LOG SAW - PTO OR ELECTRIC ? ?

abnormalnorman

hi,

Im planning on buying a log saw and getting an artic load of logs - just for personal use but if it goes well i may sell a few bags of cut logs here and there. I have a tractor thats usually left idle, and would be cutting them near a shed also with power.

My question is, should i go for a PTO saw or an electric saw? From what i can see, there electric saws are much cheaper, but are they as good as the PTO saws? Also, would the PTO saw be cheaper to run?

Also, which make is best make to go for? I have only came across the Hakki Pilke, Major, Oxdale - all of which look the same to me?! Is there anything i need to be looking out for - sliding table models etc?? I would hope to be cutting logs up to 12" Diameter at least!

Any advice much appreciated.

Nekarsulm

Will the Oxdale etc cut a 12 inch log?

I have a PTO driven saw bench with a sliding table.
It's an ALKO, but you sometimes see them sold as Lawrence Edwards.
It's great and speedy, and I think its safer than the tupe with the swing table, but 8 or 9 inch logs are it's capacity.

abnormalnorman

Nekarsulm wrote: »

Will the Oxdale etc cut a 12 inch log?

I have a PTO driven saw bench with a sliding table.
It's an ALKO, but you sometimes see them sold as Lawrence Edwards.
It's great and speedy, and I think its safer than the tupe with the swing table, but 8 or 9 inch logs are it's capacity.

Thanks for that. maybe 8 or 9" would be enough so. why didn't you go for electric?

Nekarsulm

abnormalnorman wrote: »

Thanks for that. maybe 8 or 9" would be enough so. why didn't you go for electric?

EBay purchase.
Allways liked the sliding table design, but even 10 year old McConnel's make mad money, so happy to get this one home for under 500 euro.

Never even considered electric to be honest.

To cut a 12 inch log you're going to need a big blade on the saw, around 30 inches I would think.
I stack light branches etc up to about 7 or 8 inches thick, and cut about 6 feet long for a year or so and then saw them with the bench.
You'd cut a years sticks in a few hours.
I have a 20 gallon bucket I position where the cut bits slide into it, and dump it into a 1 ton poly bag when it's 3/4 full.
The ideal would be a hydraulically driven conveyor belt that you could also run from the tractor, but I've yet to come across a suitable one cheap enough!

abnormalnorman

Nekarsulm wrote: »

EBay purchase.
Allways liked the sliding table design, but even 10 year old McConnel's make mad money, so happy to get this one home for under 500 euro.

Never even considered electric to be honest.

To cut a 12 inch log you're going to need a big blade on the saw, around 30 inches I would think.
I stack light branches etc up to about 7 or 8 inches thick, and cut about 6 feet long for a year or so and then saw them with the bench.
You'd cut a years sticks in a few hours.
I have a 20 gallon bucket I position where the cut bits slide into it, and dump it into a 1 ton poly bag when it's 3/4 full.
The ideal would be a hydraulically driven conveyor belt that you could also run from the tractor, but I've yet to come across a suitable one cheap enough!

sounds good. and how do you split them.? I saw a hikki Pilke Eagle on eBay once with the splitter and all with the saw. Great job I thought. went for small money too (£650) but haven't seen one since.

Melodeon

If you really need

abnormalnorman wrote: »

...to be cutting logs up to 12" Diameter at least!

with an electric powered circular saw, you're almost certainly looking at 3-phase equipment. A 30" or thereabouts circular saw blade takes a lot of driving, especially under load.
All the single phase powered versions I've ever seen top out at 8"-10".

On the other hand, you don't happen to have a motorcycle and 3 mad ould lads knocking about the place, do you?:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyQ95_0Wek8

zetecescort

fair bit of lifting on to a saw in 12inch logs too

wayoutwest

O.P - The electric tilting saws that you are thinking of are best suited to branch wood or billets that are about 4" or 5""diameter. The billeting method involves chainsawing the logs into 1Mtr lengths and then splitting them on a tractor vertical splitter, into several lengths, which are then easy to handle and cut on small electric or pto tilting saw.

1 Metre vertical splitter
018-tm-1000-3-2-w1000h1000.jpg

gctest50

You could go hide in the shed for a month with the welder and build something a bit like this :


much safer since your not near the spinning parts :

LiveWell

did you find a suitable log saw in the end? I'm currently looking at a 13HP petrol log saw from Hartnett Products in Cork and was looking for recommendations. The petrol one looks really good and I've seen it in the flesh and is really solidly built. Have a load of log lengths to cut.....https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=75k-90FppRg