iDRY Vacuum Kilns

Sponsors:

LT40 Mods...Phase I complete (pics)

Started by D6c, May 20, 2017, 12:21:47 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

D6c

Crossroads,
Congrats on getting a new LT-40...That will be a nice machine. 
It's interesting hearing about what others are sawing.  So much different in other parts of the country.  In the midwest the only cedar we have is eastern red cedar and very few would come close to yielding a 10' 12x12. 

Carson-saws

VERY nice work Sir!  What gauge is that drive chain?
Let the Forest be salvation long before it needs to be

D6c

Quote from: Carson-saws on September 27, 2017, 09:51:17 AM
VERY nice work Sir!  What gauge is that drive chain?

If you mean the feed chain for the carriage I think it's just a #35 chain.  It's part of the factory setup....kind of light but it's never given a problem.  It used to have a loop of chain that ran full length of the mill, but there was an update to change it to a single stationary length of chain.  I think it was a safety issue and the update was to eliminate the moving chain.
The vertical adjustment uses double 35 chains and I did have one of those break once.  Good thing it has two or the head would drop.

Crossroads

Quote from: D6c on September 27, 2017, 09:37:59 AM
Crossroads,
Congrats on getting a new LT-40...That will be a nice machine. 
It's interesting hearing about what others are sawing.  So much different in other parts of the country.  In the midwest the only cedar we have is eastern red cedar and very few would come close to yielding a 10' 12x12.
Thank you. I didn't get it today so, I had to cut the beam with the lt30. The cedar on my place is all incense cedar that someone planted along the highway about 40 years ago. There are about 80 of them that range from 12-36" dia. On the stump, but they're not very tall. I'm lucky to get 5 12' logs out of them. The interesting part is that those trees are what got me started with the sawmill a few years ago. I started with an old mobile dimension that was a loaner and a headache. Then I bought  the lt30. Got tired of cleaning up the mess on my place so, I went mobile. Now I've outgrown the lt30 and decided to step up to the LT40. All because there are a few trees on my place lol. 
With the right fulcrum and enough leverage, you can move the world!

2017 LT40 wide, BMS250 and BMT250,036 stihl, 2001 Dodge 3500 5.9 Cummins, l8000 Ford dump truck, hr16 Terex excavator, Valley je 2x24 edger, Gehl ctl65 skid steer, JD350c dozer

D6c

Things have been moving along on the mill project.....Got the plumbing & wiring done in the hydraulic enclosure.  I ran all the hoses through the frame tube to get the routing worked out and cut them to length.  I pulled them out again and used my brothers hyd. hose machine to crimp all the ends.  Saves a ton of money over having them built at a hydraulic shop.  Getting the hoses threaded back through the frame once the ends were on turned out to be a bear....took about a day of fighting them to finally get them in.



 

The original battery box was sized for a long narrow tractor battery and since it was a manual mill there wasn't any fuse box.  I decided to rebuild the box to fit a group 31 battery and also mount a small box for a 225A mega fuse.  Found the box and fuse holder on ebay pretty reasonable.  Got some sheet stock and bent up the box, welded up the corners and made hangers similar to the way the original was made.



  

  

  

  

 

Space was tight on the width of the battery box.  I ended up sliding the axle assembly to the right about 3/4" in order to have enough room between the battery box and the fender bracket.

I reworked the battery & fuse box wiring.  I also had to do some rewiring in the carriage feed control box.  There were a couple of wires that were pretty well cooked and the insulation had stuck to other wires.  Fortunately nothing seems to have shorted and it still works like it should.  I up-sized the wires that had melted to hopefully prevent it from doing it again...not sure what the cause was.



  

 

With these last few pieces done I was able to function check the hydraulics.  Other than one small leak at a hyd. cylinder fitting it seems to work like it's supposed to.  There are still a few things to finish up before a full sawing test.
I'm going to add a guide on the drive belts to keep the pulley from dragging on the belts when the blade is disengaged.
There are still a few pieces that need a coat of primer.  I don't plan on painting the mill until I get a few hours on it and work out any bugs.
Also, for now I haven't added an alternator to the motor.  It will most likely be necessary but I thought I'd test it out a little to see it will come close to keeping the battery charged as is.
The whole mill will have to be gone over and adjustments made to be sure everything is aligned properly.
Hopefully in the next week or two I'll be able to make a little sawdust.

Here's a like to a short video of my function check...  https://youtu.be/3a2B4IVUiQc


Magicman

I would say that your sawmill definitely qualifies as being "Up fitted".   smiley_thumbsup
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

Darrel

1992 LT40HD

If I don't pick myself up by my own bootstraps, nobody else will.

Crossroads

D6c, the cooked wires in your feed controller box may have been caused by letting the head return home and not disengaging the control lever back to neutral. I did that twice in one day 🙈
With the right fulcrum and enough leverage, you can move the world!

