I slipped a picture of this monstrosity in the "how small do you cut" thread but I figured I'd elaborate on it here. This is an old International Harvester cordwood saw that was originally designed to be powered from a tractor's flat belt pulley. My father-in-law had a JD one that he added a gas motor to and it worked great for years, so I had a bunch of pole-size trees to cut up so we put one together for me. It has a 10 HP Tecumseh snow blower engine on it with the 110V electric starter on it still, but it pulls over and starts easy enough. The "flat" pulley on the saw is actually not flat if you've never seen them. They are kind of fatter in the middle than the ends. The gas engine has a 3 groove v-belt sheave on it. By using the two outer grooves the belts both sit equally tight. The engine is picked up on it's "kick stand" when starting it and then it is lowered; the engine provides all the belt tension needed. When we first built it, I used to move it with the bucket of my tractor but I had an old trailer frame kicking around so I mounted it on that last spring. It works really well. I cut the small stuff to 8' lengths and dice them up into 2' lengths on this. People say it's dangerous, and they are right, but as long as you keep your foot area clear, it's pretty safe as long as you are careful. This tool beats bending over with your saw in the dirt all the time!
Nice setup, I have been looking for one myself. I hate messing with the limbs, but I also want to keep my woods clean. I stick a few pieces here and there in the piles for kindling etc. Nice rig
I have used buzz saws in the past (including one powered by steam), my main concern with your setup is that the saw might not be stable mounted on a trailer. I find a bow saw good for bucking (and saving the back).
Forgot to ask in the other thread, but I thought that looked like a International saw. I remember my grandfather, a International man, had one. He also only had 9 fingers. haha unrelated accident. It's cool to see that old iron being put to good use. 4 leveling Jacks at each corner would make that bad lad rock solid. Wouldn't one of these rigs with the sawstop table saw technology applied to it be the cats azz?
Big difference in stopping a 2 hp electric motor and a rotating mass powered by a 9 hp gas engine (or a tractor).
I had gotten two camper leveling jacks out of the junkyard for that purpose but it has been working fine without them
Very true. The laws of physics don't generally bend. I'm sure it could be scaled up. At its heart it's really just a soft aluminum blade brake. Regardless I'm certainly not offering any of my body parts to test the prototype. Really just a bit of wishful daydreaming on my part.
We have a slide table saw that mounts to the back of a little John Deere M and is driven by a short belt. Weight of the saw table is what keeps tension on the belt. It just hinges at the lowest point. We used is a good bit when I was a kid to cut up limb wood and when grandpa would get truckloads of misc building lumber. All I'd add to this is how LOUD they are when in use, at least ours was. When the wood hits that large blade it'll ring hard. Ahh... memories.
I like those little tractors. Foot clutch'd 2 cyl. I got a few of them running for the place I used to work. They wanted to have a few around on display. I got them running and they parked them out front. I haven't seen one move in a few years now. Sad.
Ours hasn't run for years either, been sitting in the barn behind a bunch of stuff. Ours had a definite sound when starting it up with the 6 volt battery working hard to do so. We have a 440 JD crawler loader that has the same engine.
They need a shed over them at least if there going to just park them out front!!! And take them for a spin at least a few times a year!
The M ran quite well. The Ls even better. Now all three just sit there. Someone half-azzed painted them so they looked nicer but I really liked the original patina the M had.
