Wood-Mizer

[etkoehn]

Question to woodmizer owners.
 Since it they are cantilever design do they ever get out of align when they get older?
If I end up getting a used sawmill it will probably be a woodmizer and that is one thing that i'm kinda worried about.

[Bibbyman]

Question to woodmizer owners.
 Since it they are cantilever design do they ever get out of align when they get older?
If I end up getting a used sawmill it will probably be a woodmizer and that is one thing that i'm kinda worried about.

Not to worry.  Old Wood-Mizers never die.  They just get new owners.  Wood-Mizer supports every mill and mill owner with service and parts.

I don’t think there is a mill that has been invented since the pit saw that never needs some alignment after some normal use.

We have nearly 5,000 hours on our 2002 model LT40 and alignments have only occurred after some replacement of some wear items such as blade guide rollers head cam rollers.

 


  
Just yesterday I replace the upper cam rollers that support the head traveling down the rail.  This is the second set in 8 years and about 5,000 hours. (The lower and side cam bearings are original equipment still in fine shape.)  After replacing the cam rollers,  I measured the blade to bed distance and made a correction of 1/8”.   I’ll audit the results of actual sawing and may have to twink an adjustment here and there.

If the mill you buy has been demonstrated to be well maintained and in good working order you should have no worries.  If in doubt about the condition and adjustment, then Wood-Mizer offers maintenance packages that will get your mill in good working order.

[wwsjr]

Let me preface the following with the fact that my reply is personal opinion and experience, not company ads. I have owned 3 WM mills. I have only about 1900 hrs on the one I am running now (LT40 Super Hyd with 51 Cat and Remote). If the maintenance schedule is followed with checks on 50 hr interval as recommended, I do not think you will have a problem. If the bearings the head has above and below the rail are checked and replaced as needed, I have not had any problem. I did not look at my my maint log, but I think I replaced one cam follower bearing at about 1500 hrs. I have never had to adjust the head more than 1/16" to stay within the recommended 1/32" tolerance from bed rails.

Just my 2 cents worth.

Willie

[etkoehn]

That's good to know. I just wasn't to sure about the cantilever. Personally i like the four post design. It looks more sturdy.
But  I cant find any used ones near by for the right price. But there are more woodmizers closer to me for a better price. From pictures some look a little rough. As long as they are not bent up in way that cant be fixed I figure i would replace all the parts that would be needed.
Thanks bibbyman
Thanks Willie

[Don K]

WM's are notorious for looking rough. They would benefit from buying a paint that has some of the UV stabilizers that my company makes in it. It is in all car paints. I have a fairly new mill and keep it parked under a shed, but alas I know one day it will look  like a washed out rag.     But I know it will still cut like a champ.  I bet even the oldest WM can be brought back to its new cutting ability with some parts and service.

Don

[etkoehn]

"WM's are notorious for looking rough. " haha

Hey i like this
"Lucky to own a WM LT40HDD35, blessed to have a wife that encouraged me to buy it.     Now that\'s true love!"
 
 My wife has been encouraging me in my sawmill obsession. Only thing, she is expensive to feed No seriously she is. She has a few health problems right now she can only eat meat some fruits and berries. She is allergic to a lot of food and we try to buy organic or as natural as we can. So takes me a little longer to save some $$$$

[Dave Shepard]

I view the cantileaver head as an advantage. You can get a lot of weird stuff sawn up with one side being open.

[gator gar]

What I like about the Woodmizer brand.......Well, I like everything about the Woodmizer brand. But, concerning, let's say the bed rails are out of alignment. You can adjust them back in alignment if you have to. In other words you have that option. Alot of the other mills bedrails are welded to the frame and if they are worn over the years, they are just worn and that is that. You need a torch, a grinder, or something to cut that portion off and weld another one on there. In my opinion, Woodmizer has it down to a science and most everything can be adjusted, one way or another, with some tools out of your tool box.

Again..... I'm just partial to WM sawmills.

Mark

[red oaks lumber]

my first bandmill was a 4 post design, put 3500 hrs. on it was alot to keep it adjusted.
 second mill was 2005 wm lt40 super sold it with 3700 hrs. on it was easy to keep adjusted. tommorrow going to pickup new wm lt 40 super.
 most any mill can be brought back to good shape but, and its a big BUT, some have been rode extremly hard and would cost to much to be reliable, and in the end cost you more to maintain than you could ever get back in production.
 just my pockets of saw dust.

[ARKANSAWYER]

  Yes every once in a while you have to adjust them.  Mine has been drug over 300,000 miles and just has over 11,000 hrs on it and will saw just as good as the day I got it 9 years ago.  I am a thinking you can wear one out but have not gotten there yet.

