Cut-off saw

[NELOG]

I was thinking about making a stationary firewood cut-off saw. In looking at the price of large circular blades, as well as the price of teeth, the specialized equipment/ skills required to balance them, etc. I think that a chainsaw cut-off machine would be best. Anyway, in looking on eBay, old two stroke snow mobile engines are pretty cheap, and I'd imagine that they would be ideal for running a chainsaw because of their high rpms and because many include clutches (to isolate the engine from damage caused by obstacles encountered in the wood.) Anyway, I think that 3/4" harvester chain would be best suited for the application. Does anyone know what sort of sprocket, at what sort of rpm range a machine mounted cut-off saw runs? Any ideas on making an oiler? Would .404 handle the power of a snowmobile engine? Has anyone made something like this before? any other ideas? Thanks a lot

 

[Newfie]

cutoff saws on firewood processors are typically hydraulically driven.

 

[NELOG]

Hydraulically driven saws seem good in that they can be stopped and started when needed, but they require a lot of power to begin with; you wouldn't want the operation of your cut-off saw the affect the speed of your ram. A processor on many levels seems impractical in that I only deal with wood that is, at maximum, 8 feet in length, but up to 40" diameter. Most processors are designed for long and skinny material. Anyway, a chainsaw works, but isn't as consistent or as fast as (I think) my proposed idea would be. Additionally, for the luxury of having a processor, you pay a premium of atleast ten thousand dollars over even the most expensive commercial log splitter. In any event, there is a great amount of loss in a hydraulic system, to convert the engine's power in to hydraulic power just to turn it back into mechanical power, it seems that it would be more efficient to simply run a gas engine directly to the chain. The surplus hp required for this operation would not run on a continuous basis, when it is not required, and there are less parts to service (high speed hydraulic motors are expensive and probably very inconvenient to service, in addition to an engine.)