Thread: Tablesaw opinions

5" of cut your going to need a 14"+ blade and some serious Hp. You might be better off taking the wood too a mill to get it resawn.

Sounds like youre a perfect candidate for one of these. Alaskan Chainsaw Mill.

I have seen the chainsaw mills, and have thought of getting one. Problem: reclaimed lumber is not always nail free, and I cannot always see the nails right off the bat. Chainsaw hits nail= bad situation. Table saw hits nail, still bad, but not nearly as tragic.

The blade size I was going to go with was going to be 18-24", with a 5-6 horsepower motor driving it.

Martrix, oddly enough, after looking at your mill post, I realized we are reclaiming much the same type of lumber. I work for a company that rips apart and rebuilds locomotive engines, and they ship the engines in on old railroad ties. Some of the ties are oak, some maple, pine, chestnut, ash, hickory, cherry, etc. Some even have figure! (Two weeks ago I saw a 18' x10" x 6" piece of maple, figured (curly) at least 3/4 the way through lengthwise, and had no way of getting it home or cutting it up. I could have cried. Yeah, it may have had checking though out, but even that would have made a nice rustic bookshelf or mantle.

Matthew, if you're ambitious enough to consider building a single-purpose huge table saw, designed from scratch, you can probably build something like martrix's contraption with much less effort and anxiety. There have been a few threads recently on several of these contraptions, with slight variations in design. As far as hitting nails is concerned, consider a chain with carbide teeth. They're typically sold to fire brigades to accommodate such situations. Last I checked (a couple years ago), an 18-inch carbide chain (for example) cost about US$100. You'd spend more than that just in your design time for the table saw. For a stationary installation, an electric chain saw of adequate oomph could be less dodgy than gas. You can also swap the chain and bar between a gas saw (field) and an electric (shop), all other things being equal.

Joe

Joe,
Thanks. I am not sure I will do that, but it is a pretty good idea. I may end up doing both, and making the tablesaw more elaborate than I had planned, to augment my small tablesaw. As I said before, I have seen the chainsaw mills, and always did like the idea, but never really thought I would have enough of a use for one. Also, I thought a table saw would be better, as I can make one out of wood, and the chainsaw mill would have to be welded steel.

I tend to be a bit of a bargain hunter though, and have a habit of picking up tools at dirt cheap prices at yard sales and such (For instance, my 8" 1954 rockwell tablesaw was bought from a guy for $20.00 not to long ago), maybe I should start looking for a welder...

I have an alaskan mill powered by a Stihl 090 - a serious peice of machinery. I slab up trees evry now and then on the farm usually to 30-70mm thickness but after seasoning and thicknessing I also need to rip them down later using a rough table saw like CMD does. I have just acquired some old 14-16 inch saw blades (already sharp) really cheap and have a 5HP Honda motor for power. I was just about to try and set up a rough bench as a trial. I was going to use a 1/2" shaft on pillow blocks that I have (I suspect I will need a more sturdy set up in the long term) and the motor driving at about 1:1 with probably dual V belts as this will give me around 3000 metres/minute tip speed at 2800 rpm motor speed which appears to be what most saws run at. Any comments out there as to this proposal?.

Bill

You will probably need 1-1/2" shaft. A 1/2" shaft is so small for a large blade it is likely to bend under load and be downright dangerous.

3000rpm sounds too fast for 14"-16" blades but I'm very rusty on speeds

You need to build yourself one of these.

Originally Posted by echnidna

You will probably need 1-1/2" shaft. A 1/2" shaft is so small for a large blade it is likely to bend under load and be downright dangerous.

Agreed re dangerous - hence why just a trial on smaller timber - note that pulley is between bearings and on the other side of the bearing from the blade - a mere 1 1/2" away so not much whip if careful - don't worry I have pleanty of respect for saw blades. The trial is more of the Honda motor - whether 5HP is enough or whether to swap out the 9HP from the big 18" commercial thicknesser I have - I certainly would not even trial that with a 1/2" shaft. Reason for petrol power is that it is almost a quick to pull a Honda starter as it is to flick a switch and $28,000 cheaper than connecting 3 phase in the bush.

3000rpm sounds too fast for 14"-16" blades but I'm very rusty on speeds

SCMS is 3800 rpm so rough conversion from 10" to 14" is around 2800 rpm - max torque for the Honda is 2500 rpm.

Re suggestion "You need to build yourself one of these." Unfortunately missed out on a great set of blades at auction a few years back - never mind the canadian rig with 127cc stihl power is enough for the slabbing I do. Anyway haven't been here long enough to collect enough junk yet and also to busy cleaning up the property with dozer, building fences, cattles, SWMBO, house etc. Biggest job has been to slab all the rose (flooded) gum rails for the stockyard (this alone justified the $1100 spent on a near new Stihl 090 slabbing chainsaw with a spare 4' blade to get those big burls!!. Other jobs have been small quantities of iron bark, camphor, bunya pine, tallow wood, chinese tallow wood (crap), cedar, silky oak. Just need to clean these up into suitable boards etc now so hence the mini bush saw.

Thanks for the help

Bill