Design a saw horse challenge!

Ok, Lots of us seem to have made "custom" saw horses, and I keep seeing the one somebody (forgot who made it?) made for dex posted in his saw comparison threads. I also made a nice one last year which works fine, but it has one very bad design flaw. I see this flaw in everyone else's as well though.... So I figured, we should design the perfect saw horse, before I build a new one.

The problem I see is the dimensions between the supports (see X and Y in pic). My horse has 3 supports (as do most of them I see), and two of the supports are close together (14" or so apart), while the 3rd one is about 3' away. If I cut anywhere between the long X to Y spread, the round falls down to the "beam" of the horse, and/or the end piece flips up and falls off the horse all-together. So that means I can't cut an 18" round, really anywhere on it except if I have 18" or more hanging completely off the horse.

So what is the best dimensions to use for these? I'm almost thinking of making one with 4 supports, which are all 15" apart, then I can cut 18" rounds and they are still supported..... ??

Ideas?





MODS, you can move this to Firewood forum....

 

I like the one a friend of mine made. I traded him out of it during a multiple chainsaw trade including 3120xp 346xpg 262xp log stand.

 

Me, metal, and a chainsaw do NOT get along!

 

I hit it with a mower blade once but not a chainsaw yet . Hope I didnt just jinx myself .

 

I've thought about that style, but it takes up too much space for me (I have no storage space). So I have to stick with a foldup....

 

I made this one for Dex:



I used the same offset leg design that you did - X: 16" OC, Y: 24" OC, Z: 34.5". I think it works great. The total length of my buck with overhang is 45", and 3 16" rounds is 48". So if I leave a inch or so on each side, there will be 3 rounds left on the buck. I cut all the excess first from both sides. I make the next cut an inch in front of the center leg, giving me my first 16" round. This round is now supported at the far end, and wants to rest against the remaining log. The last cut is in the middle of the long side, and those will want to lean against each other and stay on the buck. Now all of your remaining rounds are sitting on the buck at waist height for easy removal and transport.





I think maybe your "flaw" is having too much distance on the long side. I would suggest making X your ideal firewood length, and Y somewhere less than 2X. Somewhere between 1.5 and 1.7 I think would be best.

Now, if you want to discuss groundbreaking improvements, have a look at this. Half lap joinery my man. The flaw that I see in everyone's design is the way that top rail that bears all the weight, is only supported by a couple screws. The joinery enables it to work as an assembly.



I did a whole build thread on it here if you want to have a look: http://firewoodhoardersclub.com/forums/threads/sawbuck-build.5730/

 

Thanks Shawn.... I was guessing at my dimensions! I just went out and measured and here are my actuals:
X=16" (od)
Y=36" (od)

By "od" I mean to the outside of the supports instead of on center. So my on centers would be 13" (16 less 1/2 of 4 studs), and the long side 33". I buck 18" rounds, so that should work per your recommendations.

In your pic above of the cut rounds falling down to the beam demonstrates exactly the problem I always have. I'd like to instead be able to cut 3 rounds, and have all three rounds supported on both sides so none of them "fall" to the beam. That would make bucking much easier. I'm trying to come up with a design that would not make it too heavy, but it needs 6 supports (3 rounds x 2). So maybe some small supports or something???

Nice work on the lap joinery!

 

Dex, those chips look nice. You could make some nice clocks out of them. What wood is that?

 

Wow, that utube of the 261 was FAST.

 

Sure, I'd love to try a few of those. If they come out nice, I'll send one back to you. I'll cover your shipping... I'll pm you address. Thanks buddy!

 

My center rail definitely takes more damage from me hitting it with the chainsaw than it does from the rounds. They will fall off occassionally, but if I remember to take the outside one on the long side first, the other two usually balance neatly on the top rail. Large falling rounds were something I thought about in version 2.0 of my buck. I haven't noticed any serious damage yet on the original, but they'll land right on the bottom rail when they fall off. So I moved the bottom rail up the leg, more like your design. Doesn't matter to me if the small ones fall off - I just make sure the buck is sitting right where I want the pile to be.

I can see why you'd want to go that route though. I think the shorter supports would be a good idea to cut down on the extra weight.

 

Shawn, when I say "fall" I don't mean off the horse, I just mean one side of the cut round drops because it is no longer supported on one side, and it drops down to the beam/rail. Sometimes before completely cut thru, it will start to pinch the bar. That is what I want to try and figure out how to eliminate. I'm not at all worried about the falling wood (to the ground) or it hitting the rail/beam. Mine is pretty beefy with pressure treated wood, so the rounds won't hurt it at all

And yes, I also hit the beam/rail a lot in the long section with the chain.

 

Gotcha. See what I do is what I call the "pullout method". I usually don't go all the way through cuts 3 & 4 - if 3 starts to pinch, I pull out and work on 4 - go most of the way thru, then finish up 3, then 4 from the bottom. Then they all want to stay put and lean on each other (because of that very compression that wanted to pinch your bar ), and dont actually land on the rail until I start moving them.

My ideal design would still omit them for weight.. But one thing I really like about having X match my ideal firewood size, is that it makes a convenient reference. In your design, I think maybe you'd want the outside dimensions of X to be a few inches less than your usual length, so you could use it as sort of a guide. And so that's how you'd figure out the spacing - by where you want to saw to go.

 

Here's a pic of one with a "false" leg:

http://s976.photobucket.com/user/loon20009/media/IMG_2182.jpg.html

 

Here is one with a movable support

http://www.motherearthnews.com/home...g-and-storing-zmaz96onzgoe.aspx#axzz3NMCGwtNZ

 

HD, interesting, but you can only cut rounds hanging off the ends of that horse. That's terrible, you can't cut in the middle at all because there are rails in the way.