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Wood-Mizer

Started by etkoehn, May 06, 2010, 01:39:50 PM

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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.
Farm Boy

Bibbyman

Quote from: etkoehn on May 06, 2010, 01:39:50 PM
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.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

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
Retired US Army, Full Time Sawyer since 2001. 2013 LT40HD Super with 25HP 3 Phase, Command Control with Accuset2. ED26 WM Edger, Ford 3930 w/FEL, Prentice Log Loader. Stihl 311, 170 & Logrite Canthooks. WM Million BF Club Member.

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
Farm Boy

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.  ;D ;D 8) I bet even the oldest WM can be brought back to its new cutting ability with some parts and service.

Don
Lucky to own a WM LT40HDD35, blessed to have a wife that encouraged me to buy it.     Now that\'s true love!
Massey Ferguson 1547 FWD with FEL  06 GMC Sierra 2500HD 4X4 Dozer Retriever Husky 359 20\" Bar  Man, life is getting good!

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 :D 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 $$$$
Farm Boy

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.
Wood-Mizer LT40HDD51-WR Wireless, Kubota L48, Honda Rincon 650, TJ208 G-S, and a 60"LogRite!

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.
the experts think i do things wrong
over 18 million b.f. processed and 7341 happy customers i disagree

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.
ARKANSAWYER

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.

~Chuck~  Cooks Cat Claw sharpener and single tooth setter.  2018 Chevy Silverado and 2021 Subaru Ascent.
With basic mechanical skills and the ability to read you can maintain a Woodmizer  LT40!

etkoehn

Thanks for all the comments. I knew I would get all you woodmizer fans to comment :)
Farm Boy

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
Timberking B20  18000  hours +  Case75xt grapple + forks+8" snow bucket + dirt bucket   770 Oliver   Lots(too many) of chainsaws, Like the Echo saws and the Stihl and Husky     W5  Case loader   1  trailers  Wright sharpener     Suffolk  setter Volvo MCT125c skid loader

Bibbyman

Quote from: ladylake on May 06, 2010, 07:53:02 PM
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...
Wood-Mizer LT40HDE25 Super 25hp 3ph with Command Control and Accuset.
Sawing since '94

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




Farm Boy

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
Thirty plus years in the sawmill/millwork business. A sore back and arthritic fingers to prove it!

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 ??
Knothole Sawmill, LLC     '98 Wood-Mizer LT40SuperHydraulic   WM Million BF Club Member   WM Pro Sawyer Network

It's Weird being the Same Age as Old People

Never allow your "need" to make money to exceed your "desire" to provide quality service.....The Magicman

Brucer

Quote from: ladylake on May 06, 2010, 07:53:02 PM
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.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

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
Timberking B20  18000  hours +  Case75xt grapple + forks+8" snow bucket + dirt bucket   770 Oliver   Lots(too many) of chainsaws, Like the Echo saws and the Stihl and Husky     W5  Case loader   1  trailers  Wright sharpener     Suffolk  setter Volvo MCT125c skid loader

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.
Woodmizer LT40SH W/Command Control; 51HP Cat, Memphis TN.

Papa1stuff

Some one had an allumnium WM mill on here awhile ago ,wonder what became of that?
1987 PB Grader with forks added to bucket
2--2008 455 Rancher Husky
WM CBN Sharpener & Setter

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

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?
Farm Boy

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