old circular saw run from old tractor

[woodshop]

My brother-in-law restores old trucks, construction equipement and farm machinery. Here is his most recent, a Farmall M with a circular saw used for cutting small dia firewood logs. You place the log onto the "bench" of the saw, and then tilt the whole thing forward into the teeth of the spinning circular saw which is run off of the tractor via a huge leather belt. Remember this is back in the day when safety was not necessarily built into equipment. I was a bit intimidated pushing that thing into a spinning saw blade that had little around it as far as guards. Took a little getting used to. I was amazed though how quickly couple of guys working together could make a pile of firewood with this saw. That circular saw went through 6 inch oak faster than my stock 395XP with a sharp chain could.

here it is, hanging from the front of the tractor.

the huge leather belt that powers the saw

loading the wood onto the bench

the man who actually did the restoration is working the saw along with my Dad who is taking the cut piece off the end after it is sliced. You can see how dangerous this saw could be if you didn't have your wits about you the whole time.

 

[tawilson]

I'm surprised you didn't try to turn the bench 90 degrees to make some lumber.

 

[ASEMASTER]

nice unit

I want one , I got a cub that originaly came with a saw but the previous owner sold it and I couldn't get it back.

 

[Reddog]

You can still by 3-point ones new. Just search google for buzz saw.

 

[ASEMASTER]

yes! thanks

You can still by 3-point ones new. Just search google for buzz saw.

the cub has a single point fast hitch on it , I'd like to make it into a three point but it's not that simple. as you have to make up a bracket to hitch the top link to.

 

[woodshop]

I'm surprised you didn't try to turn the bench 90 degrees to make some lumber.

Don't think it didn't cross my mind

Art Cooper, the guy in the blue coat who actually does the restoring, is a pretty sharp mechanic/machinist/jack of all trades... if he wanted to in a few days he'd have something along those lines rigged up, and I guarantee it would work like a charm.

 

[tribalwind]

biggest chop saw i ever seen
thatd make some massive crown mouldings if it did compounds

 

[belgian]

I really like that tractor ....

 

[hautions11]

Woodshop great pictures! Neat old tractor. The sound coming off that saw is probably awesome. I'll bet it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, with a little respectfull fear.

 

[amdburner]

Nice restoration! I have used a similar type of saw with my father-in-laws John Deere B. No tilt table with his though you physically have to hold and feed the wood into the blade with his setup. I like your brother-in-laws better. My grandmother has one sitting in her back yard that I may ask her for to play with. I have no tractor but I can rig up an engine to run it.

 

[woodshop]

The sound coming off that saw is probably awesome. I'll bet it makes the hair on the back of your neck stand up, with a little respectfull fear.

...yup, understatement. Thing that keeps you on your toes is that huge open spinning blade inches in front of you, and you are pushing TOWARDS the thing. The tractor is only at a high idle, hardly working. When you tilt that table forward into the blade, it barely slows down. It's an old steel blade of course, no carbide teeth, with just enough set to do the job, and it does sing as it cuts. Yes "respectful fear" as a good way of describing it.

 

[johncinco]

An older guy from my lodge has one like that, but much older. Well not older, just looks like it! I volountered to come help him cut wood one day. I got there and he showed me how it worked, I said Nuh-uh! I broke out my saw and cut up all he needed. It was neat to see, but scared the piss out of me. He is 82 and still tries to use the thing. His wife is hintin that I need to come buy the tractor, I think she doesnt want it around any more. I dont think Hollyweird could come up with special effects to match what would happen if you made a wrong move.

Awesome restoration!

 

[CaseyForrest]

Thats pretty neat.

Theres a flooring company near where I work that harvest their own timber....They have this processor that has about a 6' diameter circular balde in it. Fully mobile,

Im pretty sure I wouldnt want to be anywhere near it while its running.

 

[woodshop]

I dont think Hollyweird could come up with special effects to match what would happen if you made a wrong move.

I agree, that's probably another understatement. Can you imagine? It would happen so fast you might not even know it for a few seconds if it was cold out and your fingers were numb. I spent many summers on family farms growing up though, and remember lots of machinery with little or no guards doing all kinds of things potentially dangerous. As kids we used to ride on the tractors just standing on those bare metal axles and holding on with one hand to the bouncing metal seat. There was no fender between us and that huge tractor wheel right next to us. One slip and we would have been pulled down and under that huge wheel, or under the wagon it was pulling behind us. I guess it was just expected that we had enough common sense not to do something stupid. It's a wonder we all survived, no?

Of course there is a flip side to that. Kids today are so pampered and protected that they never HAVE to think about such things, and thus never learn common sense around machinery. Another discussion.

 

[lmbeachy]

Those big old things were scary, but. once you learned to work with them, you could really make the wood fly. the one we had did not have a bench on the cut off side of the wood.

 

[woodshop]

Those big old things were scary, but. once you learned to work with them, you could really make the wood fly. the one we had did not have a bench on the cut off side of the wood.

I guess I could then see wood piling up under the spinning blade, making it even more dangerous to clear away unless you stopped the saw first, which some would not do.

 

[Trigger-Time]

Woodshop, thanks for the Pics. I have spent many hours on a
Super M they are a strong old tractor. I also spent alot of time
on a H and Super C. We used the M some on a stationary belt driven
silage chopper

 

[lmbeachy]

Woodshop: there someone there to catch the wood as it was sawed off, actually worked pretty good, but would certainly set OSHA in a fit today. Although, I never heard of anybody getting hurt in our area by one of these bad machines. I finally got rid of the one we had a few years back, didn't use it anymore.

 

[Sawyer Rob]

Nice M.... I have two buzz rigs here. Both go on the 3 point hitch, but one is build heavy enough so it will stand alone while your useing it...

I use it to saw up my slabs into firewood, as like was said they are much faster than a chainsaw... They are also much quieter and cheaper to run too...

Rob

 

[woodshop]

Woodshop: there someone there to catch the wood as it was sawed off, actually worked pretty good, but would certainly set OSHA in a fit today.

Hey there Imbeachy, wasn't implying you were doing anything unsafe. As you say, the whole concept is inherently unsafe from today's perspective. Interesting to actually use one though, and I enjoy seeing anything old like that tractor restored to mint condition. Just hearing it start, and listening to it purr was a thrill. This guy actually has a museum (several large barns) full of restored equipment, mostly heavy construction equipment, trucks and crawlers. He has traveled to shows and meets all over the country with his restored vehicles.