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Older woodmizer extensions

Started by uler3161, May 29, 2013, 08:50:33 PM

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uler3161

I was hoping someone could give me an idea whether a 12 foot extension off of a 93 LT40HD would fit a 89LT40HD. There's one for sale locally and I'd like to know whether it would fit before I buy it or whether it's possible to do any modifications to make it fit. Thanks.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

beenthere

Welcome to the Forestry Forum.

If an answer doesn't show up with very knowledgable forum members, then a call to WM should get you a good answer.
Some here have added extensions, and made a handy drill jig to align a pin to make them fit near perfect.

Have you found any of these threads talking about doing this? If not already, and the search function isn't giving you help, we can try to do some searching for you.

Pull up a stump, and let's talk some.  8)
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

Magicman

I have no answer for you, but Welcome to the Forestry Forum.
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

uler3161

Thanks for the welcoming. I've read the forum for a few years, but this was the first time I needed some help.

I have researched extensions here in the forum before, but I don't remember if anyone was discussing older mills and extensions.

I'm ok with doing some fab work to make it fit. Just want to know what I'd be getting myself into.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

thecfarm

uler3161,welcome to the forum. Must have plans to saw long??  How many years sawing?
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

uler3161

Quote from: thecfarm on May 29, 2013, 09:28:30 PM
uler3161,welcome to the forum. Must have plans to saw long??  How many years sawing?

I've had the idea in my head to do a timber frame cabin some day, so yes I do have plans to saw some long stuff. We haven't really had anyone ask us to cut long though.

As for years sawing, I've helped my dad since about the time he got his LT40 and I think he bought that in 1990. For me running the saw, I've probably been doing that on and off since around 2000.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

pineywoods

Probably will fit, but it's a royal pain to get the rails aligned and more trouble to keep them aligned. Here's a fix courtesy of member slingshot that corrects that problem.



  

 
 

  

 

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1995 Wood Mizer LT 40, Liquid cooled kawasaki,homebuilt hydraulics. Homebuilt solar dry kiln.  Woodmaster 718 planner, Kubota M4700 with homemade forks and winch, stihl  028, 029, Ms390
100k bd ft club.Charter member of The Grumpy old Men

uler3161

Quote from: pineywoods on May 29, 2013, 10:18:37 PM
Probably will fit, but it's a royal pain to get the rails aligned and more trouble to keep them aligned. Here's a fix courtesy of member slingshot that corrects that problem.

I figured it would be a pain to get aligned.

I guess I'm also worried about whether there were any changes between the years that would make it incompatible. For instance, will a brand new extension fit an old mill like mine? If not, what year did they change?
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

MM

You need to call WM. At one time extensions were made mill specific. I don't remember what year that changed. I'm thinking it will work. But, I've been wrong a couple times today. :)
M.L. Morrow
812/614-1825

uler3161

Quote from: MM on May 29, 2013, 11:33:46 PM
You need to call WM. At one time extensions were made mill specific. I don't remember what year that changed. I'm thinking it will work. But, I've been wrong a couple times today. :)

I had heard something about this, that's why I was wondering so much. Looks like a call to WM is in order. Thanks.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

eric3793

I asked the WM reps the same question when I attended the May 17th expo in Maine.  Our '84 LT30 is good for 16' and it sure would be handy to make longer beams.  Woodmizer cannot provide extensions for the earlier mills.  They began standardizing the frames about 8 years ago so newer extensions will work on late model mills.

I would think that fabrication of an extension would not be to difficult.  The critical dimension would be the distance between the upper and lower carrying rods.  I have considered making a 10' extension from stock materials with a custom inner sleeve to slide into the existing tube beam about 12" or so.  This would take care of the alignment issue.  Just random thoughts here.
84 LT30 and lots of Stihl saws.

thecfarm

eric3793,welcome to the forum. I went to the show too. Sorry I misssed ya. Maybe in 2015.  :D
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

Magicman

I also missed you on the 9th eric3793.  Welcome to the Forestry Forum.   :)
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

uler3161

Quote from: eric3793 on May 30, 2013, 06:22:20 AM
I asked the WM reps the same question when I attended the May 17th expo in Maine.  Our '84 LT30 is good for 16' and it sure would be handy to make longer beams.  Woodmizer cannot provide extensions for the earlier mills.  They began standardizing the frames about 8 years ago so newer extensions will work on late model mills.

I would think that fabrication of an extension would not be to difficult.  The critical dimension would be the distance between the upper and lower carrying rods.  I have considered making a 10' extension from stock materials with a custom inner sleeve to slide into the existing tube beam about 12" or so.  This would take care of the alignment issue.  Just random thoughts here.

Just got off the phone with WM and it seems that the distance between the rods would be the thing to look at. It sounded like they standardized it sometime in '91.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

uler3161

Had some phone conversations with the seller. The rails on the tube are 10 inches apart center to center. It'll probably be saturday before I'm around my mill to measure. I would imagine the seller measured with a tape, so it might not be super accurate. I have a set of 12 inch calipers to use. If I'm anywhere close, I'll visit this guy and see what a caliper reading is.

Any idea how much difference could be allowed? I'm thinking if the top rail is matched perfectly and the bottom one is off, the mill head would pivot once it got to the extension and would no longer be cutting parallel to the bed. But I wonder if a little bit of difference wouldn't matter much.

