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Need help for a belt driven chain saw

Started by hedgerow, December 23, 2014, 09:31:18 PM

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hedgerow

Looking for some help on designing a belt driven 36 in chain saw on the end of a roller table for feeding my wood splitter. Their is some talent on this forum when I see the wood processors that were built. I just don't want to do a complete processor build when I have two splitters with buzz saws on both. I buzz saw a lot of hedger 12 in dia and under. Now I am cutting in an area that I am getting a lot of locust logs 24 to 36 in and need a better way to buck them for splitting. Short on help. Thinking of using some big roller track I have and putting a home built belt driven saw with a 3/4 in 36 in processor bar on it. I don't want to have to set up more hyd's to run a hyd operated saw. Need ideas on clutches? Is there a electric one that will stand up to all the cycles or just use a idler to tighten the belts. Seems like most are hyd saws and not a lot are belt driven Why.

Corley5

  A .404 harvester chain and bar will be better.  It's cheaper all around, easier to maintain, won't require as much HP, and doesn't make as big a pile of chips as 3/4 pitch.
  I've got .404 on my Block Buster and 3/4 on my harvester and much prefer working with the .404  :)
Burnt Gunpowder is the Smell Of Freedom

sawguy21

Hydraulic is a simple system and very flexible. Highly efficient and chain speed can be easily adjusted. Belts, clutches, and idlers are like my ex, high maintenance and need a lot of attention.
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

hedgerow

Quote from: sawguy21 on December 23, 2014, 11:49:00 PM
Hydraulic is a simple system and very flexible. Highly efficient and chain speed can be easily adjusted. Belts, clutches, and idlers are like my ex, high maintenance and need a lot of attention.
I couldn't agree more. Hydraulics is a great way to drive things. It goes back to the age old problem time and money. In my area people heating with wood probably only use a half to two cord a year max.Most just use wood when it is real cold Jan-Feb or in a small shop. Most forks around here use gas or electric to say warm. I burn 10 to 15 full cords a year in my Garn burn it year around and heat my house water in the warm months. What I am trying to do is get one the farms we have cleaned up and make the land productive as our tax folks don't care if the land makes money or not. I don't have the time to build a full blown processor. I work in town a full time job and we farm too. All the used processor's I find that are big enough to do the size logs I need to do are too far away, too much money and usually not very move able. People to run chains saws around here are hard to find. Most land around here that gets cleaned up trees get tracked hoed out pushed in a pile and burned. A few folks will cut a little out the piles rest is burned and then buried. A little logging goes on with a few walnut and cotton wood that is used to pallets. There has been more land cleaning going on around here in the last five years than in the previous 20 as land went up in valve a lot of folks sold new owners what production high valves lead to high taxes for the rest of us that have been here. My goal is to get a 10 to 15 year supply of wood ready and get the ground to be productive. This is the last farm we have that needs cleaned up. Rest is done just needs maintained. Age is catching up with me. The I currently have is slowly going away.

Ford_man

Why not just sell those big log to a mill for what you can get and not worry about all the labor of cutting , splitting , loading and delivering the wood as firewood?

beenthere

hedgerow
Welcome to the Forestry Forum.
QuoteIn my area people heating with wood probably only use a half to two cord a year max.Most just use wood when it is real cold Jan-Feb or in a small shop. Most forks around here use gas or electric to say warm. I burn 10 to 15 full cords a year in my Garn burn it year around and heat my house water in the warm months.

Would help us to know where you are located. Add it to your bio in your profile.
Interesting belt-driven idea. Tell us more about your intent to build it.
south central Wisconsin
It may be that my sole purpose in life is simply to serve as a warning to others

hedgerow

A little more history. I live in eastern Nebraska. I don't sell firewood. Just burn 10 to 15 cords a year. There are no saw mill tress on this farm. We did another farm we have a while back that we have and it had black walnut and those went to Wisconsin. This farm has locust, hedge that was planted in the 30's and elm most of which goes to the brush pile as for the work to work up for the heat produces. I have a s-750 bobcat with a 3 ft hyd saw on it to cut the trees down and stump to the ground. I log most out with the hyd saw and pile with the bobcat and when I can get help we buck with a chain saw and split with the two splitters. I buzz saw a lot of the hedge. I need a bigger saw set up to do the locust and just trying to keep the cost down. I get tired of bucking with a hand chain saw. I spend too much on toys and I just as well buy propane. I would just like to finish this job up and stock pile all the hedge and locust. Wood cutting help in this area is hard to come by. I have two guys I trade hunting rights for cutting time but they are getting older too. At the end of the day the firewood I make is not cheap.

