Battery Sawmill? Best idea EVER or NEVER! Wood-Mizer's new idea!!!

Wood-Mizer has a brand new sawmill out (again) and this one is sure to be a conversation starter. It is boasted to us with such words as: "charging ahead, the future of sawmilling, smart feed, environmentally friendly, modern sawyer, reduced carbon emissions, freedom, more comfortable, leading edge, exceeds expectations, easy, convenient, optimal". What do you think? Is this new sawmill the future?
Here is the link to the new sawmill from Wood-Mizer: • LT15WIDE Battery-Power...

[@charliesaul729]

Agree with you. If you need electricity to recharge the batteries, why would you need batteries? You might as well have an electric motor!

[@southernindianasawmill1367]

Totally agree! However, you can charge a battery with standard 120V outlet, whereas an electric motor sawmill is usually going to be 3 phase power; a lot of people don't have access to that.

[@NorthernMichiganSaweyer]

@@southernindianasawmill1367 i completely agree there but on the lt 15 wide you can get the single phase electric motor. Or on the bigger ones a that are 3 phase you could get a phase converter. My choice would probably by the single phase motor because the power lines out by my place are so old if a bird poops on it the power is out.

[@MRBoatwrights]

I watched this sawmill run at the Paul Bunyan show last week and I was impressed with it's capabilities. The one thing that you didn't mention is that this mill is qualified for the $7500 tax credit, the same as an electric car so that brings the price down to a more competitive price. Horse power ratings are very confusing and misleading when comparing an internal combustion engine to an electric motor. Torque and rpm is what you have to use to determine the amount of useable power. A dc drive electric motor has an almost flat torque curve I run a 2022 year model lt40 wide with 38 hp fuel injected Kohler and what i would like to see is a hydrid drive system that uses a small gas or diesel engine to drive a dc generator and a dc motor pulling the blade that way you could have the advantages of both worlds. I don't own and electric car and will not be buying an electric sawmill anytime soon but i am fascinated by the evolution of the technology because it makes things possible that can't be done with internal combustion engine but on the flip side I in no way believe that a switch to all electric is going to solve any environmental problems.

[@markbahlke9091]

Nice review. The idea has some appeal, but you list a lot of very fair for sight unseen points that bring up good questions. I have hopes of having a solar powered wood shop to complement my solar powered home. Buying gasoline to run a sawmill goes against the idea of that solar powered idea, but I have yet to see a good alternative. My hope is to find a good electric powered mill, and have enough solar capacity to run it. I am not going into the sawmill business, but I want to be able to make my own lumber from the wood on my property. So I will be a small user. Thanks for the tips.

[@michaelchownyk5255]

Each battery is 1.4 kWh of stored energy. If you can extract 18.5 hp of cutting energy from four batteries, then each battery can deliver 4.65 hp. While still having a finite capacity of 1.4 kWh which is just fine. If the efficiency was 100% which it never is then that would be 3450 W of energy output per battery at maximum cutting horsepower . That to me sounds totally achievable with a battery that contains 1.4 kWh times four batteries. I want to know why I can’t find this sawmill on wood Mizer’s website. All I want to know is what is the nominal system voltage so that I can determine if I can supply a regulated DC output from my solar array directly to the main DC bus in the sawmill. I hope they made it 48 V DC nominal or 120 V DC nominal so that I can do this . Been living off grid for 12 years now . Thank you very much for the video.

[@TheOldJarhead]

As another KZbinr who's done a TON of advertising for WM and is not sponsored by them but is a fan -- I agree 100% with you on this. I'm still scratching my head frankly. Cold weather, hard milling, charging times, we could go on and on. Meanwhile, my LT40 can be filled up in a few minutes tops and ready to go all day, every day.

[@mudcatstravels9751]

I guess I’m in the minority here. Let me just say that my day job is working in a coal fired power plant in fact the 3rd largest one in the US so no I’m not a “tree hugger.” But I look at it from a different angle. No this will not be the future and test it will probably only work marginally but it is a start. I would never own an electric motorcycle but I have ridden one one and it was amazing. Some of the features in that bike has come out on some of the regular gas powered bikes now. So we all gained some from the technology. I’ve been a popular mechanics type guy since I was a kid and always enjoyed seeing what new technology would bring. I’ve seen many of those space age futuristic designs and features come to become normal everyday consciences over the years. I’m sure there will be a market for the battery mills. I know I’ve been to many off grid homesteader’s places to saw for them and they will be interested in something similar I would bet. I think of the noise reduction being a big plus. Is it a production mill? Absolutely not but for someone out milling their own lumber to build their house and barns on just energy gained from the sun or a small hydro plant. I think it would be cool. While it’s not for me I can see some others liking it. Now we know they can build a full featured LT15 wide that may come about sooner rather than later.

[@southernindianasawmill1367]

Love your response, thank you!

[@revhbateman]

27k seems too expensive Plus a majority of batteries are produced in chiina

[@rl3898]

It's not an exaggeration to say 28k

[@danielinman9657]

At current pricing, it’s $9000 to replace 6 batteries. That’s a lot of maintenance cost every 5 years or so…

[@loufaiella3354]

You make so much sense. Look at a typical zero turn battery mower for home use. $7000???????????????????

[@MisterTee2010]

The price, and the cost to the environment to create an EV is terrible.

[@Lee-qp6gf]

LOL, surprised Wood-Mizer going woke. Their customer base Shure is not. I'm disappointed.

[@geneporter4849]

They will have trans people to do video on them lol

[@southernindianasawmill1367]

Wood-Mizer has been taking a broad strategy for wider market appeal. I don't know if the words they are using are woke, perhaps... maybe? Like I say in the video, we need to judge the machine on the merits of its performance.

