Woodmizer Upgrades

jimt · May 15, 2005, 08:28:33 AM

Could someone please explain what Wood-Mizer's 'auto clutch ' is, how it works and whether or not it would fit our LT40HDD30 98 ?

pigman · May 15, 2005, 08:38:27 AM

http://www.woodmizer.com/en/sawmills/options/autoclutch.aspx
It is a bolt on device that raises the engine to tighten the drive belt. A switch on the control panel turns on a small electric motor that operates the device. I added mine after after two years of using the handle. Sure is a lot easy on my heavy diesel engine. 8)

jimt · May 15, 2005, 09:38:31 AM

Thanks Pigman. . . It sounds like something we need. It would be nice not to be continually pulling at that handle! We'll get one ordered.
Thanks for the info.

SawDust_Studios · May 16, 2005, 09:13:11 AM

Dr_Buck,

Love to see pictures of the winch after you get it mounted

Dave

Kirk_Allen · May 16, 2005, 11:34:17 AM

OWW - The order of the bolts going in is not the rubbing issue. Its the lower arm of the support hitting the bracket that is welded to the frame for the axle.

I called WM to let them know the instructions on the adjustment DONT WORK since both rod ends are the same. I dont think the person I was talking too had a clue what I was trying to tell him.

Satrudays cutting went well on quite a few short logs. It was nice to not have to go back and forth adjusting the center supports.

Friday was a wake up call on the value of the debarker. Cut 650 bf of Silver Maple with a single blade! I would have never done that without the debarker.

OneWithWood · May 16, 2005, 01:35:15 PM

Kirk,
Refresh my memory. What year of manufacture is your mill? If it is pre-1997 them our frames are different. If not I will take some pics of my installation for you.

Kirk_Allen · May 16, 2005, 01:58:59 PM

My mill is a 2000 LT40 HD.

I also found another spot that is rubbing pretty good. The long rod that goes through the frame rubs at the top of the oval shaped hole in the frame that the rod goes through. All the paint is worn off the road and we have shiny metal showing from where it rubbed this weekend.

Its not a big deal to fix and its to be expected with new modifications Im sure. I will pull out my grinder and open it up a little and should take care of that.

As far as the wiring, send me a pic of what you have done with yours. I dont have more than 1/4" space and since the rubber gromet sticks out almost that much the support rubs on the wire no matter what. In two days it rubbed through the duct tape and electrical wire and paritaly trough the covering. I am looking at drilling another hole in the frame and routing it through that.

DR Buck · May 16, 2005, 09:23:22 PM

Kirk,

Follow the link below to hi-res pictures of how I installed my back stop mod and tied the brake wire back out of the way. Keep in mind as I stated in a prior post, my back stops were modified by me since WM sent me the prototype by mistake. As can be seen in the pictures labeled "stop-1, 2," I have a least 1/4 inch clearance between the back of the stop arm and the axle bracket welded to the frame. My mill is a 2003 LT40HD25G.

The pictures labeled "wire-1,2,3, 4" show how I have the wire pulled forward and tie-wrapped to the frame. There is at least 1/2 inch clearance from the backstop to the frame where the wire is located. Note the washers added to the cylinder pin to take up the slack and keep the pin from pinching the wire. This is a "Bibbyman" suggested mod.

http://www.hiddenacresfarm.com/images/sawmill/

Kirk_Allen · May 16, 2005, 11:57:32 PM

Thanks for the pics Buck.

Rest assured, you have a tid bit more room for some reason. When the wire is taped to the front of the opening the arm rubs it to the point that in two days it rubbed through the duct tape AND the outer cover of the wire.

I looked at it real close today and the only way to fix it is to drill another hole foward of the one WM has and re-route the wire. I dont know why my clearence is so tight but pulling it forward with wire ties didnt help at all. It just doesnt have the clearence.

Rockn H · May 17, 2005, 12:07:27 AM

Does anyone have any pics of the auto clutch itself they could post? Is it just a linear gear actuator? I haven't seen one and was thinking it was along the lines of an a/c clutch, now I understand that it lifts the motor just like the manual clutch. If anyone could I'd appreciate some pics.

shopteacher · May 17, 2005, 06:41:34 AM

Me too! Pic of the auto clutch mechanism sound mighty interesting.

dewwood · May 17, 2005, 09:26:59 AM

Kirk,

On my saw there is another opening with hydraulic lines coming out about 1-1/2 foot in front of the one the brake wire comes out. I just pulled the brake wire back to that opening and rerouted it which gave me the clearance I needed cause like you there was not enough room for it where it was originally. Also I made a comment on another thread about my posts not allowing the cant to come clear back against the stops that are welded on the bed rails and WM tech told me that is just they way they are as not all of the posts are exactly identical when they are welded up. Mine has a good 1/8" gap or more when the stops are up and when they are down and you want to raise them to turn the cant they catch the edge of the cant. He said the only way to fix that would be to grind off the stops on the bed rails.

Dewey

Kirk_Allen · May 17, 2005, 10:17:22 AM

Dewwood, not sure if I follow what you saying about the 1/8" gap. If the cant hits the welded stops and your back supports are 1/8" away then you should be able to lower and raise the supports without hitting anything.

