Inexpensive Saw Mill

[Rich Riddle]

Often members complain about expensive saw mills, but here is one available for $150. It may not meet all current OSHA standards in the USA, but in Canada it might meet Canadian regs.

Down.jpg Blade.jpg

[Ed Aumiller]

Not quite a sawmill... It is used to cut logs / branches into firewood..

[Zachary Hoyt]

That is a buzz saw. It is for crosscutting, and it could have been a handy adjunct to a sawmill, back before chainsaws were invented.

[Rich Riddle]

I wondered about how it would function as a sawmill......but that is how it's listed. Now onto finding a video seeing one used.

[Ronald Blue]

I believe it's referred to as a "buzz" saw. Ed is correct based on my knowledge. Used to cut firewood.

[Rod Sheridan]

Often members complain about expensive saw mills, but here is one available for $150. It may not meet all current OSHA standards in the USA, but in Canada it might meet Canadian regs.

Down.jpg Blade.jpg

I was using one of those about 30 years ago, scary as heck, however it was fast,

The big issue was having to lift 4 foot long logs onto the cradle……Rod

P.S. It only meets Canadian safety standards if you wear a high visibility toque while operating it, along with smoking a pipe containing green Sail tobacco

[Zachary Hoyt]

I bought a couple and set one up to run off a flat belt from a tractor some years ago, to cut up slabs at the sawmill into firewood. It was fast at cutting, but because each slab had to be picked up and brought to it it was slower overall for me working by myself. Also running the tractor was not very fuel efficient. I sold them and went back to piling slabs in a cradle and cutting the whole pile at once with the chainsaw.

[Alex Zeller]

My neighbor has one he uses for cutting cedar logs to size for his antique shake machine. Around here we call them cordwood saws. If you have concerns about whether a 100+ year old machine can pass todays OSHA standards I'm guessing no. This is very similar to the one he has. Pay attention to where that guy puts his hands to catch the shakes coming off the saw and how little concern he has. Back in the day they would send the saw with teens (and some a little younger) to the local farms as they were getting ready to raise a new barn. Once school was out for summer and the chiors around the farm slowed the shake machine and cordwood saw would get pulled out of storage.

[Tim Janssen]

Good God, That video scares the hell out of me!

Tim

[Rich Riddle]

Good God, That video scares the hell out of me!

Tim

The man isn't even looking at the blade.....barely even notices it. Talk about having job security.

[Ronald Blue]

He's wearing safety glasses. What's the issue? He'll be able to see which fingers are missing.... Or which one's he still has.

[Rod Sheridan]

He's wearing safety glasses. What's the issue? He'll be able to see which fingers are missing.... Or which one's he still has.

Haha, excellent post, safety glasses also keep bone fragments out of your eyes.

[Tom Bender]

We used a tractor mounted buzz saw to make firewood. Dad ran the saw, grandpa tailed it (tossed the cut wood aside) and my brothers and I fed the limb wood to dad. We only used it for wood less than 5" diameter and only set it up to run a couple times a year. Last run in the 1960's

[Ed Aumiller]

Tom,
I would bet it was mounted on the rear of a Ford 8N or 9N....
Had two 9N's (sold them) and still have the saw that mounted on them.. painted the blade silver and the rest Ford red, it sits at the entrance to our drive
Bought it from a neighbor (simply since it fit my 9N's), who used it every year till he passed on...
Never used it myself, afraid of it honestly.
Ed A.

[Frank Pratt]

I've used a saw very much like the one in the OP. It was... unnerving.