One year Report on the LT70

[Percy]

Just realized I been fulltime sawin for a year now and havent swallowed the big onion yet. Mebey its gonna work out. Anyhow, here is what Ive learned about the LT70 and a history of any problems Ive had with it in the last year.

I had a 1996 LT40 prior to the LT70 and had learned how to break down logs and cut quite efficiently with it. The first 60 hours on the new mill were tense to say the least. The Accuset and the speed at which this mill worked at compared to my old one was intimidating and I had to learn all over again as the only familiar thing between my old mill and my new one was they were both orange. That being said, I have no regrets and if I could sell everything that I could cut in an 8 hour day, everyday, I would make  good money with this mill. Marketing is not my strong point but thats another topic.

Things I like about the LT70. ;D

The board dragback is fantastic. If you have some sort of material handling(I have a home made incline conveyor) you can butcher a log up in short order without taking a step.

The log turner took some getting used to but it rules along with the vertical uprights. turning in both directions is a  time saver, especially on small logs.

The Accuset is  a monster for time saving. With all the tips I picked up from Bibby and a few that I conjured up my self, lookieloo's are scratchin their heads saying "How the  heck you do that??"

The factory installed debarker and Lubmizer are very usefull, specially the debarker. It seems to be more accurate that the one I installed on the old mill..heh.


The bigger band wheels do give me longer blade life. I use 10 degree .050X1.5 blades for just about everything. They last as long or longer than the .045's did on the old mill. Blade changes are much easier/quicker on the 70.



Things I miss from the old LT40.

Log/cant turning. On the Lt40, you can only turn in one direction, but by design or luck, turning a cant, cleans the bunks off automatically usually. The turner on the 70, while much faster/easier on the wood, does not clean bark/sawdust off the bunks as the log/cant is lifted off them for turning. Ive had a few thin bottom boards cause Ive missed bark trapped under the cant.

The "Feel" Factor.
I guess this would apply to any remote mill but it is easy to push this 70 too fast. When I walked along with the LT40, you could hear/feel the optim cutting speed/watch the light reflect off the blade etc and not worry about wavy cuts. I am learning how to "feel" the 70 but it requires all your attention when cutting knotty Spruce/dry cedar. The birch, well I havent found the maximum feed rate as this mill cuts hardwood strait at  incredibly fast feed rates. You can smoke thru pine too.



Things that have broke on the mill.
June 2003...Alternator calfed. Haddda new one on warranty in two days.
July 2003....The belt tensioner for the autoclutch broke, needed welding. Lost an hour and a half. WM offered to pay for welding.
August...Acuuset and mosfet panel went wonkey. Did an Accuset upgrade and replaced Mosfet and Accuset panels in one fell swoop. Was able to cut but everything was manual and would glitch every so often. having to reset computer by shutting down for a couple of seconds.
October..Air breather container  spotweld let go. Got a whole new Airbreather with element on warranty.

Thats about it.

If I had to do it over again, now that there is a 62 hp cat available, Idda got even though I have never bogged the 42 hp. The LT70 is a serious mill, cost lots of money, but is very dependable, very tough, easy to maintain and if you can sell everything it cuts, you can make money with it. I may have put the cart before the horse when I bought this mill but it looks like things are comming around with our sawmlling group. Just gotta get a reliable supply of good logs to keep the 70 munchin............. ;D

[Jeff]

Thanks for the report Percy!

[EZ]

Sounds good Percy, glad your happy with it. Have you sawn any 30 or 35 inches with it. I have seen alot of the bigger mills saw but I have'nt seen any saw the bigger logs. As you probably know I have a 16 hp on mine and with a 30 or 35 inch hardwood its really slow going. Maybe one of these days I'll see a big mill rip and tare.  ;D Thanks for your update.
EZ

[D._Frederick]

Percy,

You didn't say anything about the WM new style blade guides, do you think they allowed you to increase sawing speed? How have they held-up, how much wear do they show after a year?
Have you got the bugs out of the Accuset, does it work OK in the cold? Any problems with the Kobota diesel operating in the cold? Are you using No. 1 diesel during the could season?

[Percy]

Percy,

You didn't say anything about the WM new style blade guides, do you think they allowed you to increase sawing speed? How have they held-up, how much wear do they show after a year?
Have you got the bugs out of the Accuset, does it work OK in the cold? Any problems with the Kobota diesel operating in the cold? Are you using No. 1 diesel during the could season?