If your hitting the cant when you bring the supports up grinding the welded stops is only going to make that condition worse.

The rollers on my front and back supports hit the cant coming up but not enough to be a problem. Once i have a cant with a good solid edge on the bottom I leave the supports all the way down anyway.

pigman · May 17, 2005, 07:36:08 PM

RocknH, shopteacher and old butch
Pic of autoclutch with shield. Rev 1.00 I think, others may be diferent.

pic with shield removed. The auto clutch bolts on the same place as the handle.

OneWithWood · May 17, 2005, 09:27:45 PM

Here are some pics of my hydraulic back support upgrade. I hope these help to show the methodolgy of my installation. I have a 2001 LT40 which should have the same frame dimensions as those who are having clearance issues. My mod works as designed and nothing rubs.

the short rod closest to the controls is attached on the loading arm side

The long rod is then attached to the rail side

the long rod is attached to the next support on the loader side and the short arm to the support at the aft end is attached further to the loader side

at the aft support the short arm is attached to the rail side

here are a few different views, note the placement of the spacers in all the pics. I had to play around with the arrangements until everything had the proper clearances and then I trued the supports per the handbook.

Rockn H · May 17, 2005, 09:39:36 PM

Thanks pigman now I see what they did. I suppose the black switch with two wires is what stops the motor? Guess I need to call Indi and see if they offer one for a 91 model LT40. The clutch is made different than the newer ones. My manual clutch is not wanting to bind off good anymore and I can't find any wear that could be causing the problem. It engages the clutch good but if you let go it may pop out, not good win the head keeps moving. ;D

pigman · May 17, 2005, 10:43:58 PM

Rockn H, The black thingy is some sort of sensor. When the crank makes 1/2 revolutions it brakes a magnetic field or something and stops the motor. I really don't know how it works but it works.

I traded for a used unit three years ago and today is the first time the shield has been off. Found out I need to tighten the belt a little.

Bibbyman · May 18, 2005, 04:05:31 AM

I've had the cover off'n ours twice... Once to clean between the "proximity sensors" (the little thingys) and the magnet and another time to see why it wasn't working. That time it turned out to be the toggle switch on the control panel.

BTW, Great pictures OneWithWood.

Your mill is a 2001 and it looks like it rolled off the Wood-Mizer assembly line yesterday! Our 2002 didn't look that clean the third day we had it.

Kirk_Allen · May 18, 2005, 09:37:12 AM

OWW - When you going to cut some wood on that show piece? ;D

Looks like its a classic that gets taken to sawmill shows. When its on display do you put mirrors under it so people can see how clean the under side is? ;D

I cant believe how clean it looks. Not a paint chip anywhere.

Tell us, how do you do it?

MULE_MAN · May 18, 2005, 10:26:55 AM

I know, I know He only saws soft wood ;D

pigman · May 18, 2005, 12:24:34 PM

My mill was as clean as OWW's. My camera lens was just dirty. ;) :D

OneWithWood · May 18, 2005, 08:59:11 PM

My mill is so clean because I have yet to saw any sap infested softwood!!!
I have a pile of white pine waiting for me to finish the barn and the kiln. Thinkgs may appear different after I mill that stuff :D

The mill looks clean because it is. What can I say? I obviously have not put the hours on it some of you have. I have a little over 200 hours on it now. When I finish for the day I clean the barn and the mill with a Stihl B85 blower and the mill has never sat out in the weather.

I use the mill to produce lumber for the projects underway such as the greenhouse I built for Linnea and the barn I am building to house the mill and the kiln. I do work another job that has good bennies that I do not want to let go of and my main focus is managing my woodlot in a sustainable fashion. A lot of time gets invested in selecting, falling, skidding, and bucking the trees that I have milled. Everything is off my property. I vowed I would not do commercial work until I have my set up where I want it. See the threads 'Time to stop being a wannabe' and 'OWW builds a greenhouse'.

In spite of the cleanliness of my mill I hope you were able to glean some useful info from the pics I posted.

_{I think you all are picking on me 'cause yer jealous. Yeah, that's it!! :D}

Bibbyman · May 19, 2005, 02:56:01 AM

Quote from: OneWithWood on May 18, 2005, 08:59:11 PM

In spite of the cleanliness of my mill I hope you were able to glean some useful info from the pics I posted.

_{I think you all are picking on me 'cause yer jealous. Yeah, that's it!! :D}

We're not pickin' on yha. The pictures are great!

Our mill sets under roof but still gets plenty of sunshine. Sometimes at the end of the day we take the dust collection hose and suck some of the dust offn' it. Most of the time not.. Just knock down the tension and go to the house.

You can see from the pix I posted a couple of months back that the paint has faided and it has a number of scraches, chips and warn spots. It also wears a coat of crud.

As I was sawing today I was thinking. "This mill is sawing as good or even better than when it was new."

We have over 1800 hours on the mill now in a little over three years. We've put almost 900 hours on our Terex in just over two years! Ish! No wonder I hurt!