[@boatrvme8478]

Great vid! Battery technology has not advanced enough to run sawmills, farm tractors, 18 wheelers, sawmills etc. We have already proven the e pickup truck is worthless as a work truck!!!

[@GeorgesWoodshop]

100%right.

[@NorthernMichiganSaweyer]

I got a quote on this mill it comes with 4 batteries and it is $1,500.00 per battery for extra batteries. After really sitting down and thinking about it and taking in consideration of where I live it just isn’t feasible for me. For it to work for me I’d have to have a extra 6 batteries and at $1,500 each I’d be around $9,000 just in battery’s

[@southernindianasawmill1367]

WOW! Those are some expensive batteries!

[@geneporter4849]

I'm old school and I have to say that I have some batteries powder hand tools and they are great in till the battery go dead it not for me I may have a battery powered golf cart but I don't see me ever owning a battery powered truck are tractor it's not going to happen here at my farm gas and dissel are the way I go and I'm not a green foler it is more convenient to carry a can of fuel to a tractor in the middle of a 500 acer feld the people who buy a sawmill like that aren't going to be sawing logs for a living it's not going to find miny people who are interested in sawmill l did use a lt 70 that was three fayss

[@davidkrumrieii8988]

More than I paid for my lt40

[@georgeharper6034]

Another point is the cost of the batteries. What does it cost for back ups and/or replacenents. For most cordless power tools in my your shop, I have 1-2 back-ups so I can keep working when the juice is gone in the first. I tend to have one on charge while I'm using the other. Also, most know that cold temps are battery killers. So when you are out in the woods on a cold day, how do you keep working when you are out of power? Do you run into town to a charging station or back home? Or do you bring a gas powered generator to. keep the batteries charged, LOL! I'v heard that electric car batteries are extremely expensive as well. This mill is obviously for a narrow market or actually a marketing strategy promoting Woodmizer as cutting edge and environment friendly. They most certainly know they will sell very few of them. If I were a business person, I would pull the funds for R & D on this product from Marketing. It's getting us to talk about Woodmizer and drive people to research all their products.

[@andrewwindham5707]

Does it come with an ac? Lol. I appreciate your videos, thank you.

[@thekiltedsawyer]

This is a accomplishment by woodmizer, this mill isn't going to replace the gas and diesel mills. I believe that there are guys in certain parts of the country that this is a good idea, i am one of them, lots of gated community's and other locations where milling is required & needed, golf courses for example. Glad they have the guts to pull this off, i am extremely impressed with what they are doing. I would totally have one in my arsenal and to be honest i have customers that would appreciate me bringing this mill to the job site. Thanks for this video and your opinions 🧡👍🌲

[@michaelchownyk5255]

I must say you were very well spoken, smart guy who knows what you’re talking about. I am just getting into sawing wood with a wood mill. Because I have inherited 210 acres of hardwood forest I am definitely going to be milling wood for the rest of my life. I already live off grid with solar energy and an off grid battery system and I have an electric car that I’ve been driving for the last 12 years. I hate the smell of gasoline exhaust. I know it’s toxic to breathe it. I plan to directly connect Solar Panels to the sawmill so that it’s receiving charge during the daytime while I am working on the Mill. I looked at your channel and it looks like you have a ton of videos that I’m gonna go through so I might as well subscribe. All of my woodworking tools that I currently have, including my chainsaw, are electric or battery, electric, and powered by solar energy . So what would miser is trying to say is that the only future we’ve got is a renewable energy future . I think they’re right in that marketing strategy. And I am going to sustainably Harvest wood to encourage new growth. Every time I see somebody build a sawmill shed over there sawmill I think if they were only solar panels there, they wouldn’t need to run internal combustion engine, but an off grid, solar, electric, DC motor. I am definitely going to do this, and I think I might start a KZbin channel to document my successes and failures . Thanks buddy !

[@SingleStacked]

Wonder how much $ the replacement batteries are that are only guaranteed 5 years?

[@southernindianasawmill1367]

I wonder about the same thing. I would want an additional 6 batteries for backup if I owned a battery powered mill, just like my battery powered tools in the shop.

[@don1031]

Good to see you back with a video. I have always enjoyed what you put out. This review is very helpful. The price issue alone would keep me from buying this but past that I can't imagine running this mill with any kind of heavy demand. I guess I equate it to a battery powered drill with only one battery vs my electric drill. If I have to drill a few holes the battery powered drill gets the nod. If I have to drill holes repetitively all day, I am using the electric drill because I don't want to stop to charge the battery.

[@southernindianasawmill1367]

Thank you! Good to hear from you!

[@RickyWilson-t5e]

Good point you said it right I ordered a lt 35 wood mizer i looked at other sawmills and price all of them and wood mizer I picked but had thank is I have to wait 70 weeks be for pickup

[@rl3898]

Must have their production line running on batteries!

[@royreynolds108]

A LT70 sawmill with an electric motor is "Videos by Al". This is Lindas Sawmill Cinema, a commercial mill operation in Iowa that uses an electric-powered LT70 in a building. The electric motor is at least a 7 HP 3-phase 440 V one.

[@southernindianasawmill1367]

I'm not sure what size the electric motor is on Lindas Sawmill, but I do know that on the LT50, the 25hp electric motor is the only electric motor build option in either 230 or 440V. That would take a lot of batteries!

[@geneporter4849]

Wood mizer should look at what happened to bud wiser but they have a few woke yuppies in the company that why I didn't own one I like cooks sawmill and they're not for a way from me if I wanted to do Hi production I would have a cooks 36

[@aubreyblair7864]

All good to points

[@MisterTee2010]

Your last few comments kill me. What tide eating, pot smoking kid now a days wants to actually work, and still get paid ?