WOOD-MIZER LT-35

SAWMILL REVIEW
BY J.R. SALZMAN
WOOD-MIZER LT-35
couple years ago Ryan Jude’s job as a
lineman put him in a fortuitous position
after a supervisor said they would be
replacing eight miles of utility poles.
Rather than watch the poles end up in a landfill
or used for firewood, Ryan offered to take them.
A
Even though he didn’t own a
sawmill at the time, he knew there
was a multitude of things he could
mill from them, such as a horse corral for his wife, Sarah. So throughout the winter the poles were
hauled to his 5-acre property near
Buffalo, Minnesota, until he was
left with a massive pile of 120
cedar logs. This left him with an
even bigger challenge the following
spring: which sawmill to buy?
Although he had never owned a
sawmill, he had used a neighbor’s
Wood-Mizer. Still, Ryan wanted to
do his own homework before buying, so he consulted other sawmill
owners to determine the best mill
for sawing utility poles. He learned
he needed to buy a sawmill with a
debarker; otherwise, the lifespan of
the blades would be seriously
10 • Sawmill & Woodlot
shortened by the dirt and grit on
the outside of the poles. After looking at nearly every make and
model on the market, he eventually whittled down his choices to the
Wood-Mizer LT-35. Although he
considered smaller mills like the
Wood-Mizer LT-15, he didn’t like
the idea of having to constantly
push the power head or do everything manually.
Ryan’s choice was based on the
value and options on the LT-35.
The rigid monorail, open cutter
head design, and easy offbearing
cutting deck make it easy for him
to load logs and offload lumber. He
likes the ease with which he can
load logs from his skid loader, or
from the makeshift log deck he
built. The computerized setworks
makes sawing dimensional lumber
fast and accurate. Although it was
not yet available from Wood-Mizer
when he bought his mill, the
debarker was a big selling point for
milling his utility poles. And while
the LT-35 doesn’t come standard
with hydraulics, it does have electric feed on the power head, taking
a lot of strain out of milling.
Observing the Mill
I caught up with Ryan Jude on a
chilly December day at his home.
With the mill already parked in his
yard, he fetched a cedar utility pole
with his skid loader and rolled it on
the deck. After a short warm-up
period for the motor and a few seconds securing the log clamp, the
LT-35 was making sawdust. While
the electronic feed moved the
blade forward through the cut,
Ryan moved boards out of the way
or prepared for the next cut. With
his wife, Sarah, as the offbearer, it
didn’t take long for a couple logs to
be converted to lumber and
stacked neatly on the skid loader.
Ryan selected a slightly slower
feed rate for higher-quality lumber
as it was going into their basement
for paneling and trim for Sarah’s
photo studio.
With its 25-hp Kohler engine,
the LT-35 had no problem powering the blade through the cedar
poles. After a couple logs, they
were ready for a blade change,
which Ryan and Sarah accomplished in a matter of minutes.
Ryan said if he is sawing the butts
of the poles, he can mill roughly 8
to 10 logs before changing blades.
If he is sawing the upper sections
of the poles that have not been in
the ground, he can easily mill 10 to
15 poles before swapping blades.
Ryan said there is little about the
Wood-Mizer LT-35 that he doesn’t
like. But if he was forced to change
something, it would be the outriggers that are used to level the mill.
Because the adjustment spacing on
the outriggers is rather large, it can
take a significant amount of time to
get it set up if the ground is not perfectly flat. While he acknowledges
that the mill does not have to be
perfectly level or supported thanks
to Wood-Mizer’s rigid monorail, he
feels that a fine adjustment system
on the legs should be standard on
the mill.
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Ryan’s first project after getting the
mill was building a corral. For fence
posts he sawed 5-inch x 5-inch x 5foot timbers, and the fence boards
were full dimension 2 inch x 6 inch
x 18 feet long. By the time the job
was done, he had completed 1,300
linear feet of fencing composed of
150 posts and roughly 230 fence
boards. Ryan estimates if he bought
the lumber from a nearby home
improvement store it would have
cost him over $10,000. While he was
sawing the large stack of poles that
was sitting on his property, locals
occasionally showed up, offering to
buy cedar lumber. He politely
declined their offers, keeping the
logs and timbers for his own use.
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March 2014 •
11
SAWMILL REVIEW
milled timber for a contractor, the
majority of his sawing time has been
for himself.
The versatility of the LT-35 has
Ryan contemplating other projects.
He is currently thinking about tearing down a shed on their property
and building a much larger one
using timbers and lumber sawn
with his mill. Other plans include
the possibility of a post-and-beam
house to replace the 110-year-old
home they currently live in. With a
source of poles at the ready, he has
plenty of options available.
All in all, Ryan is happy with the
Wood-Mizer LT-35. “Maybe someday when I’m older and get sick of
pushing things around, I’ll upgrade
to a LT-40 with hydraulics” said
Ryan. That day may be later than
he thinks though, now that he will
have a new helper around the mill.
A week or so after my visit, Sarah
gave birth to a healthy baby boy. I
As a self-described “sawdust addict,”
J.R. Salzman is both an avid sawyer
and woodworker. He is a longtime competitor in professional lumberjack sports, winning eight Men’s
ProfessionalLog Rolling world titles,
and the 2005 ESPY Award for Best
Outdoor Sports Athlete. He operates
his portable sawmill on a regular
basis and has a BS in Technology
Education.
SPECS
Wood-Mizer LT-35
DIMENSIONS (with trailer package)
Length ..................................26 ft. 2 in.
Width......................................6 ft. 6 in.
Height (max head position) .....8 ft. 5 in.
Weight (with heaviest power options)
..............................................3,081 lbs.
Turn Your
Wastewood into Profit
POWER OPTIONS
25-hp gasoline standard
16.8-hp diesel optional
MAXIMUM CUTTING CAPACITIES
Log length ....................................21 ft.
Log diameter .................................32 ft.
Operation ...................Operator position
walk-along
Feed system .....12V electric, power feed
Computer setworks ...SimpleSet setworks
LOG LOADING
Ramps .......................Optional hydraulic
loading arms
Log turner ................................Optional
manual or hydraulic log turner
Toeboards ....................Optional manual
Log clamp...................................Manual
Blade engage .....................Manual lever
Blade lubrication .....Manual on/off valve
Blade tensioning.....Easy one-action cam
CONTACT
Wood-Mizer Products Inc.
8081 W. 10th St.
Indianapolis, IN 46214
ph: 800/553-0182
infocenter@woodmizer.com
www.woodmizer.com
Sarah helps pull boards as her husband, Ryan, runs their LT-35.
12 • Sawmill & Woodlot
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David Yasenchack,
Ya
asenchack,
asenchack
a
Tiimber Framing & Design
David Y
Yasenchack
Timber
© Copyright 2013 Wood-Mizer LLC
T40 Hydraulic, David designs
With his L
LT40
and builds unique timber frame homes,
studios,
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s, and garden structur
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800.553.0182 | sawboards.com
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Wood-Mizer
ood-Mizer LLC *Prices subject to change without notice.