Author Topic: Woodmizer bearing problem? (Read 4302 times)

Chuck White · « **Reply #20 on:** February 21, 2010, 10:34:01 am »

Jim; Just curious. I know you have the LT30 and I have the LT40, but how many hours on the meter on your mill!

Just kinda want to get a feel as to when I may need to change the bearings on my mill. I have 1157 hours on my mill!

thanks

pineywoods · « **Reply #21 on:** February 21, 2010, 10:52:17 am »

Quote from: Chuck White on February 21, 2010, 10:34:01 am

Just kinda want to get a feel as to when I may need to change the bearings on my mill. I have 1157 hours on my mill!

thanks

Bearing life varies all over the place. Generally, stationary mill bearings outlast traveling mills. Likewise the bearings on manual mills seem to last longer than those with hydraulics. Lots of contributing factors. My old 95 lt40 (never been on the road)has 7100 hours and still has the original head support bearings. Both bandwheels have had new bearings. The guide roller bearings have been replaced several times.

Jim_Rogers · « **Reply #22 on:** February 21, 2010, 02:08:52 pm »

Chuck, I think I have over 5100 hours on mine, I'm at home now and can't check meter for sure, but within a 100 hours for sure....

As I had mentioned I have replace the two lower ones and I think the tag on them said 2900 hours or so...

Magicman · « **Reply #23 on:** February 21, 2010, 02:26:08 pm »

Jim, I probably know the answer to this question before I ask it, but do you have an "operators seat" on that mill? I'm just trying to eliminate stuff.

Jim_Rogers · « **Reply #24 on:** February 21, 2010, 02:46:29 pm »

It came with a seat but I haven't use it in many years, maybe I can get it out a rob some bearing off it if they aren't all junk by now......

Magicman · « **Reply #25 on:** February 21, 2010, 03:54:58 pm »

Quote from: Jim_Rogers on February 21, 2010, 08:54:59 am

but it seemed like it was only binding when it was passing over the axle area Jim Rogers

OK, back to the drawing board. How about a few stretched/bad links in the drive chain close to the axle area?
Maybe a dropped slab or cant or something caught the chain and deformed, twisted, or stretched it in some way. Are the rollers free on all of the links?

Jim_Rogers · « **Reply #26 on:** February 21, 2010, 06:08:13 pm »

I was thinking the same thing, I'll have to loosen the end stop and remove the chain and see how it flexes.... in that area.....

woodmills1 · « **Reply #27 on:** February 21, 2010, 06:35:50 pm »

for some reason binding is always worse at the wheel area. every instance I had on the 40 and now on the 70 was worse(slower feed) over the wheels. Jim I think bottem roller or chan idler.

check your band height at the first bunk if the outside of the band is even or lower than the inside I would bet bottem roller

bugger to figger out.

Jim_Rogers · « **Reply #28 on:** February 21, 2010, 06:47:20 pm »

thanks I'll check that out tomorrow.....

LeeB · « **Reply #29 on:** February 21, 2010, 06:58:39 pm »

Take the cover off the battery box and check for a shiny spot. Mine was doing exactly the same thing due to the cover getting bent at some point and catching on a bolt head right at the axle. It was really hard to see and took me a long time to find it. I thought it was bearings too. You might also want to take a wire brush to the rail wiper and clean out some of the old compacted saw dust, then re-oil with ATF.

WH_Conley · « **Reply #30 on:** February 21, 2010, 08:42:59 pm »

Look at the round stock on the side and bottom, there are a couple of bolts that are to make sure the head doesn't jump off. If they are touching anywhere there will be a shiny spot of the round stock.

backwoods sawyer · « **Reply #31 on:** February 21, 2010, 10:25:47 pm »

If you take a 4x4 sticker and stand it up under the travel pin hole, then lower the head down onto it, then lower down some more until the lower bearing are free from the rail, the bearing should turn freely, you can feel an issue with one when spinning it.
Binding at the axles can come from not having enough pressure on the front or rear out rigger when milling.

Magicman · « **Reply #32 on:** February 22, 2010, 09:39:19 am »

Quote from: backwoods sawyer on February 21, 2010, 10:25:47 pm

Binding at the axles can come from not having enough pressure on the front or rear out rigger when milling.

I thought about that last night. With this wet ground, outriggers will "settle" in and the mill could easily become twisted and out of "whack". I had to re-level mine last week after sawing a couple of heavy SYP logs. My operator's seat started dragging on the tire, which was why I questioned if Jim was using one. I had to jack the center outriggers up a notch to re-level.

pineywoods · « **Reply #33 on:** February 22, 2010, 10:46:30 am »

Neighbor up the road had the exact same problem. Battery box dragging on the head of a bolt. Now he remembers dropping a cant on the battery box

backwoods sawyer · « **Reply #34 on:** February 22, 2010, 11:27:41 pm »

I was talking with woodmizer about this problem quite awhile back, so I don’t remember who, but he mentioned that I should check to see if one of the three sets of lower bearings was to tight. I found that my mill only has two sets, even though it was drilled and tapped for the third set.

