Mechanical or hydraulic?

[r.man]

I am starting to think that the cutting saw on a small firewood processor should be direct drive from the motor via a clutch that disengages when the saw is in its rest position. Splitter cycle time and a limited amount of hydraulic volume should make this a no brainer so I wonder why so many small processors use hydraulic motors to drive the saw.

[Hilltop366]

I've been thinking the same thing, be it a tractor pto or stationary engine, The Idea I had in mind was to have a  disc clutch that would disengage via a ball and ramp system to separate the drive side from the driven side of the clutch when the bar is raised to the rest position.

[r.man]

I like that idea, I was contemplating an idler that would lose tension when the bar was up. Spring loaded to the bar but with a stop at the top to disengage it.

[blackfoot griz]

If it may help,  there have been some great threads on the FF regarding building firewood processors.  Jaybee did one, there is another one currently by Gorshi further down in the Firewood section and this was a good one for ideas: "Building a firewood processor (with updated 7-10-2011 pics and video) "  Sorry...I am not sure how to do a link!

To me, the biggest challenge is to determine and balance the HP, splitter cycle time and cutting speed.  Having a super fast cut doesn't help when you're waiting on the splitter to return home. I fought this when building mine.
If there is one thing I discovered that makes all of the difference is that(in my opinion) it is crucial to have the ability to control how fast the saw feeds into the log.  Larger diameter log...slower feed.  Regardless of saw configuration, it is really handy to be able to speed up or slow down the cutting process to match the log diameter and splitter timing.
When are you starting your build?

[r.man]

My back and shoulder are suggesting this season. Probably something very basic to start that just puts more of the heavy work to a machine.