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A visit with Tom Heidlage

Started by Bibbyman, April 13, 2008, 06:20:20 PM

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Bibbyman

We met Tom for the first time quite a few years back at the first Wood-Mizer open houses in Mt. Vernon Mo. and enjoyed visiting with him at every open house since. Tom lives just southwest of there. 

We had a lot in common.  Tom had just got a Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super with Command Control and he is running it on a phase converter.  We both have the Lube-Mizer, debaker, etc. and Tom has upgraded to the new super blade guides.  But his mill is equipped with a laser and we don't have that.  His mill has the Simple Setworks were we have the Accuset. (He's thinking of upgrading to the Accuset.)   

Over the years, a lot of other similarities came about.  Tom added a TimberKing dust blower and a hydraulic power pack to run his mill.  He also added a power log deck but instead of getting a store bought one, be adapted a used unit from a circle mill.  It sets on the ground and dumps long onto the loading arms.

To list dissimilar things,  Tom does his own logging.  He buys tracts of timber in his area and has skidders,  skidloader, trucks, etc. to do a proper job of logging.  He seldom does custom sawing and really doesn't promote local sales of lumber.  Right now he's sawing mostly grade oak and resaw cants. 

While Mary and I are a team,  Tom likes to work alone – even logging alone.

Also,  where we have come to depend on the Wood-Mizer resharp program to sharpen our blades,  Tom does his own – even though the Wood-Mizer Resharp service is only about 30 miles away.  He has an older Wood-Mizer sharpener but has recently added a new Wood-Mizer Pro-Series CBN sharpener.  He likes the flexibility of having his own sharpening equipment.

Tom has missed his calling.  He needs to be an industrial designer.  He has converted a barn into a labyrinth of rollers to move and sort everything.  He can process logs to product without lifting or carrying anything.

I'll try to describe his layout.  With pictures it may come clear.  The barn, now sawshed,  is of conventional gable construction.  The main bay is say 16' wide by 50' long.  The mill sets across the bay in the middle of the barn.  On each side of the main bay are sheds about 16' wide.  The "driver's end" of the mill sticks into the left bay.  Tom says he's limited to a max log length of 16' and then he has to bring it in turned at an angle.

In front of the mill is the log deck.  I didn't get the length but I'd guess it's about 16' long.  Behind the mill Tom has a set of roller (see picture).  Once he has the grade knocked off the log,  he breaks down the cant into a RR tie or resaw cants.  He can lift the cants with the roller toe boards and then slide them off onto the tracks.  The cants just keep rolling down and backing up until the track is full.

About half way down these rollers,  Tom has a stop gate he can flip up to sort out RR ties.  With the gate up,  the tie will fall onto a narrow set of roller where it can be rolled to the left where it is kicked onto another set of rollers.  Not only that but he can push the RR tie one way to accumulate 5 8' ties or another way to accumulate 5 9' ties – thus once they fill this set of racks, they are in batches of 5 and can be fork lifted out and stacked.

If the product is a resaw cant, it continues on down the main set of rollers.  Once it's full,  Tom can start pushing them to the right on a set of rollers.  Down this set, he has waiting racks of the various sizes of cants.  He has rollers on the side of the set of roll case so all he has to do is pivot the cant and pushes it onto the right stack.

Slabs, flitches and lumber come off the "driver's end" of the mill by using the dragback.  Tom has added to the mill his own dragback guide assembly.  He used a 40" section of medium weight 2" angle iron to hold the dragback fingers.  He drilled and tapped two 3/8" holes in the motor mount frame to mount the angle.  The dangle down guides are parts from the Wood-Mizer LT70 design.  He says it works well.  (I'm ready for a mod.  ;D )

Anyway,  everything falls on a Wood-Mizer outfeed table.  Tom has added a few features to the table so it catches the stuff better.   The slabs are pivoted and pushed into a slab rack to his right.   Flitches are ran though the Morgan edger just behind him.  This model of Morgan edger will take flitches up to I'd guess 30" or more wide.  This gives him room to just run the boards through the right side of the edger and miss the blades.  Tom said he's limited to 12' long boards with this setup.

The boards and edgings fall on a table about a foot off the floor in the left bay.  Once the table is full, Tom stops and rolls the lumber down more roller track and slides them onto the appropriate stacks.

Basically,  Tom has it setup where he can stand at the Command Control center and saw about 500 bf without moving from the small area.  Then he stops and clears everything up and starts again.

Tom is a frequent guest on the Forestry Forum.  It'd be an asset if he'd join in.

Thanks Tom for the visit. 



This is the back side of Tom's mill setup. About where Mary is standing is a flip-up gate that Tom can set catch RR ties. From here he can roll a RR tie to the left side of the shed (behind Mary) and sort them into 8' or 9' groups.



This angle is more to the right side where the resaw cants are collected and then progressed to the right and onto stacks.



This is the rollers going out the right of the shed. Tom explaining to Mary how he can push resaw cants down this set of rollers and then sort them into stacks. He just pivots them off the edge. A rooler on the edge of the set of rollers helps move them to the stack.



Tom build his own dragback guide assembly. He used a 40" section of angle iron. It's bolted to the motor mount. The fingers are stock Wood-Mizer LT70 parts.



Tom stands behind his Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 mill and edges flitches with his Morgan edger right behind him. Boards that don't need edged are pushed through the edger on the left side where they clear the blades.



Tom is explaining how his slab rack works. From his sawing station, he drags back the slab and pivots it from the table onto the bar on the front edge of the rack and then pushes it in. Since he uses a fork lift to dump the slabs that has mimimum tip, he has designed a rack that is self dumping. The rack is hinged so by tipping it a little, it will self dump.



Tom sharpens his own blades. He's used the old reliable WM sharpener for years but recently got one of the Pro series CBN sharpeners from Wood-Mizer





Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

Greg Cook

That is some more set-up! Thanks for taking the time to share your visit.  And you're right, Tom does need to jump in here and be a part of the Forum.  Hint, hint, Tom :)


Greg

"Ain't it GOOD to be alive and be in TENNESSEE!" Charlie Daniels

sparks

I want to clarify. This sharpener is not the Pro series we sell. This is a Poland built unit that we sold but no longer sell in the states. The one listed in our catalog is the one we sell.
\"America will never be destroyed from the outside. If we falter and lose our freedoms, it will be because we destroyed ourselves.\" Abraham Lincoln

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