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View Full Version : Woodmizer a 1989 LT40HDG24 questions



David Mealey
12-05-2016, 9:26 PM
Seasons Greetings,

On a bike ride with my wife I stumbled onto a LT40 with 260 hours on it, sitting in my neighborhood covered with blackberry branches. Long story short, I watched the owner saw up some Doug Fir, made an offer and drove off with it a few weeks later. I got a chance to play with it this past weekend on some short logs I have around and realized that there's a steep learning curve to correct usage. Maybe some Mizer owners can help. The local Woodmizer dealer want's $75/hr and minimum of 4 hours to train on it. Thought I'd reach out to the community first.

1) How do you tell if the blade is alignment? I couldn't get a straight cut and the blade was coming off more then waht seemed normal. The good news is I've quickly become pretty good at replacing the blade back on the wheels without taking my knuckles off. Also, what's the proper amount of pressure on the blade? there are yellow and orange areas in the pressure gauge that I assume that is where you want it to be?

2) On an old unit like this how do you keep the log from moving on the bed, without the clamper plate in the upright position? The logs I was practicing on were short, 4-6' and max 18-20" in diameter so having the clamper plate upright prevented any cuts below the height of the plate? Also without the clamper plate pushing the log into the side braces the log was moving as soon as the blade made contact and especially when hitting a knot. Local Mizer dealer described an update and how the newer models were modified. Any owners of older units come up with your own solution(s)?

3) What's the deal with lifting the loader arms when your done. Is the only way to lift them entail dropping the loader arms onto the support stands and lifting manually? For an older wood geek like me that's a hell of a lot of weight. I'm a chiropractor in my daytime job and don't want to end up like the majority of my patients. I resorted to lifting it to bed height with my forklift but thought there must be a better way?

Thanks for any all input.

David Mealey
Milwaukie Hardwoods, LLC

Bradley Gray
12-06-2016, 6:00 PM
I would pay the $300. and get one on one training.

It would probably allow you to call and ask questions afterwards.

You can saw $300 worth of lumber in a few hours and make it back.

Mark Bolton
12-06-2016, 7:36 PM
Im inclined to agree with Bradley a little bit mostly based on your nomenclature about sawing and sawmill components. I see the "hardwoods llc" sig? Are you aiming to be profitable in production sawing and selling custom sawing or lumber? There is a tremendous amount involved in sawing quality material from a log. Its not just getting a log on the mill and breaking it into boards.

1. If your throwing blades off the wheels without breaking (or dulling) them, Id say you either have an issue with dull blades, crowding the mill, or a tracking issue. A band mill, unlike a circular mill, simply wont cut when dull. The blade will either climb or dive in the cant. However if tracking is correct this will usually either stall the mill or snap the blade. If your throwing blades regularly I would guess you have a tracking issue and possibly combined with a guide alignment issue. Getting an operating and setup manual for your mill should be no issue. Go through the manual from the start like you are setting the mill up from scratch and you will learn a lot.

t2. If your logs are moving when your sawing you are missing something. Either youre not engaging sawing dogs or your missing the dogs. The log needs to be clamped firmly until you have a cant. At that point clamping becomes a bit less of an issue.

3. No idea on the loader arms. Photos may be helpful.

Do yourself a favor and learn learn learn before you turn a bunch of logs into firewood. Not trying to be pessimistic but its very easy to do. Your much better off taking a lot of time to learn and leave logs on the skidway until you are confident you cant turn them into useable/saleable lumber.

Just my $0.02

Tim Offutt
12-06-2016, 10:35 PM
I agree with the others, training is good. One thing you might look into is the DVD training set sold by Woodmizer if it is still available. It used to cost around $100 and it contained good info. Also go to You Tube and you can find thousands of videos show people sawing. You can learn a ton there.

Here's some suggestions to your questions.

Usually when a blade jumps off it is because it is no longer cutting in the correct plane. Meaning it has dived up or down. My saw almost always dives down. If it dives up it is usually due to a very hard knot or a foreign object. I find that diving is usually because the blade has lost most of it's set. When the set is lost the kerf narrows and the friction builds up causing heat.

Concerning clamping of the log, you mention lifting arms so it leads me to think you have an LT40 with hydraulics. If so you should have the hydraulic log handling package that includes hydraulic log dogs to clamp the log. Also a log turner. You should be able to clamp the log below your cut line. I can clamp and cut to within an inch or less of the bed rails.

If you don't have hydraulics you should have a cam lock bar that pushes the log back into the rear bunk arms. The arms should pivot up to a vertical position and down to below the bed rails. You can set them where needed. On my machine which is just a few years newer than yours when the arms are straight up I can't cut any lower than 12" off the bed.

I will say that on my machine, which has the 16 foot bed, clamping anything shorter than six foot isn't easy. It takes some "rigging" to hold them.

On your last question about the lifter arms I don't have lifting arms and don't completely understand your question. I have seen people lift the arms all the way up, then chain them to the bed and then try to lower them which lifts the support arms that rest on the ground. But again I have not done this so I may not have understood what they were doing.

Good luck and have fun,
Tim

David Mealey
12-09-2016, 3:06 PM
Thanks to all for the feedback, I have a training session scheduled with the local Woodmizer distributor here in Ptld. next week. Hopefully most of my mistakes will get corrected. I'll also ask again about a training CD, the local rep. said there wasn't anything available but sounds like there was one produced in the past. Yes, I'm pretending to make money at this, at least that's what I'm telling my patient wife, but it's good to be reminded that this is more fun then work.

Tim, are you "rigging" with rope? or something else that doesn't bind the blade?

Sorry for the confusion on the loader arms. It is an older hydraulic mill and the loader arms when full extended to the ground, sit inside "support brackets". I notice on pics of newer models those support brackets aren't included. When the machine is offline the arms and brackets get lifted (manually) and chained to the turner arm. Any owners of an older model LT40, are you all lifting that assembly manually to when storing the machine?
DM

Joshua Hancock
12-09-2016, 5:07 PM
I have to agree, get training. There are alot of nuances to sawing, and little things that only an experienced sawyer can point out to you (speed entering the cut, how the machine should sound when cutting right, setting tension and tracking) that you will need to be taught while working a saw. Its quite a bit to know. I've been working tail saw right behind my sawyer every weekend for almost two years with him explaining stuff, but it was pure information overload when he put me behind the control box and started teaching me the actual saw side. This is not on of yhose things you can youtube.

Myk Rian
12-09-2016, 5:35 PM
Is the blade new? Sharp? Maybe it hit metal in a log?
Might consider starting off with a new one.

Jim Andrew
02-09-2017, 5:46 AM
Did you get a book with the mill? Am betting your saw needs to be adjusted to cut properly. And a box of new blades.

Jeff Heath
02-15-2017, 6:29 PM
I have a 2003 LT40 hydraulic, and the log loader arms are fully hydraulic. I seem to remember that on the older mills, you did have to lift them up manually for transport. Are you doing mobile sawing, or keeping it at your place?

You will find that the $300 for training is the best money you'll ever spend on your mill. Sounds also like you need to invest in the owners manual for the unit, which will show you how to go completely through the mill, tuning it up along the way. This process will also allow you to see where there are worn parts that you will want to replace. Nothing lasts forever, and your mill is almost 30 years old.

Woodmizer customer support is well known as having customer support second to none in the sawmill world. Nothing's cheap, though. Remember that's a $35K sawmill by todays standards if you're buying new. I know quite a few guys who have older mills that are making a good living with them, but you have to do the periodic maintenance, and understand how to keep the mill cutting true. Otherwise, all you are doing is making a lot of expensive firewood.