Cutting Submerged Wood

[woodchux]

Anybody have any tips, tricks, suggestions for cutting wood that is under water?

 

[Freakingstang]

solid bar (no spcoket nose) a long one that you can keep the saw above water, and lots of oil. It isn't a fun job and is very dangerous. Be careful

 

[Kikori]

mechanized and manual saw

Hey Hey,

I say true dat to the long bar. Keep that engine outta the water! To that I would add: Bring along a long manual saw such as a zubat hand saw. I did a submaeged job 1 month agao and found that cutting 80% of the wood was not a problem but getting that final bit to be challenging. You want to saw those big logs into smaller manageable peices that you can drag or lift out of the water. Do you have anything to drag the big pieces out with?

What are the details to your situation? River? Lake? Etc??? Describe more and recieve better advice. Good luck brother!

p.s. Wrst case scenario is you saw goes underwater....get it out as soon as possible and it will start again. Embarassingly enough this happened to me but the saw is still rippin'. Oh yeah.

Best of Luck
Ripper

 

[Tree Machine]

Use vegetable oil as your bar lube. Be sensitive to the water environment. I use it all the time, but if you were to use it just once, this would be the time.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

You probably don't need bar oil, the chains not going to overheat.
Plus, i'm not sure vegi oil is any better for a lake than petro oil.

 

[Tree Machine]

i'm not sure vegi oil is any better for a lake than petro oil.

You're trolling. Veggie oil is food. Petro is not. They decompose at vastly different rates, under different reactions; veggie through simple oxidation. This oil is pure, relatively short carbon chain. Petro is, well, who really knows, but it's a mix of whatever petrochemicals in a base of low-grade heavy oil with often a sticky agent added which we also don't know what it is.

I agee that bar oil could and should be skipped altogether with a submerged bar.

I would hate to do that to a saw.

 

[John Paul Sanborn]

I agee that bar oil could and should be skipped altogether with a submerged bar.

I don't think the water would act as lubrication.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

You're trolling. Veggie oil is food. Petro is not. They decompose at vastly different rates, under different reactions; veggie through simple oxidation. This oil is pure, relatively short carbon chain. Petro is, well, who really knows, but it's a mix of whatever petrochemicals in a base of low-grade heavy oil with often a sticky agent added which we also don't know what it is.

I agee that bar oil could and should be skipped altogether with a submerged bar.

I would hate to do that to a saw.

Here are a few sites to open you up to the idea that just because you can eat it, doesn't mean it's not bad for the environment:


http://news-info.wustl.edu/tips/page/normal/117.html
http://www.epa.gov/oilspill/pdfs/Li-Lee-Cobanli-Wrenn-Venosa-Doe_FSS06.pdf#search=%22vegetable%20oil%20in%20the%20environment%22
http://www.sundancerenewables.org.uk/biodp/uvo.htm


How would it hurt the saw to run it without bar oil? I suppose the bar and chain might see a little extra wear, but that's not a big deal. If you were doing it for a living, you want to figure something out, for one or two jobs, I'd just run it without any oil.

 

[Tree Machine]

Well said.

 

[Tree Machine]

I don't think the water would act as lubrication.

I think the lubrication side would really only matter if you did this type of work more regularly.

Lubricant does more than just lubricate.

Even a chain without oil (we've all run out of oil at one time or another) we have two smooth surfaces running across one another. The fluid interface between the two smooth surfaces (oil or water) does two things; 1) reduces friction and 2) reduces the heat in your bar and chain. The heat is the bar killer. Heat causes the steel in the bar and chain (and sprocket) to expand, and then they don't behave or fit the same. If it's that hot, it's going to get hotter if you keep using it.

Bar lube prevents heat buildup by first reducing friction, second by absorbing some of the heat from the bar into itself and third when that lube spins off the bar (it always does) it takes that absorbed heat along with it. Result? Happy bar and chain.

Underwater, we can pretty much assume there would be no heating up of the bar to any degree that would be of concern. That just leaves two, cool, smooth steel surfaces running across (with a water interface) each other for probably not a long time.... it seems there should be no problem going without oil for this round.

 

[woodchux]

What are the details to your situation? River? Lake? Etc??? Describe more and recieve better advice.

The job is a 30"dbh White oak that toppled over onto a dock at the lake.
The tree is mostly just beneath the surface of the water.
I told the customer that i could only remove the brush from the water (not the logs, as it is a very steep grade, with about a 10 foot cliff at waters edge)
I would have to make 2 or 3 cuts to the log in order to free it from the dock.
Basically I would remove all brush above water line, and cut log free from the dock.

 

[Kneejerk Bombas]

You'll be fine. I've done it a hundred times. When you cut with the bar in the water, it will pull water up and spray it around like sawdust, so expect to get a little wet. The chain speed is tough to keep up too. Once you're done cutting in the water, don't just shut it down and put it away, cut some wood out of the water, just to dry it out a little.
Centrifugal force and motor heat will get rid of most of the water.
Have fun.

 

[Dadatwins]

I vote vegi oil, even if it serves no purpose to the bar and chain in this situation, the oil pump and internals are still spinning and need to be lubricated, running anything dry on a chainsaw not a good idea in my opinion at any time.