[Chuck White]

The alignment for the Wood-Mizer sawmills is actually rather simple and step-by-step.

The owner/operator's manual contains all of the alignment procedures.

Just start at the begining of the alignment section and go through the entire alignment process.  It doesn't take very long.

I've had my mill for two years now, and when I shut down for the winter, I park it in the back bay of my garage and through the course of the winter, I go through the whole alignment process.  Like I said, it doesn't take very long.

Once you get the alignment done, you'll have minimal alignment to do from that point on.
If you change parts, that can make a difference too.

[etkoehn]

Thanks for all the comments. I knew I would get all you woodmizer fans to comment

[ladylake]

 Seems like the track that the cam rollers roll on  would wear just as much as the rollers where it's used the most, is that replaceable.  No adjustments at all on my B20 in over 7000 hours except for guide rollers and band tracking...    Steve

[Bibbyman]

Seems like the track that the cam rollers roll on  would wear just as much as the rollers where it's used the most, is that replaceable.  No adjustments at all on my B20 in over 7000 hours except for guide rollers and band tracking...    Steve

I think on some of the older units the rod the roller rides on was maybe softer metal then what they’ve used for many years now.  If there has been any wear on the rods on our mill I can’t see it.   The rollers have a circumference of about 3” or a little more.  The track is something like 24’ long.  So each trip,  the little cam bearing goes around …. Errr…  a bunch of times.  So even if it wears at an equal rate, it would be something like 3”/24’ ratio.  I think…

[etkoehn]

Here is an add a few hours from where i Live. Any other ideas on some questions i could ask him?

I am selling my woodmizer Bandsaw mill it is an older mill but runs fine it has a 16hp motor , Electric advance and return. Mill will cut a 16’ log and about a 32” wide log. I thought it would be very cool to have one but just don’t have time to mill right now in my life. $5000 OBO. I will send pic's later when I get home.

P.S. I think it;s a LT-30 or 35

Here are some responses to some question I asked him

works just fine. It's an early 80's mill I still haven't checked the hours I keep forgetting to . The motor was replaces a few years back and works great.

It has 38 hours on it. That's after the new motor was put on it. I don't know how many total hrs

Here are some photo's of it

[ellmoe]

   Kind of strange. I believed I just looked at the same photos in the gallery of a new member from the UK. Hmmmm.

Mark

[Slingshot]

    ellmoe;
                    That gallery link you punch in on the uk new member is not actually his
              gallery. It is bringing up a portion of galleries of random members. Some of
              my pictures were in it earlier today.   


  ______________________________
     Charles

[Magicman]

And I just saw pictures in my gallery there ??

[Brucer]

Seems like the track that the cam rollers roll on  would wear just as much as the rollers where it's used the most, is that replaceable.

I've tried to cut my track with a chainsaw -- no luck, not a scratch. I've locked the carriage in place with a couple pair of vice-grips (a WM rep told me to) -- not a mark. On the newer machines that rail is hard.

[ladylake]

 It's good that WM uses a hardened rail with all of the pressure on it. if it wore at all that would be hard at adjust out.   Steve

[gator gar]

The second post on his thread, shows you how hard that rail is. It also shows that the roller is pretty hard too, after 5000 hours, just not as hard as that rail it rides down on. There is a man named Bobby, in Cleveland texas that has the ARK lumber company and he saws with a Woodmizer that honestly would show that they never die. It has an electric motor on it and it sits out in the elements. This machine has basically just rusted to pieces and he saws on it still to this day. When i saw his mill, i was like what in the world??? How this mill runs and still saws lumber is beyond me, but it does and it still cuts. I couldn't believe it.

[Chris Burchfield]

A Wood-Mizer mill will get old.  But with replacement parts available at the other end of your keyboard or phone, the company is great when it comes to support.  I attended the 25 year celebration held at Will's in Missouri a couple of years back.  The tour included the first mill Wood-Mizer sold.  The company bought it back and refurbished it.  The picture just doesn't do it justice.

[Papa1stuff]

Some one had an allumnium WM mill on here awhile ago ,wonder what became of that?

[Bibbyman]

Way back in 1981 when Don Lakowski and Dan Tekulve came up with what is today’s Wood-Mizer mill, they didn’t know that people would be sawing a 100,000 bf a year on one of their mills.  Or people would use them day in and day out.  (I wonder how many million board foot club names are on the wall in Indy now?)

I have heard the Wood-Mizer maintenance guys tell about Wood-Mizer mills with worn rods.  The problem wasn’t that they were worn but that they tended to be worn in the middle section where the head moved the most.  So you could adjust the wear out in the middle and then be out of adjustment on the ends of the mill.  They way they fixed it was to grind a little off the top of the rod on the high ends.  Good for another 20 years of sawing.