Thewoodman

Hi
Can we see some pics of the wood / trees and your gear? perhaps we can give you some pointers
Manuka / Radiata Pine / Redwood

hedgerow

Quote from: Thewoodman on December 25, 2014, 07:22:21 PM
Hi
Can we see some pics of the wood / trees and your gear? perhaps we can give you some pointers
We will have to see what we can do about some pictures. I am not set up very good on taking pictures and getting them on the computer. Hope all had a great holiday.

cwjr

Welcome Hedgerow,

Just an idea but have you considered just mounting a large chainsaw to a pivot on your table assembly?  It may be simpler than belts and more reliable in the long run.

I built a processor and agree with you completely that hydraulic pumps, valves and motors get expensive,  my processor is built from used industrial machinery that I was scrapping and it still was around $5000 out of pocket. 

hedgerow

CWJR  I have been giving some thought to mounting a chain saw at the end of my roller trailer. I have a solo 694 that pulls a 36 inch bar no problem. I am just am trying to get away from messing with a chain saw all the time. As I get older the big saws are a pain to start. The only thing I know for sure I am just not ready to drop the money for a engine and a big single stage pump that will run a hyd saw. Some way I need to come up with a design of a belt driven chain saw with a clutch that works and will fit on my roller trailer. It may come down to a chain saw and that will have to be the way it is until I am ready to spent the money for a hyd saw set up. I will kept watching and maybe a old homemade  processor will come up for sale that I can work on and get to do what we want it to do. What I have found that was priced right sold fast and were a long distance away and not very portable. 

magicmikey

 Hedgerow, I have a little [ 16" ]  saw driven with a 3 hp motor. I usually leave the motor running during advance. It has cut 5 cords into 2" cookies without motor problems.
  mike

   

 

   

hedgerow

Magicmickey  You are doing with a electric motor what I want to do with a four cycle small engine. Any closer pictures of the saw? Are you using standard  pillar block bearings. Have you checked the rpm the saw is running? Sorry I have a lot of questions just trying to get the speed and power right the first time. Are you using hyd to control the bar movement? 3/8,404, or 3/4 chain pitch? I am thinking about making the bar movement a manual lever.I haven't decided to use a belt tightener or a electric clutch to start and stop the chain. A little scared a electric clutch won't stand up to that much cycling . I am trying not to have hyd on the trailer that has roller track mounted on. IT will have a saw at the end then another set of rollers going to the splitter. Not the ideal set up just trying to get away from bucking wood on the ground with a chain saw.

magicmikey

  The saw mounting has the shaft inside a pipe, a larger pipe with the bar mount on it`s end to rotate. Motor is 3450 rpm with a 7 tooth 404 sprocket. The bar and clamp use a 1 hp/50 psi pumpset. Rate of feed is 1"/ second.
  With a sliding or rotating engine base you could use the bar lever to engage the v-belts?
   Can get closeups tomorrow if needed.
mike


  

 

hedgerow

Magicmikey. Are you using regular pillar block bearings to support the shaft. I took your picture of your saw to work today. I am like a lot of farmers I have to have a real job so I can farm. Any way I do repair work and PM's  for a animal health company and we have one in house machine guy that has a shop at home and he was showing some interest in helping me get this saw set up. He saw the tube set up and said I could turn a tube and we could put bearings, seals and run it in oil for the arbor of the saw.Then I wouldn't have to worried about turning pillar block bearing too fast. If I can get him to help that would be great. I can build most thing but this guy could refine it a bunch. He has the machine shop equipment I don't have in my shop. IF you can post some close up pictures of the clamp and the saw that would be great. 

magicmikey

  I put sealed bearings on the shaft held in with an endcap and setscrew.

   

  

 

  The clamp is bolted to the cylinder head end and the rod is fixed underneath the saw. It runs in a piece of channel and a slot is the guide.



 

mike

hedgerow

Magicmikey Thanks for the close ups. That is sure a slick way you are running that saw.

magicmikey

 Your welcome hedgerow. Good luck on the build. :)
mike

wiam

Magicmikey, what hp is your electric motor?

sawguy21

3 hp. He last posted more than 4 years ago. I know Mike, he is quite the mechanic/fabricator. ;D
old age and treachery will always overcome youth and enthusiasm

wiam


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