Wood Mizer LT15 and LT40 owners, what fixed waviness and thickness drift for you?

[LagunaLoire]

I’m running into a basic milling problem and I’m confused because the logs look fine but the boards are not consistent. Sometimes I get a little waviness. Sometimes the thickness drifts from one end to the other. I’m trying to figure out if this is just a dull band issue or if I am missing something simple like tension or feed rate.

A specific moment that made me stop and ask was this week. I milled a short stack that looked great at first. The surface looked clean and it felt satisfying because it seemed like everything was dialed. Then I measured a few boards and noticed the thickness was not matching as closely as I thought. It was close enough to be usable, but not close enough to feel right.

For people running portable mills like a Wood Mizer LT15 or LT40, what was the biggest fix for inconsistency. Was it blade choice, changing bands sooner, band tension, slowing feed, or better log support?

 

[What]

Add extra braces under the mill carriage, make sure the log dogs are well set, and find the right cut speed to feed at. Too slow or too fast makes it start to bounce.

 

[BrahneRaza]

On my end, waviness plus thickness drift usually ended up being a mix of “tired band” and pushing feed a little too hard once it started cutting nice.