Does anyone know of a good source for a large (15in or so) circular saw that doesn't need th'electric?
I have a tractor so I could use a PTO saw, but it does tend to be awkward to use a tractor like this. Diesel would be preferred and petrol if I can't find a diesel.
I want something I can use to cut firewood (loads of it) but which also could be used to rip boards and posts from several large trunks/branches I have available.
Money is an object, I can't afford to spend 1000's on this.
Does it need to be portable?
If not, I'd buy an old quality tablesaw (Startrite, Sedgwick etc) from ebay, remove the electric motor and use a suitably sized petrol engine (lawnmower) and pulley in its place - with the usual caveats about rapid shut-off, enclosing belts, exhausts, relevant H&S legislation etc.
Message-ID: from Steve Firth contained the following:
Why not just buy an electric saw and a generator?
Because it's a PITA. FWIW I already have a number of generators.
It would be preferable.
I keep loking at ebay, most of the saws are either buggered, giant cast iron affairs or simply far too small. I see 15in saws offered from time to time and they look as if they have been stored under 16ft of cow flop for the last 25 years. And they have reserves on them that show that the seller is a humorist.
15" isn't a large saw, it's a small one. 15" is a big cabinet workshop saw, not a sawmill saw. It's getting to the point of being hazardous to use it as one, as you're going to forever be ripping with the top of the blade in use, and all the risk of kickback and timber-throwing that entails. It's always safer to use a huge saw, bug enough to dwarf your timber and just get on with it by brute power and geometry.
A workshop saw has adjustable height and maybe tilt, which you don't for through ripping. If you don't have these features then you can use a _much_ simpler saw with a through arbor rather than overhung. You can even make your own. Not needing to swap blades often, or the acceptability of having a drive pulley poking above the bench top height (you're not doing plywood) make things even simpler.
Because of the limitations imposed by overhung arbors and trunnion, it's rarely practical to convert a workshop saw to IC drive, certainly not by hanging the engine off the old motor mount. if you do, it usually involves locking the trunnion and some very long belt drives. I sometimes use one that's a wheel-less tractor hulk and a couple of fathoms of horizontal flat belt.
On the whole, I just wouldn't go for a circular. Big circulars are scary, lashed-up big cicrculars are downright evil. Saw doctoring also costs a fortune for them.
For firewood, I'd probably use a decent chainsaw and construct proper bucking horses (for logs, and for unliftable trunks).
Ideally though I'd go for a bandsaw. The small Woodmizer LT-15 isn't _too_ many thousands and has usefulness far in excess of just doing firewood (I've even cut 1/8" veneer on it!). They'll pay for themselves in hire or contract sawing, if you have the time (or a timber-framing friend). Some day, when I have space to park one...
A larger table saw needs 4-8KW 3 phase, so that's a hefty old generator to deliver that continuously.
Very good advice. Until I used a 600mm/10HP Elliott, I hadn't realised how smooth and easy the big beasts are when used well within their capacity.
Small Woodmizer - brilliant, ideal solution - but I haven't seen reasonably priced hire or buy.
Yeah most of the large table saws will be cast iron big beasts (I'm guessing you want portability then) - so the light alternative is contractor saws, which are desirable and pricey.
The big beasts (there's some Wadkins on at the mo) seem to go for sub
1000 quid though, and a reasonable proportion aren't cowshed models.
Yes, I've got one which I need for pruning the trees. However cutting a tonne or so of wood each year into lengths that will fit into a stove is tedious with a chain saw. So much so that I tend to cut enough wood to last a week or two using a bowsaw.
I've seen two-man chainsaws that can cut a trunk into planks on site but that implies having someone else to help which isn't an option.
Don't mess about.
What you need is a big f*ck off UV laser.
DG
Wouldn't IR be a bit better?
No, you really don't want to mess with one of those abominations, believe me. Especially the sort with two (unsynchronised) engines.
They're also highly wasteful (fat kerf). OK for making beams, really wasteful for planks.
Only a tonne. Over a whole year? FFS, use an axe.
A decent day's felling will make a ton of brash for the woodburner, just in a day.
I'd stick with the chainsaw, as a rule of thumb 1 tank full of a husky
262 will cut the rounds for about 300kg of green logs.We call brash the bits you discard in the wood but even in first thinnings you should fell and convert 3tonnes of wood and in a late thinning 20 tonnes is possible with motor manual felling.
When I started felling hardwoods you would fell the timber for next to nothing but keep the cordwood as payment.
AJH
No, in a week.
I prefer to use a billhook.
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