Hydraulic chainsaw answers
David Sophusson@ home in Custer
>Hi All,
There was a post a few weeks ago here about chainsaws and I mentioned that I use a Stanley hydraulic chainsaw as my main saw. Someone asked what I used for a power source. Well it�s that time of year again when I need to do some winter cleanup and also knock a few trees down out back in my wood lot. So I got out my equipment and snapped a couple of pics. Then I spent about 3 hours this morning learning how to resize pics to post here which I think I have finally got a little bit of a handle on. Although I still can�t seem to get the quality I�d like. Having been in the pro firewood biz in the past we designed and built a couple of machines to make the job easier. This machine here is called a shear. It is our small portable model that is good for logs up to 9 inches in diameter. The larger models we built were stationary and cut logs up to 24 inch diameter. The advantage of using these shears, which we have a patent on, is that no matter the diameter of the log it cuts the rounds at the same speed unlike a chainsaw which takes longer to cut the bigger the log. Also when cutting firewood with a chainsaw 2% of your wood ends up as saw chips. These machines run automatic or manual. For the larger logs I just lift the butt end of the log onto table and push it into the shear. There is a limit switch on a paddle and when the log is pushed into it, it starts the automatic cut cycle and shears the round off and the conveyor takes it out of your way either into a pile ready for the splitter or into the back of your truck. A hydraulic chainsaw just naturally goes hand in hand with this machine so this is my power source. I have 50 foot whips for the saw which is more than plenty because if I can�t get to within 50 feet of my work it�s not worth the effort when time is money. Speaking of time and money we found out that for cutting firewood trees that were over about 14 inches in diameter were a waste of time and energy both in cutting and splitting. So using this machine out in the field I would target trees in the size I was looking for then cut them down and limb them with the chainsaw then start at the butt end and cut the rounds until I got towards the narrower part of the tree when I could load the remainder of the log onto the shear which cuts faster. So as far as the chainsaw goes I really like it. It is light weight, easy to use, no gas-oil mixing, no vibration, no screaming 2 cycle engine, and it has more power. On the down side is that it costs about the same as 5 normal saws but this one will last just about forever and if it ever does need a rebuild its just a couple of bearings and seals.
Sophie, who should be outside working on this nice day.
