Home-made timber saw: thoughts?

Question

Have you seen the large (12"-15" blade) timber framing saws? They're just a heavy duty circular saw with large blades, seems to me. The Makita I recently saw was only 12 amps at that...

What would prevent someone from making their own from a decent circular saw to begin with, then fabricating a larger safety housing for the blade? That housing alone, it seems, jacks the price up about $200.

Just curious, H

ps: I'm not looking for dire warnings from scaredycats and hypersafetyites. If you have genuine experience with this sort of thing and can offer reasoned caveats, however, feel welcome to offer something.

My Old Tools · Accepted Answer

I have the Makita 16" and the Big Foot 10".   The Big Foot is a SkillSidewinder with a larger housing and shoe bolted on.  I think they also do a14".  Check Tool Crib.  The Sidewinder has more torque than conventionaldirect drive saws.

Hylourgos · Answer

Ahh...I hadn't considered torque.  Even a sidewinder would most likelybog down under 7" or so of timber. Thanks for jogging my brains,H

Dan Petroski · Answer

It would seem to me that would be fairly easy to do buy cutting off just theouter part of the shield and expanding the dia of the shield and doing thesame with the base of the saw to accommodate the increase in blade dia. As atool and die maker of some 40 years I too make a lot of my tools and getchastised . Forgive them for they do not understand. Have fun at what youdo.

Home-made timber saw: thoughts?

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