Jim_Rogers · « **Reply #35 on:** February 23, 2010, 11:12:47 am »

You guys have given me a lot to look at, and I really am thankful for all the help.

Once some more good weather gets here I'll have a chance to lay down under the mill and look at everything going on while it's moving, but I won't be doing that today......

pnyberg · « **Reply #36 on:** February 23, 2010, 05:02:29 pm »

Based on what I'm seeing for a weather forecast for this part of the world, you won't be doing that until some time next week. It's nasty out there.

--Peter

Jim_Rogers · « **Reply #37 on:** April 03, 2010, 08:45:45 am »

Well, it's been a while since I posted anything in this thread.....

After re-setting the mill up in it's usual location, after that last road job, I sawed out two logs for an order of 2 1/8" eastern white pine.

No binding or dragging at all...... made me kind of thing I was loosing it.....

Then about a week went by and when out to saw something else...... and dragging and binding all over again.....

It's been pretty wet up here lately and not doing much sawing, just dealing with sump pumps and don't get me going on that subject at all......

I've been getting calls for road jobs, and got some local orders for some lumber and didn't want to be working and pushing this mill through the logs any more, so Thursday, I called up the Maine branch (and bite the bullet) and ordered 5 new roller bearing for the track as I had one on hand. And the two bearing for the power feed shaft.

Being that I'm in MA and Maine is only about 2.5 hours drive from here most all UPS delivers are overnight.

So yesterday, as sure as it was Friday, my package arrived.

I friend stopped by to see what was up at the mill and after we towed my one ton truck out of the way, because the starter is gone..... it's always something right after you get something else fixed something breaks again......we got out some tools and a nice big piece of plywood (I hate to even say I own one....but I didn't buy it, it was in the back of a pickup truck as a bed liner, when I bought the truck) and a big piece of cardboard to lay down one, over the deck of 1" slab I'm walking on as the ground is quite muddy here lately.....(sump pump weather for sure).....I got down under the mill and changed the two lower bearings.....
The second one I put in wasn't even rubbing the bottom rail after I installed it.... don't know what's up with that.... and then we lifted the head up one by one and changed all four of the upper ones.....

The mill rolls real nice now.... but it did at times before, so I'm not sure if the problem was the bearing or the power feed shaft.
Looking at my parts book I see that the same bearing that the chain rides over next to the power feed shaft sprocket is the same bearing used by the track rollers. So I can use one of the removed used bearings to replace that if and that's a big "IF" the problem is the idler bearing on the chain.

After we got done putting everything back together, it was late afternoon and we moved up four oak logs for the next order. And then stopped everything for the day.

Being that I was up half the night dealing with sump pumps, I was beat.... and went home.

So today, I'm going to go out and try cutting up these oak logs and see how it goes.

By the way each one of the rollers we removed spun fairly ok, one my friend say seem kind of "dry".... I told him the story about soaking them in ATF oil and holding on to them for replacement, which I will probably do...two of them were the oldest on the mill and had the grease fitting on the end of the bolt. And they didn't seem to be that bad.

And I checked the alignment before and after and it seems that the mill was sitting higher by one sixteenth of an inch when we were done. I'm not going to change any alignment settings until I saw out something like and 8x8 and see how it comes out.

I'll post again later or next week when I finally figure out what was wrong, if I can or do....

Thanks for all your advice and suggestions to those who posted....

Jim Rogers......

dry at the moment.......and still pumping water.....

Jim_Rogers · « **Reply #38 on:** April 03, 2010, 03:34:30 pm »

Well, I just cut up an oak log and didn't have any dragging or binding problems. So, it must have been that one dry bearing, I guess.

I have a few more planks to edge but so far so good, rolling down and back nicely.....

Also, I checked the cant and it was 8x8 and it seemed square when I checked it with a framing square so I guess there isn't any fine adjustments I need to make to the alignment....

It is nice when something that wasn't working correctly starts working right.......

Hot out there today, almost need shorts.......

Tom · « **Reply #39 on:** April 03, 2010, 03:49:10 pm »

Don't you love it when things work out so good? It makes the next time not seem so ominous. The more I worked with my LT40 the more I realized what a simple and well thought out thing it was.

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Author Topic: Woodmizer bearing problem? (Read 4302 times)