Norwood Lumbermate Mark 4 restoration

[Vintgegreen89]

 
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 Hello all! New here! Just wondered if I could pick your brains, I made a last minute purchase at a local auction, unfortunately I didn't have time to do my homework and took a chance on it.. it's an old Lumbermate mark IV Manual mill. I paid $900 as is, it came with a very well built 20' bed extension. I've spent the last few days really crunching the numbers and I believe I'll have somewhere in the neighborhood of $3,800-$4,400 in additional costs in the restoration and modifications to make it a very user friendly and mobile mill. Talking with Norwood over the last couple weeks I understand that parts are getting harder to come by but they do have most consumables still available. The questions I have for you is-

1) Is this old girl worth the trouble or should I just save my time and money and buy a new mill? 
2) To the sawyers that are familiar with the bed of these mills.. was the original trailering design adequate or should I plan on building a frame under the bed, or just build an all new bed? I'm concerned about flex it being difficult to level after putting some miles on it between jobs. 
3) will a 16hp single cylinder engine do the trick or should I make sure to find a 20-23hp twin. 

Any additional input is welcome! 
Thank you! 

[DennisK]

you have a great start do a good restoration. or make a modified mill. No loss there.

[Iwawoodwork]

If you have any doubts about it at that price I would be happy to purchase it Is it located anywhere around Oregon.   That seems like a great price for what is pictured. I line the idea of a sub frame under it if you are going to make it a trailer mount. As I have mentioned several time on the forum L have used old rv and park model trailer frames for projects like a subframe. They are cheap or free.

[thecfarm]

Welcome to the forum.
You will like sawing!!!

[sawwood]

Looks like a fixer upper to me .  We have a Mark 4 that the owner bought in 98 and has been good.  We also have the 20 foot extension and the 20hp Honda engine.  As for the trailer wheels we have only used them two times and it worked ok. We now are at a fixed location so the wheels and axel are in storage.  The only thing we have we have changed was the clutch. The old one was a 4 inch and we changed to a 5 inch clutch. Made a world of difference as it change the ban speed so now don't have to push as hard. hope you get it fixed and cutting soon.

[Vintgegreen89]

If you have any doubts about it at that price I would be happy to purchase it Is it located anywhere around Oregon.   That seems like a great price for what is pictured. I line the idea of a sub frame under it if you are going to make it a trailer mount. As I have mentioned several time on the forum L have used old rv and park model trailer frames for projects like a subframe. They are cheap or free.

No sorry we are in Illinois. I'll be sure to list it on here if it becomes available for sale, but I'm almost certain we are going to get her making saw dust again. I appreciate the tip on those trailers, plenty of them available locally! Thanks!

[bushhog920]

And to think I sold mine in good running shape for $1500 just to get it out of the way when I upgraded 😭. I had a 13hp Honda and was very happy.

[Magicman]

Welcome to the Forestry Forum. 

You have an option to rotate your pictures before you actually post them.  You also still have the option to click the "modify" button and edit/turn pictures.