woodmizer prototype "wide band sawmill"

[hackberry jake]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QKM-8qDMAc&feature=youtube_gdata_player

[ladylake]

Looks good, 4 poster didn't think they could get much bigger without going to 4 post, vertical log stops, chain turner, 2 clamps, really like the power toe boards, FAST up- down.   Good going WM.  Steve

[Bibbyman]

I seen this video a few months back.  I said recently in another topic that Wood-Mizer is working their way into industrial sawmills. Here is the next step.

[dgdrls]

Nice machine, wonder if it will make it to the States?

DGDrls

[hackberry jake]

I think wm just has the cantilevered head on their mid-range mills. Their smallest and their biggest mills have two or four post designs.

[Bibbyman]

I may be all wrong but because the mill has a post or more on two rails does not mean the head is not cantilevered.   I'm remembering that the LT15 head is mounted on the left side of the mill and is cantilevered on the right.   The frame over and post down on the right side is a way to reduce weight and costs.  I'm trying to say that the saw head on the LT15 is not mounted to the post on the right side. The LT10,  I don't know about.

I'll have to watch the wide band mill video again and see if I can figure out the design.

Yep, mounted on both sides.   The chain running up both posts kind of gives it away.

[schakey]

They can field test it on our property in West Virginia . smiley_devilish

[dgdrls]

I may be all wrong but because the mill has a post or more on two rails does not mean the head is not cantilevered.   I'm remembering that the LT15 head is mounted on the left side of the mill and is cantilevered on the right.   The frame over and post down on the right side is a way to reduce weight and costs.  I'm trying to say that the saw head on the LT15 is not mounted to the post on the right side. The LT10,  I don't know about.

I'll have to watch the wide band mill video again and see if I can figure out the design.

Yep, mounted on both sides.   The chain running up both posts kind of gives it away.

More like a floating 2 post, as I recall the 10  has the list assist cylinders on the left post with the brake handle and the right post
acts as a guide.  The cable system to lift the head runs into the top arch through some pulley's, the head runs up and down on the posts
and the motor slides on a plate to engage/disengage the drive belt.

The new mills looks similar in design from what I see the head rides up and down on the two posts with what looks like rear bracing

DGDrls

[drobertson]

All I have to say is slower than molasses,  Bibby, I know you can saw this fast! as most that have 40's , not to mention the 70's,   there was no drag back feature shown!  and the logs were perfect as usual, not a real life demo to say the least,  I Love my Lt-40, but give me a break,  lets some real production, if this was if fact the purpose of the video.  All the Orange folks can raise a hair if you feel so inclined, just saying, why show this if this is to be the next production maker.    David  Robertson

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I think they ran it slow just for demo purposes. I guarantee this WM machine could run CIRCLES around anything. I'd LOVE TO HAVE ONE like this!  8)

[drobertson]

Yea, I reckon I'm with you on this Poston, just saying show what it can do!  We have seen this on a daily basis around here, I would like to see it in real time, that's all,  nuff said,  I will back down, and get some rest for the morning.    david

[red oaks lumber]

drobertson
rest assured it will saw circles around your best day. ;)
i'm alittle confused, why have the head saw towards the operator?

[Satamax]

Well, i know lots of you are woodmizer fans. But this machine isn't anything new. Look at a pezzolato mini profi 1000 bicoupe, that's something serious. Cuts on the fore and aft movement. I tried to find you a video, seems that there's none on the net. I have a friend who has one. If ever i get the chance, i'll do a video of this one.

[schmism]

i'm alittle confused, why have the head saw towards the operator?

so that the drag back pulls the boards off the "dead end" were your helper pulls them off instead of the operator.

It was my understanding that production mills have much higher sft/min (band speed) to facilitate faster travel of the head = more production.

[5quarter]

Jake...Stop posting vids like this...you're gonna give Customsawyer ideas ;) :D". 

[stefan]

I think they ran it slow just for demo purposes. I guarantee this WM machine could run CIRCLES around anything. I'd LOVE TO HAVE ONE like this!  8)

No doubt that WM makes good sawmills, and this new prototype looks very nice, but that is a bold statement when you look at the competition.

here is the select 3620 with 4-inch wide blade.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PFSnPHpdMMs

And here is the 4221 6-inch wide blade with 115hp diesel.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHq7FtiKbhM

And the logs are not very pretty either.

