Author Topic: Twin-sworded chainsaw?  (Read 3415 times)

Sjalabais

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Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« on: October 13, 2018, 04:40:36 PM »
Some late night thinking here: Does anyone produce twin-sworded chainsaws? Would be a super efficient way to rough-cut simple boards right in the forest - if you can manage to avoid twists. A quick Google search tossed me into the world of gaming, so no luck. But I'm surely not the only one stupid enough to come up with that?

Sjalabais

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Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #1 on: October 13, 2018, 04:46:42 PM »
Some late night thinking here: Does anyone produce twin-sworded chainsaws? Would be a super efficient way to rough-cut simple boards right in the forest - if you can manage to avoid twists. A quick Google search tossed me into the world of gaming, so no luck. But I'm surely not the only one stupid enough to come up with that?

Sjalabais

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #2 on: October 13, 2018, 04:47:39 PM »
Sorry for the triple post, I got server load error meessages...now they all show up anyway.

Spudd

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #3 on: October 13, 2018, 04:54:24 PM »
Google brought me this YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcHi1HOKTgw

which implies in the comment section that it was homemade, and that nothing like this is available on the open market.

Rural

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #4 on: October 14, 2018, 06:49:22 AM »
I see a couple of ways this could go, but I'm afraid it's all variants of "flex, catch, kick, bleed."

terran

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #5 on: October 14, 2018, 06:59:28 AM »
If I'm following you correctly, I think as you say avoiding twist in the board would be the difficult (impossible?) task. I think a "portable" (they're still pretty big) saw mill in the tool for this job.

Askel

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #6 on: October 14, 2018, 07:32:00 AM »
You want a chainsaw mill.  I think there's one called the Alaskan that's pretty portable and seems to do what you want. 

Sjalabais

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #7 on: October 14, 2018, 09:37:27 AM »
I have looked into portable saw mills and am in the process of checking out my neighbour's solution of that.

Still, a twin sworded chainsaw could literally cut out a couple of working steps here. Especially considering that I often cut boards out of topped, standing, vertical trees.

techwiz

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #8 on: October 14, 2018, 09:40:42 AM »
Is this was you are talking about?


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcHi1HOKTgw

Sjalabais

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #9 on: October 14, 2018, 09:42:21 AM »
Amazing, that's it! The comments also suggest McCulloch may have built something similar once...off to Google I go.

Sjalabais

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #10 on: October 14, 2018, 10:11:33 AM »
That's exactly it! There were server issues when I tried to post this subject and I ended up with three discussions. Someone already pointed at that video in one of the other threads and it looks perfect.

Nate R

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #11 on: October 14, 2018, 10:29:54 AM »
The waste from the chain widths would really start to add up!

TomTX

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #12 on: October 14, 2018, 12:35:27 PM »
Google brought me this YouTube video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FcHi1HOKTgw

which implies in the comment section that it was homemade, and that nothing like this is available on the open market.

No safety gear, at least one leg in the plane of the blade, doesn't keep a hand located to control in case of kickback...

Curmudgeon

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #13 on: October 14, 2018, 02:57:56 PM »
Why would a twin-blade be more useful than an Alaskan sawmill, or a beam machine? If you had a two-blade saw you'd still need a guide anyway...

Sjalabais

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #14 on: October 14, 2018, 10:56:13 PM »
Why would a twin-blade be more useful than an Alaskan sawmill, or a beam machine? If you had a two-blade saw you'd still need a guide anyway...
It's about speed, convenience and a bit about cost. It's just an idea that vertical board cutting would save me some time.

lthenderson

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #15 on: October 15, 2018, 07:57:19 AM »
Why would a twin-blade be more useful than an Alaskan sawmill, or a beam machine? If you had a two-blade saw you'd still need a guide anyway...
It's about speed, convenience and a bit about cost. It's just an idea that vertical board cutting would save me some time.

I've worked a lot with chainsaws over the years and here would be some of my concerns.

1. Chainsaws are fiddling machines. Having to keep two chains sharp, tensioned correctly, two chain oiling ports free of sawdust, keeping things cool enough it doesn't bind, etc. would be twice as much work as a single bar. All these will shave away at any speed you gain by using two bars.