Assuming I can come to the conclusion that this will work, any idea what a fair price is? This is a 12 foot extension and I'm going to guess it's as old as his mill, which is a '93. He's asking $1700 which he says is half what a new one costs. I believe the WM configurator shows the price if you order it with a mill as being $3195. I don't know what shape this is in, but I saw a pretty nice 24 foot extension on craigslist for $2000, so maybe he's a bit high?
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

uler3161

By the way, I want to thank everyone for the help. It's much appreciated.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

isawlogs

Quote from: uler3161 on May 30, 2013, 06:24:42 PM
Any idea how much difference could be allowed? I'm thinking if the top rail is matched perfectly and the bottom one is off, the mill head would pivot once it got to the extension and would no longer be cutting parallel to the bed. But I wonder if a little bit of difference wouldn't matter much.

None, there can not be any difference, the head wont move over the lower rod if it is lower, lower bearings will just bump into the rod.
  Mesure from rod to rod outside not center to center,.
A man does not always grow wise as he grows old , but he always grows old as he grows wise .

   Marcel

eric3793

Quote from: thecfarm on May 30, 2013, 07:19:23 AM
eric3793,welcome to the forum. I went to the show too. Sorry I misssed ya. Maybe in 2015.  :D

Thanks for the welcome. It was a great show this year and the Woodmizer folks were outstanding.  My wife and I try to attend each year and we still miss the sawmill shootouts.  I still have visions of that new LT40...

If I tackle my extension project I will update the forum.
84 LT30 and lots of Stihl saws.

thecfarm

I only saw one shoot out and I did not know what was going on at that time.   ::)  That was before I knew about the forum. Ever go to the WM dealer here in Chesterville,I'm only 10-15 mintues away. They had an open house a few months ago.
Model 6020-20hp Manual Thomas bandsaw,TC40A 4wd 40 hp New Holland tractor, 450 Norse Winch, Heatmor 400 OWB,YCC 1978-79

eric3793

Quote from: thecfarm on May 31, 2013, 07:13:15 AM
I only saw one shoot out and I did not know what was going on at that time.   ::)  That was before I knew about the forum. Ever go to the WM dealer here in Chesterville,I'm only 10-15 mintues away. They had an open house a few months ago.

The shootouts were cool and a Thomas mill won their class one of the years we attended.  It was more of an Olympic effort as I recall...loading/turning logs with brute strength and lots of sweat.  Woodmizer won their share of contests too. 

The Chesterville dealer got me all excited about the new LT40...very nice folks.  Hydraulics and 21' capability would be a nice upgrade but for now I think I will just make an extension for our old LT30.  It's just a hobby and we only saw about 4K feet a year for odd projects around home and camp.
84 LT30 and lots of Stihl saws.

haywire woodlot

I went and looked at a 1988 year extension on one of the neighbouring islands, to see if it would fit my 1992 lt40. It would not fit, as the distance between the upper and lower rails was not the same. Gary at WM in Salmon Arm told me a quick way to tell, was if there was a space between the upper rail and the main tube. As I understand it after '91 all of the steel tube used to make the main fore and aft tube was of a constant spec, so no space between the tube and rail. Before '91 tube came from different suppliers so the distance between rails was not always constant. On a mill manufactured before '91 the gap between the top rail and tube is great enough to almost slip a dime into. So what I came to understand from this, was that all mills (lt40, 30) post 1991 had interchangeable extensions, before that its more of a roll the dice proposition.
Dave

uler3161

Quote from: haywire woodlot on May 31, 2013, 09:54:56 PM
On a mill manufactured before '91 the gap between the top rail and tube is great enough to almost slip a dime into.

Thanks for the description. I didn't realize they varied that much on the earlier mills. I don't have any gap on my mill.

I just got back from looking at the extension. It's in pretty nice shape. I'm not even sure if he ever had it hooked up.

Before I went up there, I measured the distance (outside to outside) of the rails of my mill and had him do the same on the extension. We were both 10 inches. But to be more accurate, I did some measuring using digital calipers when I got to his place. I'm pretty confident that it will be a good fit, so I'm going to go for it.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

Magicman

Sounds like your homework has checked out, so on to the next step.   ;D  Hopefully you will make pictures of your progress.    :)
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

Jim_Rogers

In this thread:
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,57707.msg838786.html#msg838786

I show a step by step way I drilled out my bed and bed extension to use the "pin" alignment system to attach the bed and extension.

I don't know for sure, but I think Stephen1 still has the jig. You could ask him if he's done with it and he could ship it to you. It's a loaner tool that we should keep passing on to those who need it.

Jim Rogers
Whatever you do, have fun doing it!
Woodmizer 1994 LT30HDG24 with 6' Bed Extension

uler3161

Quote from: Jim_Rogers on June 04, 2013, 09:46:07 AM
In this thread:
https://forestryforum.com/board/index.php/topic,57707.msg838786.html#msg838786

I show a step by step way I drilled out my bed and bed extension to use the "pin" alignment system to attach the bed and extension.

I don't know for sure, but I think Stephen1 still has the jig. You could ask him if he's done with it and he could ship it to you. It's a loaner tool that we should keep passing on to those who need it.

Jim Rogers

Thanks. I do plan on trying this, but I think I'm going to try building my own jig. I want to do something a little bit different, so doing my own jig might be better.
1989 LT40HD, WoodMaster 718

Dan

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