 40 unless we buy a spare motor, or the only other option is to drive 600 miles to Indy to pick one up, if the motor goes down. Being down is not an option. I think they take things a little to far concerning proprietary parts. Even the tires on the bandwheels seem to be that on the 70.

Maybe there isn't a good answer. Maybe this is what inspires people to build their own, as weisy said.

[ladylake]

 I ran my brothers B2000 and he had a remote throttle and a restrictor valve on the setworks by the time I ran it, about the only faults that mill had. The only other fault is that I'm used to running my B20 and the controls are way different. I sure like the simplicity of TK mills with a lot of of the shelf parts.. My B20 had some things that needed improvement also, a industrial cord reel, a log clamp that didn't want to flip up, not enough power , a 27hp isn't enough for wide WO or ash(the 34 hp Kohler on the B2000 has plenty of power), the chip deflector was flimsy and I ran several years without one, I put a good one on last spring and have maybe broke 10 blades since then where I would have broke a lot without that. A lot of my blades are getting close to 1" wide (close to 20 sharpenings) where they don't cut frozen WO very good. Steve

[Bibbyman]

Mary and I had every intention to buy a new Wood-Mizer a few years back.  But we have modified our LT40 Super so much,  we couldn't stand to start over with a new mill. 

Some years back Mary and I had an opportunity to meet with most of the upper level of management at Wood-Mizer.  In the meeting I offered to design them the perfect mill.  They made no replay.  I guess they had none.  So I continued that I could design them the perfect mill "for me" but nobody else would buy it.  My point being,  each mill owner has different needs and ideas.  They build mills that will satisfy most of the needs for most of their customers.

[Larry]

I suspect there is opportunity for an entrepreneur to fabricate and market some of the better modifications.  I know I would have gladly paid for a kit to modify the throttle on my TK.

Just spent the better part of a day building a box to provide protection for the transducer sitting on top of the TK mill.

Ordered my industrial dust collection hose a few days ago...now to fabricate the stand pipe boatmiser spoke of.

Now where I put my hacksaw to cut the tongue off? ;D

[Tronvik]

no mill is perfect, but my two woodmizers are sure close.  Maybe you should change your name to boatking

[Slingshot]

    You guys shoulda' just bought this one  8) 8) 8) 8)

 Everything  but a dust collector

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LAjLV8CSKBk




_______________________________
Charles

[Chuck White]

My mill is not perfect "for everyone" , but it's darn near perfect "for me".

If I was going to make another mod to the mill, it would be roller toeboards, other than that, I don't think I'd change a thing.

[Bandmill Bandit]

No mill is perfect till you turn some lumberjack turn sawyer loose on it. Thats why we have the USEFUL saw mill mods thread.

I would challenge the whole bunch of us to find one saw mill that we couldnt turn into the prefect saw mill. well maybe the D&L double cut would stump us all.

I have a WM LT 40HD and as much as I like it i am still tweaking it.  I dont know if that is for the mill actually needing the tweaking of me just playing.

What ever you do DON'T ask my wife for the answer to that question cause she will tell you lies. :D

There is a mill built in europe that has a niffty little saw dust box that you can trip to dump at the end of the cut. I use 5 gal buckets on mine and dump in to a wheel barrow or a FEL. works great if I am doing the WM walk but when my butt is parked on the seat it is a pain in the butt. have to make that mod this winter some time.

[Peter Drouin]

Slingshot I would sell it too,

[Meadows Miller]

Gday

with that band mill thats for sale on youtube I saw that running when it was a prototype of a wide heavy gauge production band mill back in about (edit 98  ;) :D)at the Austimber show now with a starting price back then of $110,000 i think it is still the only one getting around still  ;)

Building your own mill has its upsides if you already know your way around sawmills well and know exactly how you want it to work and what you have to do to get it that way without encountering a lot of dramas and teething/tuning problems  ;) you also need to be cashed up to the eyeballs or already have a sizable mill running  if your going to get into the production arena of mill building  ;)

I read a story about a sawmiller in nsw that built a complete mill in the early 80s 90% of the gear was designed by him and most of the work apart from the heavy structural fabrication was carried out in his own workshop buy his engineers now this gave him a mill that cut the combined production of his old mills of 450m3 or 191000bft per week sawn in hardwood with a crew of 18 blokes in the mill proper with another seven blokes doing admin and value adding work which Carl weisy willl tell you is a pretty fair feat in itself the magical figure in a aussie hardwood mill back then is around the 1000 bft per man per day and most mills operated under that even counting the 25 workers he was averaging 3.6 m3 or 1530bft sawn per man per day  ;) the only two pieces he brought in was a Iles forge  4hb carriage and a Ukiah 6"x48" edger the rest they did Themselves including a two man production bench that 70 to80% of the mills production went over   and a huge twinsaw edger (Aussie Scragg)  that could take a log upto 36" dia and 24' long  ;)

Ill say that most Good Sawmills will work well and do what they are designed to do which is Saw Timber within whatever limits that have been set buy the manufacturer  ie price , log supply or production requirements   Im happy with the Lucas mills ,Karas, Woodmizers and the multitude of other makes including home made mills  i have operated over the years there where afew dogs to operate with how controls or how the mill was setup to operate them at their full capacity and get good consistant production on some of that some times came from operating them well out of their comfort zone though  ;) :D I feel I am lucky that Im a pretty flexable  sawyer can  jump on any mill and adjust to how the manufacturer or owner has it setup I have done a fair few rebuilds and mods

The trick is to do Alot of Research into Sawmills before you buy and usually buy more mill than you think you will need  ;) :D  and you will be more than happy  ;) but if you have a mill and you dont like something change it to suit yourself thats the beauty of being a Sawmiller (unlike alot of other industries)  We still have the power to Do Our Own Thing and thats what I like about it  ;) ;D ;D 8) 8)

Regards Chris

[customdave]

I have only done 2 mods to my WM lt 40 hd, first one built 2 aluminum tools boxes & mounted to mill, second one took 3" abs 45 deg elbow clamped in the end of the sawdust chute pipe to throw sawdust a little further away from mill, keeps the walking path clearer & easyer to clean up with tractor & loader, less shoveling ;)...


                                           Dave