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SAWMILL REVIEW
“ Personal Experience”
BY J IM P HILP

The Wood-Mizer LT-15

A SMALL DOG ince Independent Sawmill & A Specialized Need
S
bi
Woodlot Management magazine The University of Maine School
began publication in the fall of of Forest Resources has a three-
WITH A 1997, I have written perhaps a week summer program that is
dozen sawmill reviews. All were mandatory for all forestry under-
based upon a day’s visit to a mill graduates. The course is an in-

BItE!
in operation and a rather inten- tensive hands-on exercise, where
sive interview with the owner/op- the students learn to operate a
erator. That, combined with variety of equipment, including
many years’ experience with chain saws, excavators, skidders,
sawmills, gave me a pretty fair other logging equipment, and,
There is more to choosing a overall impression of the mill and yes, sawmills.
sawmill than a mere listing enabled me to write articles that Since the course takes place
hopefully have been useful to on Mount Desert Island and on
of strengths and weaknesses. you, the reader. another island several miles out
This review is different be- in the Gulf of Maine, we needed
You need to consider the cause it is based upon six months a sawmill that was extremely
mill’s capabilities, limitations, of hands-on experience with a portable. Specifically, we needed
mill. During that time, I operated to be able to easily break it down
and operating characteristics the mill, moved the mill from into modules that could be
too—which leads to an ex- place to place, did the periodic loaded onto a lobster boat and
maintenance on the mill, and then be easily reassembled on
planation of how we estab- trained about 20 others to oper- the island.
ate and maintain it. This is an in- While it was obvious that one
lished a relationship with depth review and any strengths of the chain saw mills or one of
this little Wood-Mizer. (many) or weaknesses (a few) of the swing blade mills met the
the Wood-Mizer LT-15 sawmill portability requirement ad-
will be revealed. mirably, the faculty consensus

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Moving the LT-15

was that we would prefer a mill with The LT-15, with three bed sections, can be
more nearly generic operating proce- transported on a full-sized pickup truck or an
dures. We wanted the skills that our 8-foot flatbed trailer (a double snowmobile
trailer is perfect). Here is how you do it.
students learned to be applicable Wood-Mizer recommends that the legs be
over as broad a range of sawmills as removed from the mill for transportation; I
practicable. Another consideration agree. Raise the saw head just enough to
clear the sides of the transporting vehicle and
was that a band mill was more appro- move the carriage to the back end of the mill
priate for the smaller size of the (the end where you finish a cut). Lock the
spruce trees on the island. carriage securely in position with the spring-
A review of the sawmills avail- loaded pin nearest to the end of the mill.
Detail of the LT-15 Trailer Kit. While two people lift the end of the mill op-
able, including ads and Shoot-Out posite the carriage, a pickup or trailer is
results in this magazine, along with ing the log and you provide all the backed under the elevated end. Then the car-
manufacturers’ specifications, con- energy for everything else. riage is unlocked and two people roll it up
firmed that the LT-15 would meet Note: A labeled drawing of the the bed frame to the end that is in the truck
and lock it into position with the spring-
our requirements. When Wood-Miz- sawmill, from the excellent opera- loaded pin that is nearest the end. The two
er agreed to lend us a mill for six tor’s manual, is reproduced here for people then lift the other end of the mill and
months, we were more than willing your convenience. Also, left and slide the mill forward into the truck.
to accept their offer. right designations are from the point If a third bed section is present, it is re-
moved (four bolts) and placed in the truck,
Note: Because of some logistical of view of the sawyer, standing at, on top of the bed sections that are already
problems, at the last minute, we and facing, the mill’s controls. loaded. After everything is secured to the
were not able to move the mill onto As delivered, the basic mill con- truck, and the saw head is in the lowest prac-
the offshore island, and had to stay sists of the sawhead, mounted on a tical position, you are ready to go. Unloading
is done in the reverse order.
on Mount Desert Island, which has carriage, and two 6-foot-8-inch-long
road access. Still, we are confident bed sections. This is long enough to If You Are Alone
that it is entirely feasible to take the saw 11-foot (3.3-meter) logs. Longer You may have noticed that the above proce-
dure requires three people—one to drive the
mill offshore; maybe next year. logs require the truck, and two to do the grunt work. Wood-
addition of bed Mizer has a cleverly designed trailer package
The Mill sections (as available that makes moving the LT-15 a one-
person proposition. We had one on our loan-
The Wood-Mizer LT-15 mill is a no- many as you er mill and I moved the mill single-handedly
frills manual band saw mill. The en- want). Three several times—with ease. I towed the mill all
gine provides all the energy for saw- sections are en- over Maine with a Ford Ranger pickup and
the biggest problem I had was forgetting that
it was back there.
Setting Up
With the mill parked in the place where you
want to set it up, unhook it from the towing
vehicle, unlock the carriage, raise the saw
head a few inches, move the carriage from
the transport position to the lowering posi-
tion, and again lock it in place. After remov-
ing the fenders and a safety bracket (one
locking pin for each item), the mill can be
lowered to the ground using the attached
ratcheting screw jack; the axle will pivot as
the mill lowers. After the mill is sitting on the
ground, the two wheel assemblies and the
ratcheting screw jack are removed (four lock-
ing pins).
If you will be operating the mill at ground
level, the axle can be left in place, lying flat
on the ground, and you will step over it until
a little sawdust builds up. If you will be oper-
ating the mill elevated above the ground, as I
do, the axle must be removed (two bolts) or
you will trip over it while sawing.
Once the mill has been leveled, using the
adjustable legs, which need not be removed
with the trailer package, you are ready to be-
gin sawing. The whole process requires less
than an hour.
Wood-Mizer’s drawing of the LT-15, from the operator’s manual.