If I were going to worry about wearing something out,  I’d worry about the mill wearing me out instead of me wearing out the mill.   

[etkoehn]

Well that's nice to know that they don't wear out to bad. If that rail did wear out the could always go with a bolt on rail. On a old Newholland baler it has hundreds or guides and rollers. Ok maybe hundreds is a bit of an exaggeration but it has a few and every rail the rollers ride on can be replaces and have to be adjusted with a feeler gauge. So even though it is old it can still push out some real nice looking bales.
 So do you guys have anymore questions is could ask the seller?

[ARKANSAWYER]

  When I got my mill and they sent the WoodMizer Way mag I thought it would take me years to make the 100,000 bdft club.  I was past 100,000 bdft in the first 6 months and with in 4 years had made the 1,000,000 bdft club and thinking they need to start the 5 million bdft club because I will be there soon.  I bet there are some folks ready for the 10 million bdft club.

[ElectricAl]

We a 1993 LT40HDE15. It was the biggest machine from WM at the time.
Now however it's a little light duty compared to the LT70.

Back in 1999 we sawed 550,000 of 5/4 grade White Oak for a German market.
90% of the logs were 20-32" butts. 
The bed rails took a beating but there is plenty of adjustment to keep it accurate.
The constraint pounding would sheer the bolts on the stationary legs.
 
Our main rail is flattened where the rollers go, but again there is plenty of adjustment.


One think to think about when looking at a four post or cantilever is off bearing the lumber.

I had a chance to off bear for a four post portable guy once. That's one task I won't do too much of again. I had to lean over the second rail to get to the lumber. That got old real quick.

[backwoods sawyer]

The bottom rail on my mill had a roller that was froze up when I got it and it looked about like the one Bibbyman is showing. The rail had worn flat and had some sharp spots along it. I talked with woodmizer and they have a grinder that travels up and down the rails to true them up. I scrapped and sanded the rail to clean it up.

If you ask him one question, ask him if you can saw with it before you buy, if he don’t have a log around, find a few, they are easy to come by and you will want some anyway. Feeling how it saws will give you a good idea if it is more then what you want to tackle, or if it will fit your needs. You may want to start rethinking it, if it takes say four hours or so to make the first cut and the saw snakes and anything smokes on the way thru the cut. 

[WH_Conley]

Arky is right, where is he 10 million club?

[Bibbyman]

Arky is right, where is he 10 million club?

Maybe with each million they could make a new name tag and nail it over the old one on the display board and kind of stack them up.  Maybe have some kind of counter like McDonald's … "Billions and Billions Sawed".

[Slingshot]

A Wood-Mizer mill will get old.  But with replacement parts available at the other end of your keyboard or phone, the company is great when it comes to support.  I attended the 25 year celebration held at Will's in Missouri a couple of years back.  The tour included the first mill Wood-Mizer sold.  The company bought it back and refurbished it.  The picture just doesn't do it justice.
(Image hidden from quote, click to view.)

Here is a you-tube video of an early mill that looks like the mill in your picture and it is still sawing
wood. ....... Looks to be working great for 'The Wooden Nicol'............




Some stills of it in this one by The Wooden Nicol;










_____________________

[John S]

I like that trailer/hoist set up that the Wooden Nicol is using.  Wish I was that creative.
John

[Mark K]

My Lt40 is an '87. We bought it from a custom sawyer in the area. Rails had flat spots wore in them and the rollers had to be replaced. Woodmizer has the best service department out of any company we have ever dealt with. We were going to replace it this year when we had a valve drop and embed itself in a piston. Ended up overhauling it and put it back to work in less than a week. Woodmizer found everything to revive the old Onan. I think it will be around when my kids are old enough to run it. Can't kill it.

[Warren]

Well that's nice to know that they don't wear out to bad. If that rail did wear out the could always go with a bolt on rail. On a old Newholland baler it has hundreds or guides and rollers. Ok maybe hundreds is a bit of an exaggeration but it has a few and every rail the rollers ride on can be replaces and have to be adjusted with a feeler gauge. So even though it is old it can still push out some real nice looking bales.
 So do you guys have anymore questions is could ask the seller?

I rebuilt a New Holland 273 square baler a few years ago.  The plunger/shear blade on my baler had 7 rollers to replace and adjust. I would rather adjust a Wood Mizer mill than crawl inside a baler  ANY DAY !

Warren

[Magicman]

I don't think that this is my day to worry too much about him.  Everyone has opinions based on experience.  I'm sure that most mills have strong points and features.  Those same mills may even have weaknesses.  I'm satisfied with my decision.  I'm sure that others are with theirs.