2. You need a bigger engine, more fuel, more oil to run two bars so while speeding up your cuts, you are increasing your input costs so I'm not sure there would be a cost savings.

3. How about the spacing between the bars? The video above has the spacing quite far apart, most likely for ease of working on each chain individually. If you were to put them closer together, it would make the chains much harder to work on but you would end up with perhaps something closer to board size.

4. If you've run a chainsaw all day, you always want the lightest chainsaw to get the job done. Even those will feel like lead weights well before the end of a day. Now you double the size of the engine, gas tank and oil tank just to run similar times as a single bar chainsaw and you have a really heavy chainsaw.

5. If you are interested in making boards, their are hundreds of chainsaw mills out there that you can clamp just about any chainsaw in that will saw straight boards at a pretty fast pace.

6. Every pinch a single blade in a tree? It requires a mall and a wedge to get your chainsaw free again. I'm not sure how one would free a double bar chainsaw that is pinched in a tree.

Car Jack

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #16 on: October 17, 2018, 08:44:37 AM »
I've considered a chainsaw mill to make boards out of pines I cut.  I forest manage my property so hardwood is easy....it becomes firewood.  But pines are either kindling, rails to stack firewood on or trash.  I did my research and in short, it would be far cheaper to throw out the junk pine for me and buy new lumber at Lowes.  Using a chainsaw for milling burns through chain saws.  They're really not made for this kind of use.  If you are very remote and have a lot of acreage of trees that you plan to take down, a band saw base log mill is the way to go.  As mentioned, you also need a guide or the boards you cut with a double chain saw are going to be warped and twisted no matter what you do.

Prairie Stash

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #17 on: October 18, 2018, 07:00:58 PM »
Buy a second hand portable bandsaw mill. They are less work because they have less kerf (the thickness of the cut). A chainsaw takes a lot of energy and work to cut a board, a portable bandsaw is much more efficient. Instead of a large pile of sawdust all your waste is a large pile of firewood. The finished product is even and moderately smooth, it’s a huge hit for selling to farmers.

I’ve milled wood from trees I cut. It’s a lot of work but also very satisfying.

Sjalabais

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #18 on: October 21, 2018, 11:04:12 PM »
You guys have me convinced, it probably wasn't my *cough* sharpest ides.

Sjalabais

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #19 on: December 14, 2018, 03:55:52 PM »
...I put away the pursuit of the idea, but thought I'd share some of the process. This is an old ash tree and a beautiful birch that both might end up as overly expensive jewelry boxes. As you can see, I am not too concerned about waste. :)

Prairie Stash

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #20 on: December 17, 2018, 08:26:59 AM »
Well done. For the birch make sure it dries slow. If it dries too fast the wood splits, nice hardwood can take a year but it's worth it. Theres a lot of tips online on how to dry slowly, its not as simple as just leaving it in the garage if you want premium results. This has the makings of a fine background story for whatever you create.

I admire your plan, I want to see the end result.

Fishindude

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #21 on: December 17, 2018, 09:35:09 AM »
Would take one heck of a chainsaw engine to power two chains at the same time ripping thru a decent sized log.
I know they make tools for making boards with a chain saw, such as the Alaskan sawmill, but they are not a very good choice if you are wanting to make any quantity of lumber at all.  For making lumber, you will need a band saw mill.   The chain saw stuff doesn't even come close in the production speed and the quality of materials that an band saw mill can produce.

Sjalabais

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Re: Twin-sworded chainsaw?
« Reply #22 on: December 24, 2018, 07:59:09 AM »
Well done. For the birch make sure it dries slow. If it dries too fast the wood splits, nice hardwood can take a year but it's worth it. Theres a lot of tips online on how to dry slowly, its not as simple as just leaving it in the garage if you want premium results. This has the makings of a fine background story for whatever you create.

I admire your plan, I want to see the end result.
Thanks! I have been doing this for a couple of years and birch as well as willow are hard to dry properly. Birch root is one of my favourites and it has  happened that big pieces that I considered dry (about 20% water content) bend themselves later on. A bit of trial and error here, but I'm getting there. :)

@Fishindude, you're right. As you can probably see, my Stihl is a small one. Cutting the ashwood in lengths takes all it's got. Worth it, though.