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A SAWMILL REVIEW “ Personal Experience”

is the indexing device, which is
nothing more than a spring-loaded
pin on the crank handle that engages
a large roller chain sprocket. The
beauty is in the engineering. Each
turn of the crank moves the saw
head exactly 4 inches. Wood-Mizer
chose a 64-tooth sprocket, so there is
a positive stop at 1/16-inch intervals.
This is very convenient for those of
us sawing in inches—USA and Cana-
da (depending upon markets).
Once the indexing sprocket is ad-
justed, it is easy to set the
saw in 1/16-inch increments.
There is a decal applied to
the sprocket that has index
marks, but no numbers. The
intention was clearly that the Sawing a spruce log on the LT-15. His right hand is cranking the feed
works. At right: A view of the blade tensioner (red rubber block with
sawyer would use the inch- silver washer) and the blade tracking adjustment bolt. Notice Wood-
scale, located on the left car- Mizer’s toll-free number posted right on the machine.
riage mast, for coarse adjust-
ment, and the indexing pin for the looked back. One-inch boards were the blade. Yes, we had very clean
final adjustment. We took the con- consistently within tolerances for the logs—they were not skidded, but
cept a step further and added num- nominal dimension. were brought out of the woods on a
bers to the sprocket (see photo- This seems like a good time to ad- forwarder.
graph) and only used the inch scale dress the blades. The 1.25 x 0.045 x I cannot comment on how the
to locate the saw, within 4 inches, for 158 x 10º Wood-Mizer blades were blades work in frozen timber. We
the initial set. After that we relied very well suited for everything that we never had any cold weather; indeed,
entirely on the sprocket scale. sawed with them—I cannot say ideally we still haven’t and it is mid-January.
The inch scale has one very nice suited because it was the only blade I really liked the 10-hp Yanmar
feature. The scale is silver in color, we tried. We sawed white pine, hem- diesel engine. It has more than
except for the bottom 10-inch sec- lock, inland spruce, coastal spruce, enough torque, and we could not
tion, which is yellow. When you are and various hardwoods (mostly maple cause it to lug—when the blade was
sawing in the yellow zone, it is possi- and birch). We had no problems. sharp—on the size logs that we were
ble to hit something other than Let’s talk about the coastal sawing—up to about 20 inches. One
wood—a clamp or a side support. spruce. This is notoriously hard to enormous old hemlock did make us
This is a good reminder to pay atten- saw and when I want to test a band slow the feed, but just a bit. Best of
tion to the side supports and to the saw blade, I look for some coastal all is that the fuel consumption rate
clamps. spruce. Quite often the saw will try is only 0.2 gallon per hour. A tankful
Since the setworks are incremen- to dodge the hard, encased knots. lasts about seven hours.
tal, you need to adjust your sawing Once the saw deviates, it often does Although the engine can be start-
technique accordingly. The kerf of not recover properly and begins to ed manually (I had each student
the saws that we were using is 0.089 produce a wavy cut. Problems may start it once with the struggle string
inch, a bit less than 3/32 inch. If you occur with a fresh blade, but you can just to prove that it’s possible), the
call the kerf 1/16 inch, a real tempta- usually expect them to increase as electric starter is very welcome. The
tion, you will saw boards that are the blade dulls. engine always started very easily. I
theoretically 0.026-inch scant. If you We had no problems sawing the would like to tell you how it starts in
call the kerf 1/8 inch, you will saw coastal spruce—none whatsoever— winter, but we haven’t had any.
0.036-inch oversize. and we sawed a lot of it. When a Like most diesel engines, this one
After just a little experience with blade began to dull, we would hear can run backwards; it happened
the mill/blade combination, I conclud- the difference in the engine and in twice for us. The first time, we did-
ed that the accuracy and the repeata- the sound of the saw before the n’t know what was going on until we
bility allowed me to consider the kerf blade began to misbehave. We typi- tried engaging the clutch and saw
1/16 inch. I yielded to temptation, cally sawed 2,000 to 3,000 feet of the blade going the wrong direction.
called the kerf 1/16 inch, and never spruce before we needed to change The second time, we recognized the

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