Bent broke woodmizer

[pineywoods]

This mill just brought to my shop for repairs. Yes, that wheel is bent over about 20 degrees.
The spindle is bent, the idler bandwheel cover is badly bent. I suspect the guide positioning mechanism is trashed. Hope the head frame is not bent. Hydraulic control valves, handles all broke and bent, valves trashed ? Mill was parked by side of the road, got T-boned by a truck. shoved the mill sideways 6-8 feet. No, it's not my mill, belongs to a local sawyer. It has about 8000 hours on the clock, 2500 on a new kohler 25 hp. Should be worth fixing..

[fishpharmer]

Pineywoods, if anyone can repair it, you can.  Will the truck driver's insurance pay for damages?

[Southside]

Can you post a picture of it pineywoods?  For some reason the theme music to the Million Dollar Man is coming to mind - "Gentlemen we can rebuild him - we have the technology..."

[pineywoods]

Pic posted on the original thread. I'll post pics of the progress. Gonna be a while, I'm down for couple of weeks with shoulder surgery. The damage was done at night, we have some ideas but no proof. I'm quite familiar with this particular mill. It has lead a hard life..rode hard and put away wet, so no telling what else will need fixing. I flatly refused to paint it  ;D

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Take a truck and T-bone it from the other side. Charge him $300 and send him home.  :D :D :D

[Southside]

Well not that's really odd - the photo was not there the first time. 

Would someone PLEASE go to the WM dealer in South Carolina and let the goat get his new mill already!!!  He is getting some rambunctious!!! 

[petefrom bearswamp]

Looks like a time consuming project Piney
But Im sure u are up to it.

[Darrel]

This will be both an educational and entertaining thread so I'm staying tuned.

[Resonator]

I would go over the parts and labor estimate carefully, and see if its worth it. At 8000 hours you may end up rebuilding the whole machine. Money wise it may make more sense to cut your loses and find another good used LT40 with fewer hours. My two pennies.

[pineywoods]

Well, it took a while, but I delivered the repaired mill today. Lots of bent, broke, and missing parts. Had to fab some parts, mostly covers that hired hands had removed and thrown in the sawdust pile, never to be seen again. OK, so I can't match paint very well, it's as close as I could find in a rattle can. The brightly colored bandwheel covers were formerly the sides of a discarded washing machine, carved out with my new plasma cutter. During all this work, the owner passed away, and now I am dealing with an estate..Should work out ok, the estate administrator is a good friend.

[Darrel]

Looks good piney. That's a manual LT40, they don't make those anymore. I don't know if that makes it more valuable or not. 

[Peter Drouin]

Nice job.

[kelLOGg]

Nice job. AND you did it after shoulder surgery - that's amazing. Piney just doesn't slow down.

[MartyParsons]

That's a manual LT40, they don't make those anymore.

Yes you can still order a LT40 manual mill. Not much call for these but they are still available.

M

[pineywoods]

The major item was the bent axle. The idle side wheel took most of the hit, axle bent about 20 degrees. I elected to not try to straighten it, not much way to get it right with removing the axle. will just replace with a boat trailer axle at a later time. The mill will be a fixed setup anyway. The idle side bandwheel enclosure was badly mangled. That sheet metal is TOUGH.  roller guide mechanism was bent a good bit Lots of big hammer, crowbars, etc. I cut a log into 2x2 to check everything out. Straight smooth cuts, everything tracked nicely. This mill has a copy of my pineywoods hydraulics, some minor leaks and bent contols, probably not related to the collision..fixed all that..

[POSTON WIDEHEAD]

Piney, I think you did a really great job!  8)