But still, that new WM looks really good.

[Bibbyman]

I agree.

[ladylake]

  Looks like those mills would cut just as fast as a good circle mill.  Anyone know what the kerf is and how long a blade will cut before dull.   Steve

[scully]

Had to jump in quik but this is a head rig right ? Like the wm1000 etc . not a production rig by any streach . But man can it flitch some big stuff !

[dgdrls]

G.M. Scully,  I don't believe its a headrig per se,  Looks like a full on production unit.

Probably could be used that way though.

DGDrls

[Banjo picker]

It looked good to me... I esp. liked the way it could move the log with the toe levelers.  Banjo

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

I think they ran it slow just for demo purposes. I guarantee this WM machine could run CIRCLES around anything. I'd LOVE TO HAVE ONE like this!  8)

.................. but that is a bold statement when you look at the competition.

I'm just a BOLD kinda guy.   

[Ga Mtn Man]

I think they ran it slow just for demo purposes. I guarantee this WM machine could run CIRCLES around anything. I'd LOVE TO HAVE ONE like this!  8)

.................. but that is a bold statement when you look at the competition.

I'm just a BOLD kinda guy.   

[stefan]

I'm just a BOLD kinda guy.   

Haha!
Yes, it seems so.

Speaking of WM and produktion mills, whatever happend with the SCH4250 mill WM launched a few years ago?

The last thing i know of is this video were it is called "E4260" and if you ask me, its the badest narrowband sawmill i ever heard of.
But i havent seen it on their website for a long time??
So whats up?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Jj7VEkeCTM

[Bibbyman]

Falure to launch,  comes to mind.  It could have been a lot of things that killed that mill.  One thing was the price at the very time the sawmill industry was crashing.   I've heard said when a customer saw that the could buy two LT300s and get more production with less operating costs, they went that way.

I seen a mill operation with two LT300s in the same building.  They were set up at opposite corners of the building and fed onto a common green chain. Sawyer set in an air conditioned office on the second floor and overlooked his mill through a large window. Two mill, one edger and one green chain.

[grweldon]

That wide-band mill is pretty sweet!  I wonder what the MSRP will be?  $60K?

[Satamax]

  Looks like those mills would cut just as fast as a good circle mill.  Anyone know what the kerf is and how long a blade will cut before dull.   Steve

Well, i'm no expert, but through my search for a sawmill, i came along a rep from forezienne, a french specialist in making all sorts of sawmill blades, circular or band.

The guy was saying, with a stelite band, you can cut a cubic metre of 1 inch boards in oak before it gets too dull to be of any use. Tho, i don't know how much that is in BFT. Kerf is about 3 to 4mm

[grweldon]

My calculations may be faulty but I think one cubic meter at 3mm kerf would be equal to 11,111 slices of a 10' long 12" wide cant (.045 kerf).  Of course you could probably half it to account for non-laboritory cutting conditions.  Still, that seems like so much life that everybody would be using Stellite blades if they were available.  Somebody please check my math...

[Satamax]

Grweldon, i think the guy meant 1 cubic metre in log form.

That's about 13 inches diameter, by 10 feet. Let say you cut live edge, you knock a good 3 inch slab on each side, so you get 7 inches useable, i did a quick calc, about 49600 useable live edge board feet. That doesn't seem much.

[Dave Shepard]

A cubic meter is something like 434 board feet, iirc. That is not much sawing on a band.

[Tom the Sawyer]

Glen,

Don't forget the set when figuring your kerf.  smiley_sidelightbulb For mine its .042 blade thickness plus .022 set each side - total .086.  For 4/4 lumber it works out to about .086 board feet (.0071666 cu.ft) of sawdust per board foot milled.  The sawdust from 1000 bf of 4/4 would fill a 55 gallon drum.  That's what I tell my clients to expect to deal with at their sites.  The math figures closer to 53 gallons but there is additional sawdust created from opening up the 4 faces to consider plus odd pieces of bark.  I've had several catch the sawdust on a tarp to reduce cleanup and it's pretty close for a 'rule of thumb'.   

[Mooney]

Here's some information about the prototype that might help answer some of the questions.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QKM-8qDMAc

This will be Wood-Mizer's first wide-band mill, running a 3" blade as standard. It is being designed for extreme/rugged production environments. Still in development, so not sure on release dates yet or an official name yet. Also, some things will change, as this was just the very first prototype. Received a lot of interest at Ligna from international markets that have remote sawing locations and are looking for something heavy-duty and straightforward.

