Wallee's Milling Thread

[4x4American]

ok..... Planning on upgrading or at least talked to woodmizer today and will be discussing possibilities here soon. Someone more knowledgeable than me on these mills fill me in. Lt35hd vs. lt40hd. What are the hard fact differences between the two? I watched the videos on both and seems like the both are really similar. One difference I seen was the 40 came with the g26 kohler vs the 35 had a g25 kohler. 40 has more options you can add like control station options such as walk along or stationary and the 35 doesn't offer that. The 40 is 9000$ more..... IS it worth that?

You'd be less tired with an lt40!  ;D

Lol indeed! I just cant afford one, new at least :D . I am looking at options for sawmill changes in the near future. Maybe even something simple as adding a edger and some roller beds 

I was referencing that first quote I thought you were looking!
You're definitely gettin after it! 
Do you have hired help helping or is it just friends?


An yea I gotta say I like this thread for some reason or another. 

[Ohio_Bill]

I don't know how but I had not read this thread until last night. Spent about an hour reading and really enjoyed it.  I started out with a LT15 sawing ties so there are some similarities. You're doing a great job.

[4x4American]

Happy bday tyler, you're now 1/4 of a century old!

[Wallee]

Wallee,

Man I have really enjoyed reading through your thread the past couple days. Bud, you are really getting after it!
Thanks for sharing with everyone!

Thanks for reading through! I am doing my best to help others by learning from my mistakes  :D
I have enjoyed learning and this forum has been the biggest help to me by far!

I don't know how but I had not read this thread until last night. Spent about an hour reading and really enjoyed it.  I started out with a LT15 sawing ties so there are some similarities. You're doing a great job.

Awesome! I wondered if there were any other folks out the like me sawing ties on such a small mill! Looks like Im not the only one addicted to hard work  8) Would love to see how you had yours set up!

Happy bday tyler, you're now 1/4 of a century old!

Now that you put it that way it kinda makes me feel older lol! Thanks for wishing me a happy birthday!

[paul case]

I started out sawing out a house on a manual mill the ez boardwalk 40. almost from the day the mill came home folks were bringing me logs to saw for them. Upon completing the house I sawed ties, pallet lumber and cants for a shipping skid. It quickly became too much for this round farm boy and I traded up to a used LT 40 hd. Now I have 2 '94 LT40 hd mills and a baker edger sawing anything I can get to sell to 3 or 4 local markets. My 20 yo son and I make somewhere around 6k to 8k ft a week depending on how much I saw between dealing with maintenance, deliveries, customers and log sorting, grading and stacking. I know no pics and it didn't happen so here ya go.
PC


  

 
That's a hydraulic toe board on a manual mill.


 
This is a load of some 3x4 shipping cants. I still cut these for a customer, but now it is 450 at a time.

Thanks Wallee for this thread. I have really enjoyed your progress.

[gww]

Paul case

That's a hydraulic toe board on a manual mill.

I have the same hydraulic toe board on my home made mill.

wallee,  I can't believe how much production you get.  I can get 100 board foot if I work at my pace for two days and the logs are at the mill.  I must take more breaks   Even that hurts me, You impress me with your hard work.

Cheers
gww

[Wallee]

Paul case

That's a hydraulic toe board on a manual mill.

I have the same hydraulic toe board on my home made mill.

wallee,  I can't believe how much production you get.  I can get 100 board foot if I work at my pace for two days and the logs are at the mill.  I must take more breaks :)  Even that hurts me, You impress me with your hard work.

Cheers
gww

Thanks! We try and pump it out while we are running! I have been doing some updates on the mill lately. Got the feet wm supplies actually on the mill now so I can make adjustments easier but now it slides when a heavy log is put up there....... So not sure how much I like that lol.

Here is some 2x4s and 1x6's we cut yesterday for a order!

[beenthere]

How are you putting a heavy log on the mill? Rolling it off a log deck shouldn't move the mill.

[4x4American]

You boys sure boogy!  8)

[WDH]

I did not like the screw feet.  Even turning a big log could cause those feet to crab, shifting the mill.  A solid foundation with the mill at about knee to mid thigh high worked best for me. 

[Wallee]

I did not like the screw feet.  Even turning a big log could cause those feet to crab, shifting the mill.  A solid foundation with the mill at about knee to mid thigh high worked best for me.

So did you just let it rest on the frame?

[red]

Yes . But in WDH's case he put the tracks higher on blocking .

[Peter Drouin]

Drill a hole with a forsner bit a ½" deep for the leg to set into.

[WDH]

I built a solid foundation with beams that I cut on the mill.  Put the frame directly on the beams.  Leveled the frame with a string, using shims where needed to get all the bunks perfectly level and flat. Your foundation has to be rock solid. 

[Wallee]

I built a solid foundation with beams that I cut on the mill.  Put the frame directly on the beams.  Leveled the frame with a string, using shims where needed to get all the bunks perfectly level and flat. Your foundation has to be rock solid.

That is the way I had mine at first. Shims kept backing out. Have the feet on now and seems to be ok. I put some blocking around the feet so they dont move too much anymore. I want a trailer package I think.

[elk42]

  Wallee this is the way my sawmill bed  is connected to the H beam.


 

[Wallee]

  Wallee this is the way my sawmill bed  is connected to the H beam.


 

Awesome! Thanks for sharing your setup!

[paul case]

Drill a hole with a forsner bit a ½" deep for the leg to set into.

This would work. The EZ boardwalk mill I  started with had a plate with a 1'' pipe welded to it and holes to screw the plate down.

 

I think you should be able to nail or screw down the shims to keep them under there too if you choose to go that way.

I would suggest for you to get that mill up so as to make it easier on you and your helpers backs. I had the bed of my mill about knee high or a little more. That made it so much easier to edge, clamp and turn, Then you will have room for that hydraulic toe board. ;D

PC

[Peter Drouin]

Good idea Paul,

[Wallee]

Good idea Paul,

Yep I like that idea as well!

[pa_of_6]

Wallee

An edger would help your production with the least amount of investment.

You could hire a kid after school to help you edge at the end of a day and in an hour you could run a lot of boards thru.

I had an edger on the back end of my mill and about 25-30% of my production came off the edger.
I had 2 pilers off the back end of my mill and they ran the slabs over the edger right off the mill.

If you look around you can maybe find an old edger you can pick up cheap.
If it has no motor, hook it up to the PTO of your tractor.

Just my 2 cents.

[red]

Woodmizer uses more track sections to edge boards at the Sawmill Shootout. You can also cut more logs with more track . I believe each trach section is about $600 .

[Magicman]

Plus, there is an Edger for sale fairly close to you.  wwsjr's Edger

[paul case]

I was hoping to see some more action here. How's it going Wallee?

PC

[Wallee]

I was hoping to see some more action here. How's it going Wallee?

PC

Sawed some 1x12x10 today! Also a few 1x4x10. Averaged 240bf a hour today!

Also thought you guys should know that a new mill is still a strong possibility in the near future. Got a local bank cooking something up for me and I think we are going to make a deal. I am strongly liking the idea of hydraulics and I can't get it out of my head lol!!