2017 LT40 wide, BMS250 and BMT250,036 stihl, 2001 Dodge 3500 5.9 Cummins, l8000 Ford dump truck, hr16 Terex excavator, Valley je 2x24 edger, Gehl ctl65 skid steer, JD350c dozer

Chuck White

Keep that up and Wood-Mizer will be after you, to work for them!   ;)   ;D
~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!

D6c

I got the final small details finished up on the mill a couple of days ago.

- Polished up the carriage rails...painted the top one.... and cold blued the bottom one (as suggested by another member of this forum)  I coated the bottom rail with grease to help the neg. contact slide and reduce the chance of rust reforming on the rail.

- Made a new set of wipers for the rails.  Had a piece of teflon sheet I used to make them from but made them a little taller than the originals, and rather than tighten the pinch bolt I left them a little loose to float.  I then tweaked the top cover so than when I bolted it in place it puts a little down pressure on the wipers.  That way they'll self adjust for wear and hopefully do a better job of wiping the sawdust off the rails.

- Rechecked the whole mill alignment

I set them mill up in the open side of my pole barn and sawed a junk oak I had into stickers.  It will take a while to get the hang of the hydraulics, but it looks like it's going to take a lot of the manual labor out of handling logs.  Everything's working well so far.

The only thing that's not real intuitive yet is the lever for the horizontal log clamp....wasn't sure which way to have it operate when I hooked it up.  Is the factory setup "up" for clamp & down for "release", or the other way around?

I'm going to call this project "done" for now.  I'll use it for a while as is, and maybe next spring paint the whole mill if I don't want to change anything.  I may add a log loader at a later date, but I'm going to see how much I need one first.

Brucer

Quote from: D6c on October 29, 2017, 06:38:10 PM
...  Is the factory setup "up" for clamp & down for "release" ...

Yes.
Bruce    LT40HDG28 bandsaw
"Complex problems have simple, easy to understand wrong answers."

SlowJoeCrow

Tell us about the military vehicle hiding under plastic sheeting in your video, pretty please!! ;D ;D

Crossroads

That's great, congratulations on a job well done!
With the right fulcrum and enough leverage, you can move the world!

2017 LT40 wide, BMS250 and BMT250,036 stihl, 2001 Dodge 3500 5.9 Cummins, l8000 Ford dump truck, hr16 Terex excavator, Valley je 2x24 edger, Gehl ctl65 skid steer, JD350c dozer

D6c

Quote from: SlowJoeCrow on October 30, 2017, 08:22:59 AM
Tell us about the military vehicle hiding under plastic sheeting in your video, pretty please!! ;D ;D

SlowJoe,
You've hit upon my other habit / affliction besides sawmills.....
What you saw was a 1945 WWII Willys MB Jeep that I restored about 20 years ago.  It hasn't been driven much lately and needs a little carburetor work right now.  It took quite a while to do and it was a few years before I got interested in another project.  My dad was a Staff Sgt. and mechanic in a construction engineers unit in the pacific during WWII so we grew up reading Jeep & truck manuals he brought home.


  

 

....the next project is a '43 GMC CCKW 2 1/2 ton 6 x 6 cargo truck.  It's currently all stripped down to the chassis and sand blasted.  Hope to get back to it this winter.


 

Just this weekend I did a road trip to Illinois to pick up a WWII 1-ton "Ben Hur" trailer to go with the 6 x 6.  The wood's pretty much shot but the rest is pretty complete so it should be an easy restoration.  ( I'll have to use the sawmill to mill some lumber for the floor & sides )


 

I also have an '82 5-ton truck tractor I bought off the local Nat'l Guard camp.  I use it to pull a lowboy to move my Cat D6c dozer around.  Pretty gutless truck but I don't take it very far.


 

My brother has the disease too....he's about 2/3's done restoring a WWII White half track....



 

It's a terrible affliction....best to avoid it if possible.

Kbeitz

Love that army stuff. This is two that I made from scratch...



 



 
Collector and builder of many things.
Love machine shop work
and Wood work shop work
And now a saw mill work

SlowJoeCrow

I love the military stuff too.  While I dont own them, I have restored a Jeep very similar to yours, a 10 ton truck, and a Corps of Engineers Cat D8. All very neat projects.

D6c

Quote from: SlowJoeCrow on October 30, 2017, 10:27:38 PM
I love the military stuff too.  While I dont own them, I have restored a Jeep very similar to yours, a 10 ton truck, and a Corps of Engineers Cat D8. All very neat projects.

The 10-ton, especially if it was an M123/M125, is what my brother would like to have.  The D8 would be nice...at times I'd like to have a bigger crawler.

SlowJoeCrow

The 10 ton was a M123 tank retriever/hauler with a HUGE pto driven winch right behind the cab.  Did't go fast, but could go anywhere.  It was waaayyy cool!  6x6, with a rear differential braking system.

Thank You Sponsors!