•   Will cut a 36" log right down the middle! Bed capacity is currently 4 tons.

•   Sawing speed in the video is slow, due to being the first prototype. We started with a smaller motor than it is designed for. The next version production is building will have the correct engine and sawing speed will be much faster. (PR bit: this just proves we don't speed up our videos! :-)

•   Sawing towards the operator gives much better visibility. We use the same design on the WM3000 - WM4000 machines.

•   Very heavy duty drawback fingers are on the machine, but were not being used at the show (Ligna) due to space.

Here's a couple pix of my son Eric (WM's biggest little fan  ;D) in the operator's seat a couple of weeks ago at a Customer Day event.   Gotta love the shades! 8)


  

 

[Satamax]

Mooney, make it twin cut (cutting back and forth) and you'd have a hit  ;D

[NMFP]

I think this would be a fine mill but the question I have is, what market is trying to be targeted?  Something with high production must be automated to eliminate the human interfearance.

Also, what type of mill would this compete with?  The commercial mill side of things is pretty well packed and supplied with name brand equipment already.

The reason I say this is being in the industry, there is a stigma that a portable mill is a wood mizer and woodmizer only makes portable mills, not commercial mills which we all know is not the case.  If it were me, i would change the name to something completely different than wood mizer to enter into this type of market.

Just my thoughts.  Any other ideas?

[Bibbyman]

Wood-Mizer has been working their way into the industrial mill market for more than 10 years. They started with the LT300 and added a lot of support equipment to make a system. They even made the company some kind of separate entity and they had another name AWMV.  They painted the mills another color.  They have reorganized back into one company again from what I understand.   They have added a lot of support system equipment to go with their ever larger mills.   They must see room in the market or they are making room.

[Magicman]

The market is there.  We have a commercial sawmill locally that only runs two LT300's.

[Bibbyman]

I hear there is a mill in south west Missouri that is running 6 LT300 mills and were upgrading to WM3000 or WM3500 mills.

[NMFP]

I actually had the luxury of sawing on an LT300 a few years ago and it was nice, as long as the supporting equipment worked 100% perfect, nothing different than a large commercial mill.

I feel as though WM has the potential to be in the driving seat with smaller commerercial mills, specializing in specific products, which is already the case with portable mills.  The reality is there is a larger percentage of individuals with the capital and ability to run small commercial mills than large, expensive commercial mills for high production. 

Being in the industry for many years and also experiencing the accademic world of teaching technical skills, there will be a dire need for smaller commercial mills with innovation.  Teaching wood products students allows for vision into many segments of industry and economics and wm has the potential to be the front runner in a niche market today but potentially most markets in the future.

[thecfarm]

NMFP,note the color of that mill. It's not orange. WM has an ad for a WM4000 on the back cover of Timberline Sept issue. Same color as the ones above.

[grweldon]

Glen,

Don't forget the set when figuring your kerf.  smiley_sidelightbulb For mine its .042 blade thickness plus .022 set each side - total .086.  For 4/4 lumber it works out to about .086 cubic feet of sawdust per board foot milled.  1000 bf of 4/4 would yield about 55 gallons of sawdust (think 55 gallon drum).  That's what I tell my clients to expect to deal with at their sites.  The math figures closer to 53 gallons but there is additional sawdust created from opening up the 4 faces to consider plus odd pieces of bark.  I've had several catch the sawdust on a tarp to reduce cleanup and it's pretty close for a 'rule of thumb'.   

Thanks Tom, brain fart! ;D

[NMFP]

thecfarm, exactly on color.  Most places i deal with industry wide consider any portable mill a woodmizer.  I have run woodmizer equipment for many years and the distinct color sets out in the market. 

What I am getting at is that wm has an opportunity here to make an exceptional quality saw and fit into a growing market.  Making sure it fits the needs of the general population that will purchase this machine will almost but guarantee a sale and a life long relationship with woodmizer. 

Chevrolet vs. GMC....... Two different companies, yet the same truck except cosmetics.  This isnt the case with wm.  They have proven to make exceptional quality machinery for both segments, but yet 2 complately different animals.  Paint isnt the only difference.