Thread: Deep Cut Power Saws - Available?

The ideal tool for this sort of thing is what is known as a Rip Saw which is used for milling timber.
It's a mobile bandsaw powered by a chainsaw saw power head.
It does at least 12" wide cuts - very fast.
Trouble is I have not seen any for sale for a decade or so.

You might be able to used one of those smalle hand held electric bandsaws used for metal working although I suspect the 125mm max cut on those (Dewalt) will be too small.
There may be bigger ones around I just have tried looking that hard.

FWIW my Italian cousins use variants of the Rip Saw in their automated wood factory in Italy. When the wood processor jams up they sometimes climb into the machine and break up the jammed wood with these saws.

Someone with a bandsaw mill could probably cut 3 or 4 at a time for you - would still require manipulating lots of logs onto and off the mill frame.

Chainsaws even with regular chains can produce surprisingly good finishes if they are held fairly in jigs like alaskan mills or minimill frames and the operator develops some skill.
This is the finish I generated with a large saw/blade/chain on a wide Spotted Gum Log back in 2014.
finish.jpg

Makita still make the saw as I have seen it extensively used in a YouTube series I watch. Whether you can persuade Makita to sell you one in Oz is another story altogether. This is Mafelle's answer to the problem but it won't be cheap!

The Tally Ho wooden boat project uses the big Makita saw. Looks like cartoon sized:
From Lofting to Re-Framing / Removing Planks - Rebuilding Tally Ho EP27 - YouTube

They also use a gig with a chainsaw on some of the bigger timber.
Chainsawing & fitting huge new Keel Timber in a 1910 sailboat - Rebuilding Tally Ho EP21 - YouTube

I am not into boats but find this series an interesting watch.

Those large handheld circular saws were mainly available in the US market and were primarily for building log cabins I suspect. I think they were around 16" daimeter saw, but were really intended for cutting softwoods such as Douglas Fir( Oregon). They are the wrong voltage for Oz.

A quick look at US Ebay showed about 20+ entries such as this one by Makita:

Makita 16-5/16 in. Circular Saw w/ Electric Brake 5402NA New | eBay

Skillsaw also make a similar machine.

Regards
Paul

My small chainsaw milling rig would easily cut tapers on 8 x 8s ironbarks using a set up like this.
It would need to be done on a level surface but once set up it do 7 cuts in one pass.
to help ensure uniformity maybe also clamp all the pieces together?
Screen Shot 2022-06-08 at 10.15.57 am.jpg

Originally Posted by Pete57

The Tally Ho wooden boat project uses the big Makita saw. Looks like cartoon sized:
From Lofting to Re-Framing / Removing Planks - Rebuilding Tally Ho EP27 - YouTube

They also use a gig with a chainsaw on some of the bigger timber.
Chainsawing & fitting huge new Keel Timber in a 1910 sailboat - Rebuilding Tally Ho EP21 - YouTube

I am not into boats but find this series an interesting watch.

This is the series I was alluding to but I did not want to dig through 6 years of videos to find where Leo was using the saw. He is a master craftsman with a chainsaw though.

Originally Posted by Bushmiller

Those large handheld circular saws were mainly available in the US market and were primarily for building log cabins I suspect. I think they were around 16" daimeter saw, but were really intended for cutting softwoods such as Douglas Fir( Oregon). They are the wrong voltage for Oz.

A quick look at US Ebay showed about 20+ entries such as this one by Makita:

Makita 16-5/16 in. Circular Saw w/ Electric Brake 5402NA New | eBay

Skillsaw also make a similar machine.

Regards
Paul

A step down transformer would fix the voltage issue but I suspect Iron Bark would sort out the Makita pretty damned quickly.

Hi H+F. If you make a timber "collar" and clamp it to the top of the post you can set the 9.25 saw to 45° and run the edge of the saw base along the jig. This will give you a sawkerf as a guide to follow with chainsaw. Then a belt sander to finish off. I used to build picket fences many years ago and this was mostly how we did it with the posts in the ground (handsaw instead of chainsaw and cut in the kerf but we were using white cypress posts)

Originally Posted by Mountain Ash

Hi H+F. If you make a timber "collar" and clamp it to the top of the post you can set the 9.25 saw to 45° and run the edge of the saw base along the jig. This will give you a sawkerf as a guide to follow with chainsaw. Then a belt sander to finish off. I used to build picket fences many years ago and this was mostly how we did it with the posts in the ground (handsaw instead of chainsaw and cut in the kerf but we were using white cypress posts)

A hand held chainsaw will still wander in the cut - his posts are 8" in diameter and that is a long way to hold a chainsaw straight.

Hi H + F

Just an out of the box thought.... cut each side of the post with your 9" circular saw which leaves about 2" square in the centre. The posts could be clamped together to do say five or ten at a time. Then use a recipro saw to cut the rest out of the guts. Tidy up with coarse belt sander. A bit more time consuming but doable.

Regards
Twosheds

Originally Posted by twosheds

Hi H + F

Just an out of the box thought.... cut each side of the post with your 9" circular saw which leaves about 2" square in the centre. The posts could be clamped together to do say five or ten at a time. Then use a recipro saw to cut the rest out of the guts. Tidy up with coarse belt sander. A bit more time consuming but doable.

ON principle I like the idea and it's definitely worth a try

But just be aware of the total magnitude of the task
10, 200mm long cuts - that's 2m, that has to be done 4 times so 4m, in ironbark! And then same again over and over
Theyr'e full depth cuts so they're blind cuts which puts a very heavy load on the motor.
Even with a new blade I'd worry this will eventually cook the Makita.
Hand held circulars are only really designed for intermittent burst (ie cross cutting) in thick timber and sheet goods up to around 25mm thick.

I regularly break up thick timber slabs (including iron bark) with a big Makita circular
Mostly its ripping 40 - 75 mm around 2.4m in length and then a bit of cross cutting of the sliced up bits.
Above 50mm thick in something like Spotted gum the saw starts to struggle and gets hot.
At 75mm it gets really hot and I have to give it a 10 minute rest after every cut.
Usually I only do a couple of cuts and then give the saw a long rest so it cools right down.
Cross cutting is worse.

To ripcut 75mm thick ironbark I cut about half a meter and then give the saw a rest.

I have used a Festool plunge saw with a thin kerf blade to cross cut 75mm thick 3m long jarrah slabs and it did not get anywhere near as hot as the Makita did cutting the same wood. I would be interested to know how it would fare in Iron Bark which is about 2X harder than Jarrah,

What BobL said. I forgot what it was like last time I tied to rip some 2 x 8 recycled ironbark with my trusty 20 year old Ryobi 7" saw. Almost let out some magic smoke.

How about 2 circular saws with matching thickness cross cutting blades. They're pretty common, may be easy to borrow one. One saw set to 90 degrees. The other set to your bevel angle. Only cut say a third or a half depth each cut until you reach full depth. While you are rotating the timber and cutting the next face may give the first saw time to cool down.

However the job will now take at least twice as long.

Regards
Twosheds

Its not 2 x 8' this is 8x8"

I assume the OP wants a pyramidal top?

Given it sounds like you are rural, I would be looking for someone with a firewood saw that you could jig something up on to hold the post at the correct angle. The ones I have used work vaguely like a sliding table saw and with usually an 18-24” blade would be ample for your requirements.

Cheers Andrew