saw

G/day fella's, I was going through some poota files and came across these pics that a m8 gave me and I thought they might interest you blokes, this was a job i did maybe 15 or so years ago.

My dad built this swing blade saw for my FIL some years ago, (for those that don't know the blade cuts horizontal in one direction then you swing it around to the vertical to cut in the other direction to slice out a length of timber from the log) after my dad died the FIL had 3 or 4 blokes do some mods and repairs including replacing the v-twin briggs engine and fitting a vw engine....unfortunately they were retards and stuffed the saw, it didn't cut well as the blade was going in at an angle and they had gutted the vw g/box and put a 3 belt pulley in there but it was too small in diameter and the belts would slip, also the ratio was not right as the blade speed that was needed was not matched to the engine rpm at peak torque. The engine fins/cooling system was packed full of sawdust and it was badly over heating, fortunately it only had a stuck valve. I cleaned out the cooling fins and cowlings and gave the valve and guide some love and gave it a valve grind ect and then made and fitted a cooling air inlet duct off to to the side with a flywire filter. Then fabricated a new engine mounting and fitted a suitable larger diameter drive pulley and threw the vw bell housing and g/box in the bin. Then remounted the blade/gearbox and aligned it spot on, then made a light weight carriage to sit the whole lot on, then fitted a hydraulic pump and drive motor and valve and radiator and cooling fan, i fitted a drive shaft on the front of the carriage and a cable on each side rail/beam so that it would pull itself back and forth, the hydraulic drive was a fully speed adjustable with a hyd motor valve, i put a low tension spring in the relief valve so that it auto slowed down on the big knots so it would chew through them without killing the engine and it then speed up to the set speed as it came out of the knot, this also made it safer in case of a jam up and it also wouldn't crush the operator if he got in between the saw and the log, to auto stop at the end of the cut it had adjustable stops at each end to accommodate for different length logs, then added cable trusses to the 12mtr long beams...... that was some tune up and adjustment...

Thank you for sharing these photos. I think many users will benefit from them. I understand from looking at the pictures that the saw doesn't need to be pushed, it moves by itself, and that's cool. What is the maximum diameter of the log you can saw? the full width of the bed?

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Originally Posted by ArnoldGilson

Thank you for sharing these photos. I think many users will benefit from them. I understand from looking at the pictures that the saw doesn't need to be pushed, it moves by itself, and that's cool. What is the maximum diameter of the log you can saw? the full width of the bed?

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Hi Arnold, it isn't my saw it was my father in laws saw, both he and the saw have now gone to the big timber mill in the sky. I worked with him a number of times mostly loading and setting up the logs and stacking and banding the cut timber. He could cut long lengths up to 4 foot diameter and about 5 foot diameter for shorter lengths, the saw would go up higher between the columns and the blade could be swung to the other side so that it had a bit more reach from side to side.

I understand. So it was a good saw - if it could cut such huge diameters of logs. Considering that this saw was designed and built by a personal project, these are impressive possibilities for her.