Heya D Frederick
The new guides work as good as the old ones that have the bottom ceramic support. The 70 has a roller and a ceramic sandwich affair that the blade fits into. After a year, I replaced the two ceramics on the movable arm as they take a beating when the blades break. The one roller on the movable arm likes to clog up with sawdust when using lots of water, same as the ones on my LT40. The rollers are still within tolerances after a year so the ceramic sandwiches help in that regard.. The sawing speed is faster, yes, but Im using thicker blades so that may be the reason. Again, allthough my mill is used mostly cutting softwoods, whenever I cut Hardwood(Birch) the feed rate goes way up, I can use .045 blades and cut strait as an arrow at feed rates well in excess of 1 foot per second(took eight seconds to cut a 10 foot birch, around 12 inch cut width, from one end to the other).

THe Accuset bugs are gone with the upgrade. This winter however, I thought I had a problem as at about -10 Celcius, the up/down and feed wouldnt work. After talkin to WM about it, they explained that there is a solonoid that controls the aformention functions that likes to stick in cold weather. This is due to the fact that they have installed a resistor in the line leading to the solonoid dropping the voltage/amps whatever to make it last longer. Very easy accsess to this solonoid. I just breath on it for a couple of seconds when it is very cold(-10C) and it works. I may remove the resistor but mebey it will burn out sooner. Depends how much it annoys me in the cold weather ;D
The Kubota is flawless. I cant say enuff nice things about this motor. One day this winter I had to cut a few pieces for this guy when it was around -20 C. It started like it does in the summer.  It has a preheater for the air so if you have enuff battery, it will most always start. Ive never had a situation wher I said "I wish I had more power". The dinky little terbo is so cute :D :D. In the cold weather, they(fuel depots) just automatically blend for the current weather, that being said, I have never noticed a difference in power, winter or summer.

[D._Frederick]

Percy,

Forget to ask about how WM hydraualics work in the cold, do you have enough current between the battery and the alternator to run the hydraualics at full speed? Do you pre heat the hydraualic oil or change it for summer and winter operation?

I would say that you had a very cheap mill to run a whole year with what sounds like only losing alternator would prevent you from sawing. I guess you couldn't ask for better when reading  other people major problem with other brands of mills.

[Percy]

Percy,

Forget to ask about how WM hydraualics work in the cold, do you have enough current between the battery and the alternator to run the hydraualics at full speed? Do you pre heat the hydraualic oil or change it for summer and winter operation?

I would say that you had a very cheap mill to run a whole year with what sounds like only losing alternator would prevent you from sawing. I guess you couldn't ask for better when reading  other people major problem with other brands of mills.

To be honest, I never changed oil in the hydralics from summer to winter or versa visa(thats visa versa, visa versa :D). The hydralics slow abit in the cold weather at startup  but as the day wears on, the oil warms  and  its workin regular.

Yes, this mill is workin better than I thought it would. There are so many electric over hydralic switches, cables, connectors to the computer head yaddayadd that I thought there would be glitches with switches(hey that rhymes) all the time. Im pretty anal about maintenace and I dont like being rough with any equipment....BUT...sometimes I goof up and the mill takes the whack without as much as a wimper. I have yet to do an alignment of any sort really as its still running factory true. Not to diss my old LT40 but the 70 has much better access to most all of its components than my old unit.

One problem I forgot to mention in my first post was the drive belt. When the tensioner broke, it ate the drive belt pretty bad. I was able to keep working but the three row belt was a two row..heh. I got a new belt for free on warranty. About 300 hours later, the drive belt was on its last legs. Shudda lasted way longer, Woodmizer told me to check the pulley alignment and sure enuff, it was outa wack bigtime. About 5 miniutes with the motormount bolts had the problem fixed. They gave me another belt on warranty...my bad really as I didnt check alignment the first time.

I got the equipment now that will do the job. I just need to get the ALL the lumber I cut moving quickly. Then I should be doing quite well really. Ive managed a year and the wife is thinkin that this is a good job for me ;D .  

[Percy]

Sounds good Percy, glad your happy with it. Have you sawn any 30 or 35 inches with it. I have seen alot of the bigger mills saw but I have'nt seen any saw the bigger logs. As you probably know I have a 16 hp on mine and with a 30 or 35 inch hardwood its really slow going. Maybe one of these days I'll see a big mill rip and tare.  ;D Thanks for your update.
EZ

Heya EZ
I have sawn a few 36 inchers with the 70, actually some larger, but the ones over 36 inch look like stop signs cause you have to whittle them to a managable size.

I thot you were gonna put a  second motor on that unit??

[EZ]

I was going to, had the holes drilled for the motor to mount, set the motor up on it and my wife notice the spark plug on the 16 hp was to low to get to it. I would have to pull the motor off to change that one plug. : :( Now I'm just waiting for that 16 hp to give up so I can buy a bigger motor. ;D
EZ