Given all of the angst over the small circular saw on a stick, thought I would add some perspective. Remember, people actually used the following setup and most likely in less than ideal conditions (you have to join the lines, Supernews is too friggin' stupid to recognize that this is not a commercial posting and rejects it if I post the whole link.
I think that's much less likely to be a problem than the saw on a stick myself -- it stays in the same place.
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Think about that for a second. Yeah, the *saw* stays in place -- the operator does not. The operator is pushing wood through that blade with no guard, no protection if he trips on the way to the saw, no protection if the ground beneath becomes slippery (as it might during the winter when something like this was very likely to be used), or if he slips while pushing the wood through the saw. Also bear in mind that the operator's objective is to saw as much wood as possible in a short amount of time.
I know which of those two machines I'd rather be using.
I've run sawmills of very similar design but much larger than that one
-- it's not as bad as you're trying to make it.
I'll still take the fixed, heavy machine over the possible flying handsaw, thanks... :)
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dpb wrote: ...
To amplify, actually _a_ sawmill of similar general style.
When got out of school and moved to Virginia, first time I'd ever been anywhere there were trees sufficient to actually have sawmills and outside the high school shop, first opportunity to start shop on own.
Found several small mills around Lynchburg, one in particular between Lynchburg and Alta Vista--a one-man mill run by a crotchety old man who had been there all his life which was getting on towards 80 by then, I expect although I never knew just how old he actually was.
His mill was powered by an old Case 930 tractor which had been stripped of running gear, etc., in place of the original (I think) steam engine. It was a 42" blade but did have a cable-drawn carriage but was as open as the one you posted link to.
I bought lumber from him for a couple of years and gradually got to know him so that eventually I worked weekends and some evenings with him at the mill for the chance to get first dibs on the walnut and better oak logs. The prime output of the mill was ties for the N&W and timbers for the coal mines. We cut everything else on a as-time basis -- rough 1x stuff for barn siding, etc., black locust landscape small timbers for a local garden store, occasionally some poplar for the Lane factory just down the road when get enough stacked up to make a kiln loading.
Learned most what I know about wood from that old fella' ...
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I spent hours working a saw similar to the one shown in the link in the late '20's - early 50's. Our "saw rig" was a bit different - the tilt table was outfitted to the back of the frame of a "former" Model A pickup truck. The saw - probably 36" - was mounted to an arbor with a flat belt pulley on the other end.
To operate it, a suitable level location was picked, the front wheels blocked and the rear axle raised up by using a long pole, so that the tire came up and made contact with the pulley - both rear wheels off the ground - voila! direct drive! Wish I had photos...
Start the engine, shift into gear, and set the throttle for the right speed, by ear. We used to cut up 8 - 10 cords of firewood to see us thru the winter here in Maine. Slabs and small round wood could be stacked and cut in one pass - big bolts sometimes required cutting part way thru and then rotated to finish the cut. I was allowed to operate it about when I turned 10; before that I was only allowed to "take away" and stack. Splitting with a maul and sometimes wedges came after - usually about the time of first frost - split easier then. The wood warmed us several times; once felling and yarding, again cutting up, again splitting and getting it in the shed, and finally burning.
In later years - 2000 - I had a Sears tilt table saw - about 24" blade
- that I hooked to the front PTO pulley on my Simplicity lawn tractor with a long v belt. Worked great! Have photos somewhere....
And yes, I still have all my fingers!
Grov
RE: Subject
A few years ago the L/A Maritime built a couple of 95 ft Brigs in their parking lot.
Talk about old & large wood working machinery.
They had a bandsaw that rotated around the stock to make angular cuts while the stock laid flat on infeed & outfeed roller conveyors for example.
Don't have a clue where they found some of this old and very large machinery or what they did with it after the project was finished.
Remember Rube Goldberg?
Had an uncle who took his 1940 vintage John Deere farm tractor and fitted a saw blade, probably about 24" dia, on the front and used it to cut up brush for for firewood.
Never saw it in action, but just looking at it gave me the shivvers.
Lew
Mark & Juanita wrote: ...
If you want a place that'll make you think you might want another career path, try looking in on one of the shingle sawyers' mills! Those guys slice a shingle off a billet essentially freehand while the world turns...
The "mostest-scariest" feeling I've had around a piece of woodworking was at a BC veneer mill even though it was fully automated the size, speed and just something about the sound (an evil hiss :) ) just gave me the chills being beside it. (Working for company which did a control system upgrade job there years and years ago...I did much of the controls coding)
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Howdy,
There was an episode of "Dirty Jobs" in which they worked in a shingle mill somewhere in the North West.
Just thinking of those hissing blades still gives me the willies...
All the best,
That episode gave me the heebie-jeebies.
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