Adding more hydraulics to a mill

[Engineer]

Got a card in the mail today from Wood-Mizer; Dave Scott and crew from WM New York are apparently going to be at the Vermont State Fair demoing the LT40 Super, the LT15 and the new LT10. 

Anyway, the card has a picture of the LT70 on the front, and the photo got me to thinking (which could be dangerous).  Why haven't any of the mill manufacturers done anything with hydraulics yet on some of the things that seem to be logical uses of them?  Specifically, ditch the chain-driven head raising mechanism for a hydraulic system, and also get rid of the leveling legs in favor of hydraulic outriggers. 

On second thought - maybe the head raise/lower might not be such a great idea.  If you have a leaky cylinder, the head would lower by itself in tiny increments and throw off your scale.    But how about hydralulic outriggers?  Like a backhoe.  Sure, you'd have to have a pump running, but think how easy it would be to level up the mill.    It's a pain to level my old LT30 manually, requires a lot of physical effort and occasionally diggng a hole or shimming.

[Gilman]

$   for the hyd's on the head and outriggers  :(

It would also be hard to get a non telescoping cylinder to fit somewhere with how much distance the head travels up and down.

[Bibbyman]

Our old manual LT40 wasn't that bad to level.  If you followed a sequence and had the head at the opposite end you were trying to lift.

The 96 LT40HDG35 Super was a lot heavier and took quite a bit more effort.

I'd think something like a railroad jack would take a lot of the effort out of lifting the mill.  You could still use the manual out riggers.

Maybe a body could tap in to the HD system with a couple of quick couplers and have one hydraulic jack you could move around from corner to corner to lift the mill - rather than a whole gang of them mounted permanently.

The chain drive head system hasn't given me any trouble.  What would be the advantage of using hydraulics?   I could see one problem right off - the pump(s) on the WM are located on the frame.  You'd have to have hoses that stretched with the head moving back and forth.  I've seen mills set up that way with the hoses dangling overhead.   Others are in cable tracks. Not a neat arrangement.

[Buzz-sawyer]

I am powering my project with hydraulic motor on the head and carriage..using cable

[WH_Conley]

The hydraulic head could be very dangerous. If a hose busted while the head was up it's gonna be on the bottom instantly. I had a hose bust on a round hay baler while the door was up, you wouldn't beleive how fast that thing came down. I think I read somewhere that is why WM went with the double roller chain on the head.

[Dan_Shade]

you could put the safety valves like cranes and such have in them to attempt to keep the boom from dropping that fast.

of course i have no idea what it's called, i'm an electrical guy.  But i know with my mile marker winch, there's a little disc with a small hole in it that keeps the winch from turning when it doesn't have pressure on it.

[WH_Conley]

That would be a velosity valve. Lower flow rate than the line capacity. But still, if you were working under the saw head for some reason you might not be able to get out of the way. Cribbing the head up would be the safe thing to do in this situation, but I think we are all prone to get in a hurry sometimes.