Reciprocating saw - accuracy of rated capacities?

[dent]

Hi all,

I want to get a reciprocating/sabre saw for cutting up scrap wood for my wood burner (pallets, 150-200mm logs, etc) and general construction/ destruction work. It has to be cordless as I will often use it away from any practical power source. I am wondering how accurate the rated capacities of the saw actually are. The general trend is cheaper tools are around 80-100mm in wood, while high-end are around 250-300mm, but there are quite a few discrepancies, such as one Makita model (18V Li- Ion) is rated at 255mm, while another Makita at twice the price (24V NiMH) is only 90mm? I also found a review of a 300mm rated DeWalt, which said that it was just about adequate for wood of 100mm? So do the rated capacities actually reflect reality; and will a 250mm rated saw really manage to cut through this much wood?

thanks,

dan.

[Stuart Noble]

I noticed our DG fitter had all cordless stuff, apart from the sabre saw. Probably a good reason for that

[dent]

But what was the reason :-) If it was the short run times, then I can live with that (they draw lots of power and battery sizes are limited

- 10-15 minutes is all I would expect). The convenience of no cord is more important to me. If, however, you mean that they lacked the power to do the job, then that is a big concern, and would mean that the tool is of limited or no use. That basically comes back to my original question of rated cut capacities. If the ratings are accurate, then I would expect a cordless and a corded with the same rating to do the job equally well, other than runtimes, but do they?

thanks,

dan.

[John Rumm]

I think cut capacities are a fairly pointless metric since real life will affect things in so many ways... i.e. type of wood, moisture content, type of blade, how fast you want to cut etc.

[Stuart Noble]

I would think cutting through window frames in situ is probably akin to pallets and logs. Arkward angles, blade binding etc, the kind of brute force you associate more with corded tools.

[pcb1962]

I have a fair selection of the Ryobi One+ 18v tools. Whilst the drills, driver, circular saw will rarely need a battery change mid- job, the reciprocating saw battery life is laughable. I've not measured it but I'd say 10 minutes of use will flatten a battery. It was struggling on the third fence post last weekend. This is one tool that I would definitely buy mains powered next time.

[The Medway Handyman]

All the recip saws I've seen take a blade up to 300mm, so that is the max cutting capacity, but 300mm blades are generally course cut for green wood.

Battery saw capacity depends on the battery size, which relates to the amp hour rating of the batteries. They will all cut 300mm with the appropriate blade, but for how long?

I have an el cheapo Titan mains recip saw which will easily cut 300mm with the right blade, but if you want a finer cut the only blades available are

150mm long.

Might be easier to move the timber to the saw & use a mains.

[John Rumm]

They invested something for fast rough cutting away from power sources... the petrol chainsaw ;-)

[Jules]

Watching this thread grow, I thought I must be missing something really obvious because nobody had said that yet :-)

(Was out in the wilds helping cut wood the other day - we got a couple of cords done pretty quickly with just a chainsaw and a log splitter)

cheers

Jules

[mark]

How many log to a cord?

[ct]

True, but that's the one tool that I'm not going to invest in! I've got lots of quite power tools which can be quite dangerous, but I think chain saws are just too unforgiving for me to be happy using one.

I don't think it would be much good for pallets containing nails? I had some trees chopped down in the garden, and one had a small nail in it, and when the tree surgeon unexpectedly hit the nail with his chainsaw, the chain snapped, whipped round and scored a neat line through his protective gear (but the gear did its job, so he was unhurt). He told me it wasn't common for the chain to snap, but there was always that possiblity, and the right gear was essential to avoid injury, and you always had to think twice before using a chain saw on wood that might contain nails.

thanks,

dan.

[Jules]

Depends on the log size ;) A cord's 4'x4'x8' though - we basically filled up a trailer (around 6'x8') and the back of the truck (short-bed as it had a crew-cab) which would equate to somewhere around 2 cords.

The logs are normally around 16" in length, but of course the shape varies depending how they come off the splitter. It's kind of fun getting a little production line going so that no part of the process stalls :-) cheers

Jules