Why I prefer a (mostly) manual mill

78NHTFY · April 02, 2021, 06:37:10 PM

With weak mechanical skills, I faced difficult (for me) problems recently with my LT40 Woodmizer bandmill, in the middle of a large sawing job.
Sudden surges full forward of the carriage in the middle of a cut. This jammed the blade into the cut making for a pain to remove. I'd installed a new potentiometer a few years back. So I unscrewed all the covers to the control box and started looking. Looked good to me!
Then called Woodmizer. Young fella there said best to just replace whole back panel for $ 358 and good to go. Really? Thinking it must be a short, I pushed all the fuses (both exterior white ones and all 4 black ones in the box and yeah, problem solved. Cut two more logs (24" x 16') and bam, same problem.
Unscrewed all the covers again but placed the front panel badly and wham, a spark flew and the whole machine was dead. Knew how to solve that: replace the metal fuse in the little box next to the battery and power was back.
Called Woodmizer service. Agreed the carriage full forward issue might be a short since I'd repaired extensive mouse chewed wire damage 15 yrs ago. (Folks, be SURE to seal the opening at bottom of the sloped post holding the control box). Spent a few hours looking at every wire but things looked good.
Called Woodmizer service. This time I got Mike, a calm voice to counter my slightly elevated pitch, which calmed me down. Like a doctor, he walked me through the symptoms and gave me the confidence to attack the problem (almost surely a short). Spend another hour carefully following his instructions, including checking all the connection tabs to see if they were bent, causing a short. Well, nothing, UNTIL, at the end of my patience, I scrutinized the far back of the box and the green silicon board that is attached to the aluminum grounding panel and, what it that little silver thing that looks out of place? IT WAS A SCREW! Yup, a small 3/4" screw was laying across the back tops of the panel and the silicon board, effectively grounding the board. How it got there I have no idea. Removed the offender and was off to the races. Thank you MIKE!
Then, 3 logs later, the band starts waving through the cut. Checked around and noticed that the blade roller post was out of place, effectively pushed back so that the roller barely touched the blade and tipped it down when engaged. (This obviously started to happen when carriage surged forward jamming the blade into the log cut). Took out my trusty hammer and gently tapped the post and roller back into place.
So, in 3 days, I fixed 3 problems. In 21 years of owning this machine, I have done virtually all the repairs myself (with the invaluable help of Woodmizer Service). Am pretty sure that anything with lots more electronics would have turned me off.
As it is, it starts everytime, cuts true to 1/32d and makes me happy, (especially knowing I can take care of the problems when they occur).
All the best, Rob.