Several years ago, a highly respected contractor from Girdwood, Alaska called to ask if I could re-size a 40 foot long timber that was needed for timber frame home in Anchorage.
I didn’t know that such a request was unusual. Ralph and I met at the job site. I brought my LT40. Ralph brought his excavator and a long, long, timber.
After setting up and levelling the mill, we placed the beam on the bed. Ralph used a sling to support the far end of the timber. The saw head travelled down to the end of the track. Driving a couple wedges in gave us the clearance to take a chain saw and remove the 1-1/2 inch offcut.
Raising up the hydraulic roller toe boards made-positioning the heavy beam easy.
If you follow this procedure, it will work better if you use something like a hydraulic car jack to support the long ends as they tend to sag. Lift the long timber or log so that the wood sits solidly on the 4 fixed bed sections.
After the initial cut and repositioning, make sure to support the wood as it will now shift out over the hitch end of most Wood-Mizers.
Be very careful when lowering the hydraulic toe boards. Placing your free hand on the steel cover of the hydraulic box seems safe enough – UNTIL you lower the rollers. It is a pinch point. Not particularly dangerous unless you fail to avoid it.
Knowing how to do this has provided a couple very lucrative opportunities. It is so important to understand this process that is routinely taught at our sawmill training when customers come to pick up their hydraulic mills.
Enjoy your Wood-Mizer!
